Hi everyone, Marilyn, I'm so thrilled that you agreed to validate for Bookshare. We're glad to have you! As I was reading group messages, I had started composing a response to your original post in my head, but as I finished reading all the replies to it, I realized that everything I'd wanted to say had already been said by others. We really do have the greatest group of volunteers. Thanks guys! I think everyone was very helpful. Marilyn, if you do have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them, but I don't think I have any extra tips right now. I did however attach copies of the volunteer manual files to this message, to save people the trouble of going to find them. Not everyone will be comfortable opening attachments I know, but I promise these are safe. As for fonts, I usually select the text of the document and change it all to Times Roman, regular style, and 14 point font. This is not a Bookshare requirement as far as I know, but it's something I like to do. I'm blind enough that I can't see the print on my screen, so this is the only way I know of to make sure that there aren't any strange font quirks. If one has print-reading sight, then it's okay to be a little more creative. Thanks again all for your responses! Best, Allison Hilliker Bookshare.org Intern: operations and marketing outreach. E-mail allisonh@xxxxxxxxxxxxTitle: Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual Main
This is a copy of the August 3, 2007, edition of the Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual. Please check Bookshare.org periodically for the latest, most up to date version of the manual.
August 3, 2007
| Date | Revision Notes |
|---|---|
| August 3, 2007 | Initial Release |
Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2007, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.
Title: Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual Section 1This is a copy of the August 3, 2007, edition of the Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual. Please check Bookshare.org periodically for the latest, most up to date version of the manual.
This section explains the organization and objectives of the manual. The information in this section is not necessary for volunteering. However, volunteers who wish to provide feedback should be familiar with this information, and it should be taken into consideration when making future updates.
The material in this manual assumes that the reader is already signed up to be a volunteer.
This manual is a collection of requirements, guidelines, step by step procedures, explanations, tips, and best practices all rolled into what could be considered a class called Volunteering 101.
The manual is organized into four major sections:
As mentioned above, this Introduction explains the organization and objectives of the Volunteer Manual. It also lists the objectives for the manual, and lets volunteers know how they can make suggestions for improvements , as well as suggest topics for the Supplementary Reference Material.
Section 2 is intended for new volunteers, and, as the title implies, it explains the process for adding a book to the collection. It also walks new volunteers through the steps for using several Web pages that are needed for volunteering.
Section 3 contains the information that volunteers will need to know in order to accomplish their primary task?adding books to the collection. It is intended as reference material for experienced volunteers and is mandatory reading for new volunteers.
Section 4 also contains reference material. However, unlike the "Important Information" section, this material is not critical for volunteering. It contains information on best practices and tips, and includes topics suggested by the volunteer community.
This document was written with the following objectives in mind:
This document is intended to evolve with the needs of volunteers. Please send your suggestions for improvements, including suggestions for additional topics for the Supplementary Reference Material, to VMFeedback@xxxxxxxxxxxxx where they will be considered for incorporation into a future version of the manual.
This manual was a collaborative effort among several extraordinarily dedicated volunteers, the volunteer community in general, and the Bookshare.org staff. We specifically want to thank the following individuals who contributed to the manual: Jake Brownell, Kellie Hartman, Gerald Hovas, Carrie Karnos, Jennifer Sutton, and Julie Wong Treichler.
We also want to thank our group of dedicated volunteers for their tireless and conscientious efforts in building the Bookshare.org collection and continuously improving its quality. All volunteers' efforts are greatly appreciated by the staff and members of Bookshare.org.
Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2007, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.
Title: Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual Section 2This is a copy of the August 3, 2007, edition of the Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual. Please check Bookshare.org periodically for the latest, most up to date version of the manual.
There are three major stages to adding a book to the collection:
In the first stage, a volunteer scans a book and submits the resulting file to Bookshare.org where it is added to a list of books awaiting validation.
In the second stage, a validator selects a book for validation, determines if the book should be recommended for approval or rejection based on guidelines from Bookshare.org, usually does some clean-up, and then uploads the book for administrative approval.
In the last stage, an administrator verifies that the book meets Bookshare.org's legal obligations and policies, and adds it to the collection.
This need for multiple stages of review also means that a book will not appear in Bookshare.org's collection immediately after it's submitted. Each of these stages is explained fully in the sections below.
Remember that it is not necessary for volunteers to both submit and validate books. Volunteers may only submit books or only validate books if they wish.
Bookshare.org realizes that it is frustrating to spend a long time scanning a book, only to discover that it has already been submitted, so please check to see if a book is either already in the collection or in the process of being added to the collection before scanning it.
To see if a book is already in the collection, log in to Bookshare.org and use either the Simple Search form located at the top of each web page or the Advanced Search feature. Sometimes a title will be misspelled or abbreviated, so some effort may be needed to locate the book in the collection. If you do not find the book on your first attempt, then try searching for a keyword or phrase from the book's title or for the author's last name to verify that the book does not already exist.
Note that it's necessary to be logged in to search the entire collection, because otherwise books marked as containing adult content will not be shown in search results. In addition, Preferences must have not been set under the My Account section of the website to block Adult Content, or the entire collection will not be viewable even when logged in.
Once it has been determined that the book is not in the collection, check the Books In Process web page to see if the book has already been submitted. Keep in mind that submissions recommended for rejection could still be added to the collection if an administrator overrides a validator's recommendation, so volunteers should not assume that a book needs to be rescanned if it appears in that list. Note that it's necessary to be logged in to view the Books In Process web page.
