[bksvol-discuss] Re: books I validated today
- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 02:32:27 -0500
Dear Jill and Fellow Booksharians,
Like Gene, and Sue, I Thank you for taking the time to speak up on behalf of
excellence, Jill. Many of us are blind readers, but we are not second class
or low end readers. Why would we be content to navigate through a difficult,
rocky read when sighted readers expect and get clean,accurate, and carefully
edited and printed books.
As a lover of reading, writing, and one who appreciates and cares about the
author's perspective, I imagine how shocked an author would be to see a
shabby presentation of his or her work on Bookshare. We dishonor the author,
the publishing industry and the gift of copyright permission when our
presentation of books are riddled with errors.
Last night I downloaded a book by David "Burns. It is rated good, but is
full of broken words, junk characters, and words that are so off kilter as
to be unrecognizable. Nls has a high quality recording of this book but I
had hoped to read Bookshare's copy in braille. I want so much to buy the
book, send it to one of the many volunteers who scan with care, and then to
validate it myself, even if it should take me weeks, so I'll know the next
reader can concentrate on what the author is saying without being distracted
by a stream of assorted errors.
A fellow volunteer kindly reminded me of the validating promises I've made
and the books I'm tidying up in my slow but sure style. Tomorrow I'll call
NLS and read Burns' book on tape. I'll remove the Bookshare copy from my
flash card, and then be hard pressed not to dwell on the fact that the next
reader may be as disappointed with the Mood Therapy book as I was.
We can spare the volunteers and staff the work of processing books twice,
and readers from being frustrated with and discarding their downloads by
submitting and uploading books we are confident are as excellent as we can
make them. Disappointed readers aren't comforted by being told the
volunteers did the minimum required of them.
I don't volunteer to do what I "Have" to do. I volunteer because I
thoroughly enjoy a job where I can read and create a beautiful book at the
same time, a book I'm proud to share with fellow readers and which I'm not
embarrassed to show to the author.
Always with love, and Fervor, tonight,
Lissi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jill O'Connell" <jillocon@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 11:35 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: books I validated today
A lot of you probably won't agree with me and that's your privilege, but I
don't happen to feel committed to try to get every book on step 1 into the
collection. I consider that quality far outweighs quantity which is why I
validate what I am willing to read. I have seen too many books rated good
which were not pleasant to read and I then start figuring how I can find
the time to rescan them and make them the quality that Bookshare can be
proud of. I know this is not required of validators, but it is the standard
I set for myself, and you are right, I have often spent far more than five
hours validating such a book which I could easily have let go through as
good or fair. I do wonder too if good or fair books come across better when
listened to as opposed to being read in braille which is the way I read
them; maybe that's why such books bother me as much as they do. Jill
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