[bksvol-discuss] Re: The Broker--strengths and weaknesses

  • From: "Silvara" <silvara@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:42:11 -0500

Hi Shelley:

I definitely agree with your points. I also like to know where I am in a book. There's also the possibility of someone participating in a reading group in which they are asked to refer to a particular passage on a certain page. The way everything is stripped, the person can't do that. Let's picture a kid doing a book report in which he or she is asked to quote passages,and include the page number after the quote. As things stand it can't be done either.

Therefore, I would strong urge Bookshare to find some means of resolving this issue.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 11:11 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: The Broker--strengths and weaknesses



Actually I believe that at the very  least, page numbers and chapter
headings should be retained.  Note I said Chapter headings, not page
headings.

And as Guido pointed out these could be easily done without destroying the
quality of a book.

Although reading for pleasure is important there are as Dr. Cross pointed
out many schools and many universities who offer "Best Sellers" or "Modern
literature" or other such classes. I remember attempting to do "one Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as a taped book and staying in what my teacher
deemed a readable amount of pages. Half way through the book, though I was
following the same schedule that everyone else was I was over a chapter and
a half behind. the NLS tape had page numbers well whenever the reader
thought it nice to put them in. Which I think is shameful. Another book
for the same class it was called "best sellers" and was an English elective,
my teacher and I worked out a totally different system, as everyone else was
reading ten pages a night, I read a chapter every other day, because again,
the reader of Cujo by Steven King didn't think it nice to put in the page
numbers, which you know would have made my life a whole lot easier. My
teacher was thankfully flexible in working with this situation but I know
many teachers who wouldn't be, and the student is left with an incomplete
and almost impossible situation to work through.


I try to protect chapter headings and page numbers in the books I submit.

And you can train yourself to ignore them, but personally I feel really odd
without the indicators of how far I have gone in the book and how far I have
to go. Sighted people have this information, why should we be any
different.


So please get the stripper under control so that it doesn't wipe page
numbers and chapter headings off the face of the earth.

Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden
juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc.
Graduate Advisory Council
www.guidedogs.com

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to
stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs.

-- Vance Havner
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth A. Cross" <crossk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 4:31 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] The Broker--strengths and weaknesses



Congratulations to the BookShare staff for the timely availability of THE
BROKER, John Hrisham's newest book. For the person who reads for pleasure,
it is great and most enjoyable. But the determination to provide the book
without pagination is a real problem to some users.


For example, since I was once an English teacher, I spend a fair amount of
time either in book discussion groups or running such groups for young
adults. Since the page numbers have been carefully removed, I can't ask the
members of my groups to consult specific pages. And since there are no
chapter headings, I can't use those either--I don't even know without great
effort whether they occur.


For the same reasons, I can't write or check out the writing of others if
they have provided footnotes about the book. I can't even check the print
book quickly to check possible errors in the copy. For example, I am
pasting here a sentence which I think is in error.
Everyone sw r allowed hard and waited for the words to escape through the
heating vents. Now if I had any idea what page of the print book that was
from, I could check it almost instantly, but all I know is that was on page
17 of the BookShare copy.




What makes this disturbing to me is that, in the scanning process, the page
numbers were there. They had to be carefully eliminated. And that careful
elimination means that the book has some real limitations outside general
reading.




Paradoxically, the initial submissions of books are probably much more
useful to someone doing work in teaching and research than are the books
which have gone through an editing process. Is there not some way we could
preserve information and, simultaneously, not plague the general reader?








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