[bksvol-discuss] 2011 Planning at Bookshare

From: Scott Rains <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "bks_announce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bks_announce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 07:13:16 -0800

Hi Everyone,

We have learned a lot from your engaged responses to the flurry New Year's 
communication. For example, just recently Bookshare volunteers have:

Measured ourselves - and our collection - against the world's "Most Important 
Books"
Developed our Bookshare Volunteer's "Most Enjoyable Books" list
Taken on some neglected older books from the Check Out List
Continued recruiting new members for a free month using the promo code VGM2010
Helped Mayrie Renae work through some scanning bottlenecks
Provided me with feedback on how you approach scanning and proofing

All the while book submissions are coming in and folks are committing to taking 
on new books and fill gaps in series.

Yesterday was  milestone in-house also. One of Bookshare's local volunteers, 
Diana Symons, put the finishing touches on our newest training book for 
proofreaders. It is a public domain book at Level 2 scanning and proofing 
difficulty that Diana and Rick Costa have peppered with the sorts of scannos 
and other bits of OCR wickedness that we have all come to expect whenever we 
grab something from the Check Out List. Right now working with last month's 
influx of new volunteer candidates has dominated our time but eventually we 
will let established volunteers test themselves on this and a series of other 
public domain books we will use for training. By shifting entirely to public 
domain books we will be free to invent a "self-service" interface where 
potential volunteers can find us online, get a feel for what we do, and pick up 
a few skills even before they sign up.

Of course, that dream is far in the future. At the moment, before we further 
open the floodgates to new recruits, we want to be certain we have a solid 
foundation. If you have not had a chance to answer, or did not receive yet, the 
following questions please send them along to me at  scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx

I have put my Bookshare email address in the CC line so if you hit Reply All 
and delete the group addresses your answers will come straight to me:


1  What is your mix of scanning and proofing? (ie 100% scanning, 90/10, 50/50, 
etc.)
2  Do you prefer or excel at one or the other?
3  Are you sighted? Blind? Limited vision?
4  How does this impact which tasks you prefer to do as a Bookshare volunteer?
5  Are you interested in being identified on-list as a resource for questions 
about one or the other?
6  Are you interested in being identified on-list as a mentor in a formal 
mentoring relationship with a newer volunteer?
7  Is there there an existing role in the Bookshare volunteer community that 
you wold like to take on?
8 Is there there a role you would like to suggest that would strengthen the 
online Bookshare volunteer community?

Scott Rains
Benetech Fellow

[bksvol-discuss] 2011 Planning at Bookshare

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