[bookshare-discuss] Re: Classic mysteries
- From: Tony Baechler <bookshare@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 00:25:04 -0700
Hi, both comments are fair. I should have explained better I guess
but I'm not one for long explanations.
At 01:03 AM 5/1/2006, you wrote:
What do you mean by "it's [your mailing list] is open
to all unlike the official volunteer list for
bookshare." My understanding is that the official
volunteer list is open to anyone who wants to be a
volunteer. To whom is it closed?
As far as I know, that's correct. However, my understanding is also
that it's for business related to bookshare. I was on there for a
long time and off topic posts are fine but tiresome to many. This
would be strictly dedicated to just a particular genre, such as
mysteries. Actually, for mysteries that isn't that big of an
issue. I was thinking more of vintage radio with that comment. Many
collectors have no idea about the blind community and know nothing of
bookshare. It isn't fair to them to make them read through 50 off
topic messages having nothing to do with radio at all. Also I know
many people collect mp3. That is a debate I won't get into here
except that I'm opposed. Many collectors have strong feelings one
way or the other on that and the bookshare list isn't appropriate for
whether mp3 is better or not. On my list that wouldn't be a serious
issue because of low traffic and I could moderate if I had to. What
I had in mind is to get people (not just authors) to donate their
used books on vintage radio. They could post to the list that they
had whatever book to offer. I or someone could check bookshare to
see if it's already there but most books aren't so no big deal. Then
hopefully someone from the scanning group would offer to scan
it. The donor and scanner would work out mailing arrangements or the
books could be mailed to me and I would mail them out. Another idea
is to get say five dedicated scanners and just rotate. As I get
books, I send them to the next person on the scan group etc. That's
something to figure out on a separate list. I just don't think that
would be good on the volunteer list. If you think I'm wrong, please
present your arguments and I'll consider them. I'm just trying to
judge interest level at this point. Also I would like to have a pool
of money to buy books that aren't donated but people want. We could
vote on whether a certain book is worth the cost and scanning effort
and either a few people could pool X dollars or someone could juust
buy it outright. One person told me previously that he would
consider directly buying books and has already purchased at least
two. This is where I could appeal to various organizations with
press releases and hopefully they would donate also. I had fairly
good luck that way in the past.
Also, why do you assume that "many sighted
people wouldn't want to join the volunteer list and
wouldn't really belong anyway." I don't know ow many
bookshare volunteers are sighted; I get the feeling
not many, and it would certainly be nice to have more.
I mostly addressed that above but I'll try to explain more
here. First, I agree that more sighted volunteers would be good and
perhaps my mailing lists could help this way. I guess what I'm
trying to say is that the OTR community (i.e. the OTR digest mailing
list) might be willing to help by donating a book here or there or
maybe offering a perfect electronic copy if they are an author. They
are not going to want to read about romances, scanning tips, guide
dogs, K1000, and any number of off topic posts. That's a big reason
why I left. I have no interest in most of that stuff and got tired
of holding down the delete key for 100 messages a day. I would
certainly suggest the volunteer list if someone has a large book
collection to donate or wants to scan more, but that would be
secondary. As far as classic mysteries, I don't think a dedicated
list is as necessary but if I happen to get my press releases in wide
enough circulation that other mystery groups are interested, see
above. They won't care about fantasy or kids books etc. Sorry for
being a little long but I hope that explains my position better.
As an aside, I'm working on getting a gmail account so I might join
the volunteer list with that.
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