[bksvol-discuss] Volunteer Bio: Meet Bookshare Volunteer Roger Loran Bailey
- From: Scott Rains <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:03:02 -0700
Volunteers,
Not only is it very helpful to have your biographies of volunteering with
Bookshare on hand to orient new volunteers it is just plain fun to read about
each of you and the unique parts you play in the success of Bookshare.
The most recent volunteer to send in his bio is Roger Loran Bailey. His essay
is below.
We look forward to receiving many more!
Scott Rains
Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department
________________________________________
Hi, my name is Roger Loran Bailey. Before I lost my eyesight in 1988 I was a
fanatic reader.
I don't think there had been even a moment since my childhood that I was not in
the process of reading one or more books. After becoming blind my reading was
confined to listening to books on tape for a long time and there were a whole
lot of books that were simply not available in that format.
I was late to the computer revolution and when I did get a computer I was
really lucky that I even knew how to plug it in. I had to teach myself
everything. I had absolutely no help at learning how to use a computer. The
adventure was long and arduous. Finally, when I got access to the Internet in
2003 I did, even though not immediately, visit the Bookshare web site. At that
time my ignorance was still great enough that I did not quite understand how to
even begin to use the site. I remember sending a question to the support email
address and I was replied to pretty quickly, but I did not understand the
answer. I went back to using the Internet before other purposes and stayed away
from Bookshare for a long time while I continued to plug away at teaching
myself.
It was in July of 2008 that I was getting frustrated with the playback
equipment that I was using to read audio books from one of the
audio book agencies I was using that I decided to take a look at Bookshare
again. I found out that I had learned enough that I could understand the site a
lot better than I did the first time I visited it. I started reading the
information available, including the volunteer manual and signed up for a
subscription.
I then tried my hand at some proofreading. I was lucky that I started quite
accidentally with an almost perfect scan. When I tried to
Upload it I found out that I could not do that. It was my computer ignorance
again. I then subscribed to the volunteer discussion list and asked for help.
Fortunately there was someone on that list who was able to correctly judge my
level of ignorance and talked me through the process. I have remained
subscribed to the volunteer list ever since and I discovered a real bonus from
it. That is that I have learned a lot more about using my computer in general
and my pace of learning has speeded up a lot with others to consult.
At first my motive for volunteering was to defray the cost of my subscription,
but I found out very quickly that other reasons tended to grow on me.
For one thing, Bookshare does not have a lot of the kinds of books that I am
interested in. Volunteering gives me the motivation to scan them myself and
submit them. I think my intention of defraying the cost of my subscription has
gone away now because I now find myself buying books especially to scan and
submit. That means that I am spending more on volunteering than I am getting
back in credits.
I will also say that the drought of books that I faced when I lost my eyesight
seems to have gone away. What with Bookshare, the National Library Service for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic,
Gutenberg.org, Archive.org, the Baen free library, Marxists.org, and other web
sites that supply books I now have easier access to more books than I ever had
when I was sighted and the ones I don't have access to I can make accessible by
scanning and submitting them.
I will admit that that last point is a slow way to read a book, but I think my
comprehension is better when I spend so much time working on such a book.
Besides, by making it accessible to me I make it not only beneficial to me, but
to others too.
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put 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.
Other related posts:
