[bksvol-discuss] Re: How to be a black belt validater?

  • From: "My Nickels Worth" <lavendar@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:50:47 -0500

Wowie, Mayrie!!  I can't thank you enough!  I don't know how I missed this
post last summer-perhaps it was on the list when I was away at guide dog
school or something!  This is going to help me so much!  Your directions are
very clear, also, which is awesome!

Definitely one for the bookshare saved folder!

Cait


-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mayrie ReNae
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 12:40 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: How to be a black belt validater?


Hi Cait!

        I posted this some time during the summer.  I think it deals with
everything that you asked about.  It's long, so get ready!

        Before I paste my document below, I should say that Bookshare only
has three requirements for books.  At least 90% of page breaks be present
and properly located in the book. And title page and copyright information
present and legible in the book.  All the rest is extra, but makes a book as
perfect as I know how to make it.

        For all of you who saw my list of prevalidation instructions before,
just hit the delete button now.

See below.

Mayrie

COMPLETE PREVALIDATION PROCESS

        Okay, I did everything that I do to a book to prepare it for
submission to Bookshare today short of reading it and documented the time it
took.  The total minus actually reading the book was four and a half hours.
One hour of that was spent in recognition that I did while eating and doing
laundry.  Probably not necessary to count that, laugh.  But I included it
anyway. So, here you go.

The book had 292 pages including back cover, jacket flaps, preliminary
pages, and, of course, the text of the book. I'll tell you in general what I
did, and how long it took, then elaborate on the particular process. As has
been said before, not everyone's process is the same, and there are probably
at least three ways to achieve any given result.  This is what I did with
this particular book, and my process might vary slightly from book to book,
but here is what I did.

I was using Kurzweil 1000 and one of the find and replace parts can easily
be done in Microsoft word.  In Kurzweil the paragraph mark is represented by
\n.  In word, that character is represented in the find and replace dialogue
by ^p.  That might help folks validating using Word instead of Kurzweil.

1.
Scan took 90 minutes
I am using an opticBook 3600 scanner in single-page mode.  Scanner settings
are as follows: Scan to images, automatic page orientation, gray-scale data,
resolution at 300 DPI. Recognition settings were: Collumn identification
disabled, one page recognized per scan, speckle removal disabled, Text
quality is normal, partial collumns kept, suspicious regions kept, blank
pages kept, recognition engine is FineReader 8.0, English will be
recognized. Reading settings: Line endings will be ignored by the editor and
tables will not be identified. I do not identify tables in straight fiction
because junk sometimes scans as a table and is more of a pain to remove that
way, more time consuming.  I have to know when I'll need table recognition
so I can enable it. While scanning to images, I am always reading another
book that I have run through this process to catch errors that ranked
spelling didn't.

2.
Recognize images took 1 hour.
I do this when off eating, or doing laundry, or sleeping, something that
doesn't require my computer to be doing anything else. This time may vary a
lot depending upon how hardy your computer is, or how lame mine is.

3.
Save the file under the name of the book. No time taken.

4.
Clean up preliminary pages and confirm accurate page count: 15 minutes
Label: [From The Back Cover] [From The Front Flap] [From The Back Flap][This
Page is blank.] if any blank pages exist. Read through all preliminary pages
and correct all scannos.  
Determine where the publisher thought page one should go and set an
opperator defined page number there as page 1. Check that the last page in
the book is numbered properly, telling you that you do not have any missing
or duplicated pages. If the numbers don't match, either rescan and insert
pages that you missed, or delete duplicated pages. 

5.
Remove headers, protect chapter headings, number and label any blank pages,
get rid of end-of-line hyphens, and ensure that blank lines at the tops of
pages will be preserved: 30 minutes. Protect all chapter headings by placing
the page number followed by a blank line above the chapter heading.  
Remove all headers.  Do this only after protecting chapter headings, as very
often the absence of a running header is the only indication of where a
poorly scanned chapter heading should go. Page down through the document
numbering and labeling all blank pages, and looking at the first word on
each page to be sure that it is a complete word, and reconnect hyphenated
words on one page. On each page beginning with a lower case letter, insert a
space before that initial lower case letter.  This will help later.

6.
Insert page numbers at the tops of all pages: 30 minutes. Delete all page
numbers at the bottom of pages.  These don't always scan at all, so can't be
counted upon to be there in the page numbering for daisy navigation, and
especially in the html of the Bookshare final copy in the collection. Insert
page numbers at the tops of all pages not already numbered above chapter
headings followed by two carriage returns. Remove all extra blank lines by
using the find and replace dialogue as
follows:
In the "find box" insert \n\n\n\n\n\n (\n is the character string that will
search for a carriage return.) 
In the replace box type\n\n Do this with the replace box remaining the same,
but with five, then four, then three carriage return symbols each successive
time in the "find" box.  This will get rid of all instances of more than one
blank line between any blocks of text, or between page numbers and chapter
headings or text on a page.
 
7.
Remove any extra carriage returns inadvertently inserted by the OCR: 5
minutes. This involves using the find and replace command 27 times. In the
find box type " " (That is quotation mark followed by space followed by
quotation mark." In the replace box type "\n" This will separate any
paragraphs between speakers that might not have been separated by the OCR
program. This does happen regularly. Now you are going to look for paragraph
marks that shouldn't be there. You will do this with each letter of the
alphabet in lower case. In the find box type\na (That is backslash followed
immediately by the lower case letters n and a) 
In the replace box type space a that is hit the space bar followed
immediately by the lower case letter a 
Replace all.
Inserting a space at the tops of pages before each occurring lower case
letter allows your carefully inserted blank lines between page numbers and
text on the page to be preserved now.

8.
Run ranked spelling: This took 20 minutes with this book.
I started out with a 99.28% accuracy rating.
Correct all scannos as ranked spelling or the spell checker finds them.

9.
At this point I read the book and correct any errors that the spell checker
or ranked spelling didn't find.  Hopefully I catch them all.

10.
Convert to rtf and close the file. No time taken.

11.
In Microsoft Word, Protect page numbers and page breaks, standardize fonts
and margins, and convert em dashes to double hyphens: 5 minutes. (This is a
generous estimate of how much time taken). Open the file in microsoft word.
Standardize font and justify margins Make sure if validating someone else's
submission that there are no smart quotes in the document, making sure that
all quotation marks are standard quotes.  Open book tends to produce
inaccurate quotation marks in my experience. Protect page numbers and page
breaks by using the find and replace dialogue as follows: In the find box
type: ^m In the replace type: ^p^m^p Replace all. Convert em dashes to
double hyphens by using the find and replace dialogue as follows: In the
find box type: ^+ In the Replace box type: -- (That is two hyphens or two
dashes, depending upon what you call that key to the right of the zero on
the number row.) 
Save the file.
NOW YOU'RE DONE!
 

-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of My Nickels Worth
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 8:46 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] How to be a black belt validater?

Ok, I am wondering if we can put together a list of things a validater
can/should do to make a book a really good one for the collection.  This is
a sort of companion thread for the older one about being a black belt
submitter.. What are some things which a validater should always do, what
are things which are extras, according to bookshare's requirements, but
which could really improve the book for the collection?

Maybe an experienced validater could give an example of what they do with a
book from downloading it off step one to uploading it for publication..

Thanks, 
Caitlyn 


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