[bksvol-discuss] Re: Need More Scanners

  • From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:20:32 -0400

I am pretty sure that PQ does mean that it was submitted by the publisher. It remains, though, that copyright date is not a completely reliable way of telling if the book will be replaced by a PQ book. It should be out of print and out of print before the publisher began to keep electronic files of their books to minimize the chances of it being replaced. A Tolkien book would be just the kind of book that would be unlikely to meet that qualification. They are popular enough that they will be kept in print for a long time. For that matter, can it really be said that a book will ever go out of print again? Since publishers do keep electronic files of their books now and since it is very cheap to store those electronic files they can be transmitted to a printer to be reprinted at a moments notice. That is what makes print on demand books possible.

On 7/16/2012 10:10 PM, Cindy wrote:
I can't find a date for the book that I proofed that was replaced by a PQ copy 
(probably because it swas replaced, but I did perhaps the same thing that Roger 
did and I found aPQ quality  J.R. Tolkien book that had a copyright date of 
1949. Of course, PQ quality may not necessarily mean it was donated by the 
publisher, unless that's what submitted buy staff means.
My vague recollection of the book I did that was replaced is that it was 
published in the 1960's, but at this point inmy life my memory is not 
necessarily to be relied upon.


----- Original Message -----
From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc:
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 5:02 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Need More Scanners

It appears to be hard to tell. I just went to the advance search form and did a
search for publisher quality books and sorted them by copyright date. It is
interesting to find out that they number over 80,000. The last page had results
that appeared to have errors in the copyright dates. They were copyrighted
something like 0010. Now, I really doubt that they were really copyrighted in
the year ten. I then tried the previous page and still got copyright dates that
did not seem real, so I started going back one page at a time until I came upon
something that looked like a real date. When I did it was copyrighted in1858.
Now that sounds like a real copyright date, but it was obviously not the
original edition. I am pretty sure that electronic text did not exist in 1858. I
decided that at this rate I could spend all day going back one page at a time,
so I abandoned the search. I am not sure that it would have been very meaningful
anyway. Different publishers went digital at different times. I would expect
that large publishers probably went digital before smaller publishers did, but
that would be only a general thing and it could not be said that any particular
publisher did it before any other particular publisher without some information
on the history of the publishers in question anyway. My guess is that a book
published before 1990 would most likely not have been published originally in a
digital format. Maybe I shouldn't use the word published in that context
because they were not really published that way. It was just a matter of having
an electronic file to send to a computerized printing press. That does not mean,
though, that any book published before 1990 is going to not appear in a
publisher quality form on Bookshare. If that was the case then we would not have
that one copyrighted 1858. If it went out of print before that date, though, and
it has not come back into print it probably will not show up as a publisher
quality addition. Note that I said probably. The simple fact is that with every
book you scan you are taking a gamble that it will be replaced. Even if a
publisher has not signed the Bookshare agreement that does not mean that they
will not do so in the future. All you can do is work with probabilities. Older
out of print books are less likely to be replaced. Books published by small
obscure presses are less likely to be replaced. Personally, I have stopped
worrying about it. As far as I know none of my submissions have been replaced
yet. That is not necessarily because I have been consciously playing those odds.
I think it has more to do with the fact that I am prone to be able to acquire
and am more interested in books that have a low probability of being replaced in
the first place. However, if my submissions do begin to be replaced I am not
going to worry about it overly much. Again, I mention the volunteer in the
homeless shelter analogy. If I was working as a volunteer in a homeless shelter
and the people I had helped got homes I would not consider my work to have been
wasted because I would still have helped them when they needed it. If the books
I have submitted to Bookshare are replaced then at least they were available to
Bookshare users up until the time that they were no longer needed. That is not
to mention that I enjoyed working on the books and whether they are replaced or
not that enjoyment of the past cannot be taken away from me. So I have stopped
worrying about safe and unsafe publishers. I just check the collection and the
books being scanned lists and if I don't find what I am contemplating
scanning I go ahead and scan it. I am going to have to remind myself to check
the books in process list though. I tend to forget about that. And speaking of
books in process, I will admit being a bit miffed once over what I was going to
scan. I had checked all the lists and did not find what I was considering
scanning, so I ordered it from an on line bookseller. When it arrived I took one
more look at the collection only to find that that very day it had been added
after having been processed by an outsourcer. I mentioned that on list and
Carrie soon announced that she was going to post a list of books that included
both the books being scanned by us volunteers and the books that were being
worked on by outsourcers. That list became known as the master list. What ever
happened to that. It seems to have been forgotten. Without it it is like having
the most productive volunteer's scans not appearing on the books being
scanned list. That includes a lot and we just might be working on something that
will be added to the collection the very day that after we have finished a lot
of work and are about to upload our work.
On 7/16/2012 3:22 PM, Debby Franson wrote:
   Hi Evan and everyone!

   Does anyone know what the earliest year is at this time for
publisher-donated ebooks?  That information would help me decide what is an
"older book".  Thanks.
   Debby

   At 12:29 PM 7/11/2012, Evan Reese wrote in part

   And even for publishers that Bookshare does get books from, it is
worthwhile to look into their older books. Lissi and I will be shortly adding a
book from Simon & Schuster that was published back in 1995. It's very
unlikely that that will be sent in by the publisher.
   --
                  mailto:<the.bee@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
   -- The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools
pours forth foolishness.
   Proverbs 15:2 NKJV

   "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue
   ; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
   Job 6:24 NKJV


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