[bksvol-discuss] Re: volunteering

Dear Patti,

We all get little surprises in our Bookshare selections, like some books nearly perfect and others with stars and carets sprinkled all over their pages. The thing is, we're getting braille books we wouldn't have had a prayer of reading in braille without Bookshare. And, in a way, Bookshare belongs to all of us. We actually have permission to pick books, fix books and be part of the process of books appearing more perfect and less carety.

With all of the different combinations of software and hardware in their many versions, we use to produce and read books, it's a miracle so many books translate as well as they do.

I think that's how this list where everybody helps everybody else formed. Every time there's an upgrade or new product, brand new glitches appear. The experts and newbies swap questions, ideas, experiments and experiences until a solution emerges.

Don't worry about putting a book back if it presents too many frustrations. Even the neatest of scans has to be validated to join the collection. so you could start with something almost error free and work yourself up to the herds of junk characters and processions of headers and boo kooze of lost chapter names and heaps of juggled page numbers.

When I started I barely knew the difference between my computer and patio furniture. Now I'm loving reading on my braille note and validating with jaws. Welcome to the group. You'll soon find the volunteering style that suits you and I look forward to getting to know you better. The conference call was a great start.

Always With Love,

Lissi
----- Original Message ----- From: "patti" <plcdoula@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 8:40 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: volunteering


Hi everyone: Okay, I'm all signed up and ready to go to work. We, my boyfriend and I, that is, read on the braillenote, and we're noticing numbers randomly inserted in the text of books we're reading. Are those supposed to be there? If so, what are they? I don't see them in nls books. The numbers are 2 groups, they're consecutive. Ex., number sign 1. Then later 2 and so on. Then you have other ones that are consecutive and move upwardsfaster. Hope I'm making sense here. That's in addition to headers and footers. Wondering if it's a formatting issue on the bn or is it in the book written like that. I find headers and footers right in the middle of a sentence very annoying.

I mean, I intend to finish the book, because it's so good; but I've seen this in every book I've downloaded. I download to the computer using a flashcard reader, and put the compact flash card in my bn to read it. Well, I unpack it first, then I read it. I keep my books stored on the cf card, then read in bookreader.

Okay, I'm off to find a fascinating book to work on.  All for now.  Patti


----- Original Message ----- From: "Gerald Hovas" <geraldhovas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 12:44 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: volunteering


Hello Patti,

Welcome to the list.

There's a form you need to fill out in order to volunteer. You can find it
on Bookshare's website. I think it's under the link on About Volunteering.
You can either fill out that form or send the same information to
volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Let us know if you have any trouble finding it or
filling it out.

Once you have been registered as a volunteer, you'll be able to access the
links which will allow you to work on books which have been submitted to
Bookshare for validation. You'll also receive a message with validation
instructions that should help get you started. After reading the validation
instructions, you'll probably still have plenty of questions, so feel free
to ask them since that's what this list is for.

From your message, you obviously have downloaded a book from the collection
which you feel needs cleaning up. Bookshare doesn't encourage cleaning up
books already in the collection, although they don't discourage it either.
It's a matter of where they can best spend their time, and they prefer not
to have to reprocess books since processing them multiple times is a waste
of time. However, they do understand that there are some books in the
collection which need updating like the books rated Fair which need to be
rescanned. The best way we as volunteers can help, though, is to make sure
the books are in good shape before they are added to the collection. That
way they only have to be processed the one time. The volunteers on this
list are more than happy to help you learn how to do that.

Now, I'm sure you have questions about the book you downloaded. Let us know
which book you're talking about so someone can help you with it. It may be
that the book needs to be rescanned, or part of the problem could be as
simple as changing some settings on your Braille Note (or a similar piece of
equipment) in order to prevent some of the formatting characters from being
displayed. It also may just be that you're expectations are higher than
what Bookshare expects from a book. If so, you're certainly not the only
one on this list which has high standards. <Smile> Marissa, the volunteer
coordinator which left in May to attend graduate school, referred to the
volunteers on this list as a bunch of deranged perfectionists which she had
enjoyed working with.

Again, let us know if you need help signing up to be a volunteer, and feel
free to ask questions. <Smile>

Gerald

-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of patti
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 10:16 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] volunteering


Hello everyone: I've just joined this list, and would like to volunteer
validating books. Are there some specific guidelines somewhere to give
instructions? Do you have to fill out any application to volunteer? I have
a book in mind, one that I downloaded that needs a lot of work; but I'm not
sure what I'm supposed to delete. There are a lot of extraneous numbers,
for example, not sure what they represent; page numbers, paragraph markers,
perhaps? I have no clue, but they're annoying; also, all the headers and
footers are there; also very annoying. So I look to you all for your
expertise. I love to read, and read Braille, and I think bookshare is such
a wonderful thing, and blind people should be reading good quality material,
too. Too bad I'm not a certified proofreader, because I catch mistakes all
the time. (grin)

Anyway, thanks for having me.

Patti Cutler


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