[bksvol-discuss] Re: Contemplating scanning a book.

  • From: Cindy Rosenthal <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:35:53 -0800 (PST)

Roger,

I am delighted to read your post and hear that you are
overcoming your reluctance (I prefer that to fear) to
scan. From what you say about the two pages you did it
sounds as if you'll do wonderful scans and will
contribute some needed--but not terribly popular books
to the collection.

I've always found it difficult to read help pages
until I need help. I know nothing about Open Book, but
in using other programs in the early days, I didn't
have the patience to read the books. Fortunately, I
had my husband to ask for help--but then, later, the
people who create the programs must have realized
there were people like me because I found that when I
was having trouble or wanted to know how to do
something the Hle- menu" on the computer told me in
simple terms.

Here on this list are many very helpful people. My
unasked for advice is to go ahead and start scanning
something--maybe one of the Trotsky books you can get
from the library--and then if you run into trouble,
ask here. I say that because you sound a little bit
like someone who is hesitant to start and so sort of
put it off by wanting to read some more. smile

Cindy Ro

--- rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx wrote:

> As I said earlier I am contemplating scanning a book
> or more for 
> Bookshare and I may need some help. Let me start by
> explaining some of 
> my history with scanning. Back in 1996 feeling that
> the computer 
> revolution was passing me by I acquired an
> Arkenclone computer and the 
> version of Open Book that was current at that time
> from the Arkenstone 
> company. I was so ignorant that it is surprising
> that I even figured 
> out how to plug it in and I was totally on my own. I
> never did learn to 
> use that computer properly. Looking back on it I
> could kick myself for 
> not even knowing what technical support was. I was
> aware that a phone 
> number was available for technical support, but the
> word technical 
> intimidated me. I thought that if it had anything to
> do with anything 
> technical then it was way out of my league.
> Eventually I did figure out 
> how to use Open Book and I actually scanned a few
> books for my personal 
> use. It is too bad I could not contribute them to
> Bookshare, but I did 
> not have Internet access at that time and couldn't
> figure out how to 
> get it. I am not sure how long Bookshare has been
> around, but it seems 
> like I first started to hear about it around that
> time. Well, I never 
> did use that computer for anything but Open Book.
> Eventually it stopped 
> working. By then I had heard here and there enough
> about technical 
> support lines that I figured out that I should call
> that Arkenstone 
> technical support number. That is when I found out
> that Arkenstone no 
> longer existed and now I was calling a company
> called Freedom 
> Scientific. The technical support guy did listen to
> my description of 
> my problem though and then told me that my computer
> was hopelessly 
> obsolete and that it was kaput. Okay, I spent a very
> long time 
> computerless. Well, the computer was still there,
> but it did nothing 
> but sit there and occasionally got dusted. The time
> came that I was 
> feeling even more like I was being left behind by
> the advance of 
> technology so I saved my money until I could buy a
> new computer. I was 
> still so ignorant that I knew of nowhere else to
> start but to call that 
> old Arkenstone, now Freedom Scientific, number. From
> there I got the 
> address of the nearest Freedom Scientific dealer to
> me and proceeded to 
> buy a computer with Open Book 6.0 installed on it.
> The most exciting 
> thing for me was that I also got connected to the
> Internet for the 
> first time. Boy, did I have fun exploring the
> Internet. In fact, I got 
> so involved in exploring the Internet that I never
> did get around to 
> using my Open Book software.
> 
> Well, I recently told you guys that I was
> contemplating scanning some 
> books for Bookshare. I took my first step today by
> opening up my Open 
> Book for the first time and looking around. As
> usual, every time I 
> start to learn something new about computers I feel
> overwhelmed, but 
> some of my use of that earlier version of Open Book
> came back to me. I 
> could see, though, that this version was
> considerably different. After 
> exhausting myself with the help pages I took a break
> and then came back 
> to it and started to just explore the menus. I found
> that I was 
> actually learning more by just browsing and clicking
> menu choices to 
> see what would happen than I had been learning from
> the help pages. 
> Finally this evening I tried scanning something.
> There was a paperback 
> book on hand and I opened it at random somewhere in
> the middle and 
> scanned it. I then read the two pages I had scanned
> and surprisingly 
> enough there were no scannos and except for the need
> to remove the page 
> headers it appeared to be ready for posting on
> Bookshare if it had been 
> a whole book. In fact, thinking that I might make it
> my first scann for 
> Bookshare I checked to see if it was already in the
> collection. It was. 
> I suppose I will have to find something else for
> that initial 
> submission.
> 
> Now, despite my success with those two pages I am
> not ready to scan for 
> submission yet. I need to go back and read those
> help pages some more 
> and experiment with those menu choices some more. I
> am also sure that I 
> will have to come to you guys to beg for help before
> I am ready. So 
> here is my first request. A while back someone
> posted on the list a 
> list of advice for using the Open Book for scanning.
> It included 
> recommended settings and actions. Could someone post
> that email again? 
> and if anyone can think of some basic advice to give
> to a self-taught 
> computer user who is still largely computer
> illiterate on using Open 
> Book 6.0 for this purpose please offer that advice.
> Right now, though, 
> I am exhausted by hours of teaching myself and I am
> heading to bed to 
> await whatever you have to tell me tomorrow.
> 
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> 
> 


WISH LIST (CALLED REQUESTED ADDITIONS TO THE BOOKSHARE COLLECTION)IS AVAILABLE 
AT  
http://www.friendsofbookshare.org/wish_list/wish_list.htm
www.lljfm.net/bookshare/home.htm

A LIST OF BOOKS CURRENTLY BEING SCANNED IS AVAILABLE AT 
http://www.friendsofbookshare.org/
www.lljfm.net/bookshare/home.htm


      

 To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
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