[bksvol-discuss] Re: where are all the submits
- From: "Reggie & Brooks" <regandlon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:31:01 -0400
Thanks Monica. I really appreciated your post.
Reggie
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Monica Willyard
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 4:11 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: where are all the submits
Hi Reggie. The holds aren't processed through anyone on staff and aren't
regulated by anyone. Basically, when a person uploads a book, they can put
the words hold for and a person's name before that title. That's how a book
is held for someone. It is supposed to be used when a book needs specific
attention from a specific person such as for fixing tables, picture
descriptions, and such, or if the proofreader has a print copy of a book and
is working on cleaning up a raw scan or replacing pages. As with any other
tool, it can be abused or overused. It doesn't mean the tool itself is bad,
but it's application can be. Some holds have a legitimate reason for being
on the list while others probably don't. We have some volunteers who process
their held books quickly and who do a great service for us by coping with
charts and tables that a blind submitter can't handle alone.
Since we as volunteers can't directly affect Bookshare policy, it may seem
that we're powerless to fix this situation. That's not true though because
we are a group of creative, committed, mature adults who know how to get
things done. I think we can be most useful by spreading the word that new
submissions are wanted and by making sure that our off-list friends get the
support they need for using the new site. If the hold for issue shows no
signs of self-correcting, we can express our concerns to
volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx to make staff aware of our thoughts. We can reach
out to people who used to submit books who got discouraged because we didn't
have enough proofreaders to work on their books. Some of these people were
producing nearly perfect scans. Many of you remember these people if you
think about it for a minute. We can also encourage new volunteers by
reaching out to work with them, to help them learn to scan or proofread, to
give them a chance to work on our books, and to encourage them if they're
feeling overwhelmed. As a group, we made this system work very well for 3
years without a volunteer coordinator because of the maturity and commitment
of each member of the group. We can do that again with the hold for issue
and the lack of interesting books to work on. It'll take some time and some
patience to help each other. We still have those things, don't we?
Monica Willyard
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Reggie & Brooks
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 3:38 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: where are all the submits
Curiously everyone, although I have another book with a hold so don't worry,
how does just about every book get a hold for? I think we as volunteers are
only supposed to have 2 holds, but like E. I wonder how we have gotten down
to only being able to validate books on alcoholism and philosophy. Not a
problem at the moment, but once I get through the books I have? How does a
book get a hold? Do they all go through Pavi?
Reggie
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of E.
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 3:13 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: where are all the submits
I am not personally interested in proofing books about alcohol and substance
abuse or group psychology or books about naval warfare at this time.
That does cut down on my choices quite a lot.
E.
At 03:05 PM 3/21/2009, you wrote:
>Hi Elizabeth and others. If you look at the Books In Processing list,
>you'll see that there are around 160 books checked out for
>proofreading. Many of those are fiction, and that leads me to believe
>that we have an active community of proofreaders who work on books very
>shortly after they are submitted. I think what's going on is that we
>have shifted in our balance so that we have more proofreaders than
>submitters. I also think submitters are doing more careful proofreading
>on our submits, so we're putting up fewer books, but the books can also
>be
proofread more quickly by the proofreader.
>Another factor that may be slowing down the flow of new books is that
>some of our volunteers who are not on this list haven't learned how to
>submit books on the new site yet. Finally, another factor is that
>several of our more prolific submitters are now working for Bookshare.
>All of these factors seem to have changed the balance for us.
>
>For several years, the mantra was that submitters needed to stop
>scanning and help with proofreading. We started doing that, and several
>of us tried to switch hit to play both roles. Now the word needs to get
>out that submitters can safely go back to submitting books. I dislike
>working as a proofreader with a passion, but it's taking me awhile to
>get back into submitting mode because I have three books I have to
>finish
proofreading.
>Then I plan to quit and go back to scanning and cleaning up my own
>books so I can submit them.
>
>There is still plenty of important and honorable work for proofreaders
>to do right now. There were 111 books awaiting proofreading when I
>looked at the list. Some of the nonfiction books awaiting approval are
>short, and it would be cool if some of our proofreaders would be
>willing to take on just one of them. You can see the page count on a
>book before checking it out, and that makes it easy to find shorter
>ones. No one has to do them, and I think it's a good thing to work on
>books that interest us when those are available to us. On the other
>hand, the nonfiction books do have to be processed, either approved or
>rejected, by someone from the volunteers or staff. I have two
>nonfiction
books checked out right now because I want to do my part.
>
>To me, working on books that interest me is like enjoying flowers and
>fresh produce from a garden. I'd rather do that all the time.
>Processing some types of nonfiction books is more work, like pulling
>weeds or plowing and preparing soil. It's not as much fun, but it needs
>to be done to make the Bookshare system work well for everyone. If
>those who are willing would take just one book from the check out list,
>we could get those books approved and go back to doing things that we
>find more exciting. For me, that's scanning books. For someone else,
>that may be proofreading science fiction or mysteries.
>
>Monica Willyard
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