[bksvol-discuss] Re: An alternative to validating fair quality submissions

  • From: "Gary Petraccaro" <garyp130@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:06:48 -0500

Since BookShare has, among it's reasons for rejection, quality, the reason you do not reject is . . .

Please explain it to me.  Very serious request.
What I'm afraid I'm beginning to see developing is a two-tier program: one, excellent books, for professionals and students, and the other, very much of a hit and miss for the rest of us living our lives and enjoying reading in various subjects.
Thank you.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Monica Willyard" <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Claire O'Brien" <ClaireO@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: An alternative to validating fair quality
submissions


Hi, Ilene. Hmm. I hadn't considered the point you're making here. I'm
sending this as a CC to Claire for some clarification since I know that
Bookshare is actively working to replace all books that are rated fair
in the current collection. I'm not sure what to do about it in practical
terms. I won't put a fair book into the Bookshare collection, and I've
been rejecting them if I can't fix them to be at least good. As a
reader, I'd be pretty upset to find a book I want to read and have it be
messed up. I don't know how to make the Bookshare rules and my desire
for readable books work together here. Of course, I could just skip
working on fair rated books as some have chosen to do. That's the easy
solution. Or I could just pass them into the Bookshare collection as is
and then do a BSO to replace the book. The only down side there is that
I'd get double credit from Bookshare, once for validating and once for
doing the BSO. That seems unethical to me. I guess the only solution I
can ethically live with is to return them to step 1 if I can't fix them
up without rescanning them. That means another volunteer will be stuck
with them down the line, and that doesn't seem right either. If other
people feel as ambivalent as I do on this subject, it's no wonder these
books keep hanging around on step 1.

If the Bookshare rules should be followed regarding fair books, there
will be a lot of unreadable books coming from step 1, around 40 if my
count is right. I've seen many of them, and the Bookshare members will
not appreciate their condition. No wonder Bookshare hides these books
from new members by default. :(

Monica Willyard

Ilene Sirocca wrote:
I certainly sympathize with this suggestion, but I do have a problem
with it.  The problem is that so far, books are not supposed to be
rejected because they are rated fair. If they were, we wouldn't have
the fair rating allowed in the first place.  If a validator who is
also a scanner rejects the original scanner's fair book and then
submits a scan of her own, she takes away the original scanner's
credits, no matter how undeserved they might be in terms of book
quality, and gives them to herself.  This is not your intention, but
this is what happens.

If Bookshare wants to have more excellent scans it has to go to the
root of the problem and not allow people to submit fair scans, or
maybe even good ones although that's more debatable I suppose.  Yes,
some scanners may drop out if they're held to a higher responsibility,
so that has to be part of the consideration of this matter.  But if
excellent books is what we are after, the original rules have to be
tougher.  If just getting as many books as possible is the goal, then
fair scans have to stay.  Personally, I'd vote for a slower groth rate
and a higher quality.

There's my two cents' worth.

Ilene



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