Lissi, I absolutely agree with you. Someone asked how NLS could do it and BS
couldn't. We have access to so much now that we didn't before.
Mickey
Mickey Prahin micka@xxxxxxxxxx MSN: mickeylundgren@xxxxxxxxxxx Phone: (614) 670-4011 Check out Bob's new CD at http://www.boballentrio.com
Dear Shelly and Mickey,
No doubt about it, NLS is the Cadillac of braille. My way of showing my appreciation is by having an NLS hard copy braille book going at all times.
However, when I was growing up, our family never owned a Cadillac nor even a new car of any model. Used and less luxurious transportation never failed us. Arriving at the destination was the point, as delivering a wider variety of books is Bookshare's point. In that it has succeeded and outdistanced my expectations. It's rocked my intellectual and entertainment worlds and allowed me to do volunteer work I love.
It has been very interesting reading about the NLS process for creating their great volumes, though even I find a misplaced dot every few hundred pages.
On the other hand, I've got a slew of bookshare brf files lined up to go on to a flash card and then to my braille note. Especially in the excellent files and sometimes in the good ones, the corners bookshare has to cut to make the enormous wealth of books available to us don't disturb me. I'm aware with every line I read that without bookshare this book would be a beloved and longed for object with nothing in it's print pages to say to me.
I persisted in discussing 2 main topics because it was important for me to get to the bottom line and understand what I should and should not be doing as a validator. I'm cool now...until I discover another glitch where I realize I don't know what I'm doing.
Always with love,
Lissi
----- Original Message ----- From: <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 7:44 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Fw: Em-dashes
The answer is, that NLS does do most to all of their Braille by hand.
The ladies here at the Cleveland Sight Center, don't even scan and OCR their
stuff when they translate textbooks for local schools, they type them by
hand. NLS actually doesn't do any of the Braille themselves, it is done by
Braille transcribers working around the U.S. even Duxbury and Monty, and
Mega Dots do a lot of mistakes that a good proofreader goes in and finds
them and sorts them out. Look at National Braille Press, they use "jiffy
Braille" which means no proof reading when they make the zinc plates to
publish the books which is why the books are cheap. And yes NBP
acknowledges that their books have errors, and I have found several, not
glaring, but certainly not stuff that would pass muster with a NLS
proofreader.
To get truly great formatted Braille, you do have to read it, and know what
the rules are. Which is my friend the reason NLS only adds about one
hundred Braille titles a year.
The same time and attention is put into their recorded books and their narrators get paid by the "good recorded minute". They have to research pronunciations, preview the book several times to make sure of pauses and the rest and even explore the pronunciations of the particular languages that are used in certain books.
Shelley L. Rhodes B.S. Ed, CTVI and Judson, guiding golden juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc. Graduate Alumni Association Board www.guidedogs.com
Dog ownership is like a rainbow. Puppies are the joy at one end. Old dogs are the treasure at the other. Carolyn Alexander
----- Original Message ----- From: "Evan Reese" <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 12:46 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Fw: Em-dashes
Thanks, Jana. But that brings up a question: If NLS can put out such good
Braille, why can't Bookshare do what they do. Surely, they don't do it by
hand, do they? Or do they? If they use software to get such nearly perfect
translation, why can't Bookshare just use that instead of all this talk
about why the translator can't do m dashes correctly? How does NLS do their
translation? Does anyone here know the answer? Maybe some proprietary
government-only software that noone else can have access to?
Thanks. ----- Original Message ----- From: Jana Jackson To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:32 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Fw: Em-dashes
Hi, Everyone! Here is a response from Jim Fruchterman regarding the
question of em-dashes. Sorry, I just realized that I forgot to send it over
last night. <Smile>
Jana
----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Fruchterman To: Jana Jackson ; Gustavo Galindo Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 10:38 PM Subject: RE: Em-dashes
Thanks, Jana. I took a look at the digest from Saturday, and I assume the
answer is that we don't want to move away from the way the book was printed:
we have made a commitment to publishers and authors to work to bring the
scanned texts closer to the original. If we have a preference from Braille
readers to change our Duxbury output, I'd rather keep the focus on that.
Jim Fruchterman
jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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