Even when an illustration shows what has been described in the text, a good description of that illustration may well add a dimention to the material through the atmosphere, color and vivid detail of the illustration. A volunteer who provides such details adds another dimention to the material. Lissi is one such describer. If a picture contained a vase of flowers, her description would give not only all the colors,but the shades as well. It would also give information about the background and any nuances in the picture.
I am totally blind, but I love picture descriptions as they tell me something new about the book and about the world.
Lori C.----- Original Message ----- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 12:32 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: "Disappearing Books"
Dear Scott,One thing that worries me about volunteer prepared books being replaced by PQ books is that in some cases volunteers have inserted material to make certain books accessible to blind and otherwise reading disabled subscribers, particularly in the case where illustrations have been described. Sometimes illustrations show pretty much exactly what has been conveyed in the text in which case the descriptions are redundant, but in other cases, especially in books for younger readers and humorous books, the illustrations supplement the text, contributing details and humor a blind reader would miss if not for the descriptions.I hope the addition of PQ books won't be at the expense of blind readers who if not for the volunteer prepared books, would miss the richness found in the illustrations.And, have I missed the latest count of how many books are in the general Bookshare collection? sixty thousand was the last total I heard. I am so curious!Always with love, Lissi----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Rains" <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:21 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] "Disappearing Books"Bookshare volunteers,Approximately 6800 Random House books in e-pub format will be flowing through Bookshare's production pipeline over the next several weeks.During that time changes will be limited to 100 books/day. This allows us to test our tools for auto-publishing straight to the collection and diverting low-quality submissions from publishers (yes, they do exist!) to our review and repair processes.I know this can be discouraging especially if you see your submission replaced by something else. It may be comforting to keep in mind the impact your submission has had on members up to the point it was replaced. It is also important to remind ourselves that while publishers can shower us with the thousands of titles that are in their catalog only our volunteers fill our collection with the in-demand, hard-to-find titles that they know appeal to our members.With that in mind I invite volunteers to sign up for the Series Captains Project. Here's the list of series and captains so far. Below is a description of the project:https://wiki.benetech.org/display/BSO/Series+Captains+List Scott Rains Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department ________________________________________ Volunteers,Several people have asked for gaps to be filled in the series in Bookshare'scollection. One way to do that quickly and accurately is to allow a volunteer to take on the role of Series Captain. A Series Captain takes ownership of filling the gaps in a specific series of books. The process looks something like this: Pick a series to oversee. You may recruit sub-captains or a new volunteer as a mentee. All mentees must have successfully completed at least one full book scan before they can join this new campaign. Research the collection to see if there any titles missing in that series and which titles in the collection are of less than excellent quality. Check the Master list to ensure there is no duplication of effort. Scan the book and upload it yourself now or submit the title to our Wish List. This process allows us to systematically improve the quality of ourcollection. It allows those with a passion for a particular series to haveongoing responsibility for it. We expect Series Captains will also feel a sense of pride in a job well done.There are several series that have traditionally been followed very closely by particular volunteers; we would hope those people would become Captainsof those series. We have reached out to a few of those people already. Ifyou are following a series or would like to become a Series Captain, please let Nancy Feldman ( nancy_feldman@xxxxxxxxxxx ) or Scott Rains ( scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx ) know!An early version of the Series Captains List is on the wiki here: https://wiki.benetech.org/display/BSO/Series+Captains+ListIf this is not a good format, let us know. It's just the first iteration andcan be changed.Thanks always for being a dynamic and momentous force that makes Booksharethe incredible library it is. We couldn't do it without you! To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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