I scanned two 300 page paperbacks in two and a half hours yesterday. ----- Original Message ----- From: Guido Corona To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 7:40 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: A perhaps inappropriate request Cindy, most of us volunteers use flatbed scanners of one form or another. This means that most of us need to turn pages manually, then press the open book on the scanner platen and ensure that there is good contact towards the center spine. Having said that, a lot of us use software which recognizes two pages at a time, and can even restart the scanning process automatically every few seconds, so we do not have to press the 'scan' key each time we turn a page. This means that we can scan a 300 page paperback book in less than 90 minutes. The lucky inhouse volunteers have instead access to a Canon monster scanner which can scarf down the same book in about 2 minutes, after removal of the binding. Very nice, but such a beauty can cost several thousand dollars. Guido Guido D. Corona IBM Accessibility Center, Austin Tx. IBM Research, Phone: (512) 838-9735 Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx Visit my weekly Accessibility WebLog at: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/weblog/corona_weblog.html Cindy R <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx> Sent by: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 05/06/2004 08:02 PM Please respond to bksvol-discuss To bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx cc Subject [bksvol-discuss] A perhaps inappropriate request It is perhaps inappropriate for me to request books since I am only a volunteer and not a member, but here's the situation (and my request). Recently, in response to a request, I scanned and, as I always do, validated the book before sumitting it. As a result, I have become a fan of Bertrice Small. Her historical romance novels are wonderfully textured -- full of details that not only make the historical personages, as well as the ficitonal characters in the books, wonderfully real but also have woven into them the social customs, clothing, food, politics, etc., etc.that educates as well as entertains. My problem is that since volunteering for bookshare I don't feel that I should read and enjoy a book without making it also available to bookshare readers. Thus books I choose to read on my own time are books that are already on bookshare or older classics that I suspect members can get elsewhere. I know this is totally irrational, but it's the way I feel. When I read a book, as I am now, for my pleasure that isn't on bookshare I feel a bit guilty. Back to Bertrice Small's books. When I finished Love Slave for bookshare, I noticed that Rosamund was already in the collection, so I read that and thoroughly enjoyed it (set in turn-of-16th century England). I just received from the library its sequel, Until You, which I shall scan and submit -- and, being unable to wait for it, I'm now reading Beloved, set in 3d century Palmyra (a city-state in the Roman Empire in the 3d century). But I seem able only to obtain these books from the library in paperback editions with small print. It takes a long time and is somewhat difficult for me to scan them with the kind of unsopisticated scanner I have (page by page, pressing down so the pages near the binding will scan). I know there are quite a few of you who like to scan and who can do it very quickly. I'm hoping maybe some of you would be willing to scan some of her books -- there are many -- maybe starting with Skye O'Malley and the ones that follow in the Skye O'Malley Saga. It doesn't matter to me how bad the scan is -- I'll be happy to validate the book -- but if someone else wants to, that's o.k., too. Then I'll feel free to read it. I hope this request isn't out of line. Cindy __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover