I'm going to lead off here with the passage from the Step 1 page
regarding books with 'Hold For' in their title.
Titles denoted with a "Hold For" prefacing the title are intended for
a specific validator. Please respect this request.
My first question here is, why? Now I must admit I am, and always
have been, biased against the practice of 'Hold For' books. To me,
the practice smacks of elitism, cliquishness, and in many cases the
primary objective does not seem to be the quality of the collection.
I understand there can be a number of reasons to put hold for in the
title, and they include:
1. for a vallidator with a copy of the book, or text in question, to
have something to compare against the submitted work;
2. for a vallidator with specific interest in the project;
3. for the submitter's assurance that the book will be picked up in a
timely manner;
4. for the submitter's assurance that the book will be handled in an
appropriate manner.
Now I'm sure there are other reasons as well, but to me the only one
that would seem to have merit, is the first one I sited above, with
the proviso for our sighted volunteers, that any of the projects they
touch can only be improved upon by the ability to compare the
original print version with the copy submitted to Bookshare. I make
this last tipulation because sometimes technology can become too
clever and we can start relying on it too heavily at the expense of
accuracy. Aside from that however, I don't believe that most of the
hold for books fall under the 1st example above, but instead come
under 1 or more of the others.
In closing, before I get the fire storm going, no, I can't recall a
specific instance where I wished to validate a hold for book, but I
just don't like the exclusionary practice, and I would point out that
not all volunteers are on the list so as to be aware of the why and
wherefores.
Dave
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