As to whether the publishers have been contributing their new books, that depends on how new is new. I don't think it is necessary for the book to have been published in ebook format either. The important point is that the publisher have an electronic file of the book on hand. That would make it easy for them to publish the book as an ebook, but they do not necessarily do so. The original point of storing electronic files of the books was to transmit those files to a computerized printing press that then can create the book with a minimum of human intervention. That not only makes it easy to print up the book, but it makes it easy to publish the book as an ebook and it makes it easy to contribute the book to Bookshare. The hard part is turning a book into an electronic file. That is exactly what we volunteers are doing and think about how much trouble it is. The reason for the existence of most publishers is to make a profit. Now, how many previously published books that do not exist in digital form are publishers going to make into digital form unless they can make a profit on it? Then, how many books are the publishers going to digitize just so they can contribute them to Bookshare? Well I can't answer the first question except to say very few, but I can answer the second question. The answer is none. Now, there are exceptions. I do not mean exceptions to the zero number of books that are going to be digitized for the benefit of Bookshare, but rather, the number of books that are going to be digitized by publishers if there is not a profit in it. That exception would be a publisher the main purpose of existence for which is not to make a profit. Well, in the kind of economy we live in all publishers have to make a profit to continue to exist, but there are some publishers for which that is a necessary evil they engage in to do what they really want to, promote a cause. I happen to know someone who was actually involved in digitizing the entire back list of Pathfinder Press in the 1990's and the early 2000's. The work, by the way was very much like the volunteer work that Bookshare volunteers do. It involved scanning and proofreading. It also involved volunteers and I might have been one of them except that I was in no position to do that at the time. However, I digress. My main point was to say that there is no hard and fast rule about which books publishers will contribute whether it is a new book or a book that has already been published as an ebook or whatever, There are only probabilities. If the book is a new book or if it has been published as an ebook that does considerably increase the probability that it will be contributed to Bookshare and if it is a quite old book that was never digitized then the probability is pretty low. But you can never be sure. For one thing, I don't necessarily know of a way to tell if an old book has never been digitized. If it is obscure it probably has not, but how do you know that it is obscure? I, for one, have encountered books that I have never heard of that turn out to be highly popular over periods of years.
On 7/17/2012 1:35 AM, misha wrote:
I doubt there is a single date. It varies by publisher.I'd guess from what people are saying on this list that most publishers are only putting new books in. However there have been reports of older books sometimes being replaced almost certainly into the 1990s.In terms of ebook publication (as opposed to making books available to bookshare in epub format), very few publishers are going into their backlist and putting out ebooks of out of print books unless something has happened to make the publisher think people might be looking for older works by the particular writer (like when they win a prize or die).I've been hoping to get ebooks of some of my tattered old paperbacks, but have had few opportunities to do that. So, ones that are not in the bookshare collection I have been scanning.Misha On 7/16/2012 12:22 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 partAnd 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 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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