If a book is a recent release, then volunteers should also check "Bookshare's New York Times Best Sellers" web page to see whether or not Bookshare has plans to scan the book. Bookshare is purchasing the top 10 best sellers from the hardcover and paperback, fiction and nonfiction lists and scanning them in-house to not only insure they make the collection, but are in excellent shape. If a book has only been released in the past two weeks, then volunteers should also consider whether or not it is likely to make the New York Times Best Seller List in the near future before scanning it tsince Bookshare reserves the right to process these books in-house to insure high quality, and any best seller scanned by a volunteer could be replaced after making it into the collection or rejected during the Administrative Approval stage of adding a book to the collection.
When scanning a book, please save it in one of the following output formats:
These file formats permit Bookshare.org's back-end processing tools to obtain and retain as much structure as possible, including items like page numbers.
Rich Text Format (RTF) is the preferred file format for book submissions to Bookshare.org. This format enables Bookshare.org to produce the most consistent content output. It may be generated by using the "Save As" feature in most word processors, and it is a file format that is available on all computer platforms.
For the treatment of blank pages specifically and pagination in general, please reference the sections "Do Not Remove Blank Pages If Page Numbering Will Be Affected" and "Books Must Contain Page Breaks" respectively.
A book is considered sufficiently complete for submission if it meets the requirements outlined in the section "Books Must Be Complete."
A scan does not have to be cleaned up prior to submission, but there are advantages to doing so. During the scanning process the book itself is available for reference, and hence the submitter can ensure that the text is exactly as the author intended. Also, since cleaner book submissions are easier to validate, cleaning up the scan prior to submission will improve the chance that a book will make it into the collection quickly.
Please refer to the "Guidelines for Cleaning Up Books" section for details on what is permitted when cleaning up your scan.
To submit a book for the Bookshare.org collection, first go to the Bookshare.org website and log in, then choose the "Submit a Book" link. A page will load which contains a form to fill out with information about the book being submitted.
Note that it is helpful to gather all of the necessary information before logging onto the website. In addition, typing the information into a word processor ahead of time has the advantage of allowing the information to be easily proofread and spellchecked, and the information can be copied and pasted into the appropriate fields on the form when submitting the book.
For more detailed instructions on what should be entered into each of the fields, please see the section titled "Guidelines for Filling Out The Submission and Validation Forms."
TITLE. The first field to fill out on the submission form is the "Title" field. Enter the title of the book here. Please proofread this field carefully before continuing. Having the correct title will help others when they are searching for the book.
LANGUAGE. Next, choose the language of the book in the Language combo box. Currently, the languages available are English and Spanish. If the book is in a language other than English or Spanish, simply select English.
AUTHOR(S). The next field on the submission form is where the name(s) of the author(s) should be entered. Please enter as first name followed by last name and separate multiple authors with commas. Please proofread this field carefully since it will help others with accurate author searching.
COPYRIGHT HOLDER. In this field, enter the copyright holder listed in the relevant copyright notice for the book.
COPYRIGHT DATE. Now, enter the copyright date listed in the relevant copyright notice for the book.
FORMAT. Bookshare.org can accept books in a number of different formats. In the Format combo box, choose the format in which the book is being submitted. Note that books may be zipped for submission. If the book will be zipped, you should choose the format that the book is in prior to zipping it.
SELECT FILE. This is the field that specifies the file to be uploaded. Either enter the complete path of the file or use the "Browse" button to locate the file. The "Browse" button immediately follows the "Select File" field and may or may not be spoken by a screen reader. Once the "Browse" button has been activated a standard file dialogue will appear, and after the file has been selected and the dialogue closed, the complete path of the file to b uploaded will appear in the "Select File" field. Note that it is necessary to reenter the filename if the submission fails due to the form not being filled out properly.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS. In the next field, include a brief synopsis for the book. This can be written in the submitter's own words, or may be copied from the book itself (provided it is from the book publisher and not from a quotation by someone else). The synopsis must be in the same language as the book being submitted and less than 200 characters in length, including spaces. As there is nothing to alert the submitter if the synopsis is too long until after the book has been submitted, many submitters find it useful to write the synopsis in a word processor or other program with a character count feature before submitting to ensure that the synopsis is not too long. If the synopsis is too long, the book will not be successfully submitted and the submitter will have to correct the problem. Writing the synopsis ahead of time in a word processor also allows the synopsis to be spell checked before it is copied and pasted into the field.
The following fields are optional, but it is greatly appreciated when submitters fill them in since they provide useful information to the validator, as well as to a Bookshare.org administrator.
ADULT CONTENT. If the book contains adult content, check this box. Please refer to the section titled "Guidelines for Marking Books 'Adult'" for Bookshare.org's official policy on what constitutes Adult Content.
CATEGORIES. Next is a collection of checkboxes indicating different categories. Check all that apply to the book, and please always choose either Fiction or Nonfiction.
ISBN. Enter the ISBN of the book. This number must be entered correctly or the submission process will not be successful. If the submitter receives an error message stating that the ISBN is invalid, and the number has been checked that it has been typed correctly, simply leave the field blank.
QUALITY. Evaluate the quality of the book being submitted. If it has very few errors, it may be marked Excellent. If it has some errors but is readable, it should be marked "Good". If there are many errors but the book can still be read and understood, then it should be marked "Fair". Note that "Fair" is the default rating, so if the book is of higher quality, it is important to fill out this field so potential validators will have accurate information to judge whether they want to work on the book.
SUGGESTED LONGER SYNOPSIS. This field may contain a longer synopsis for the book, either in the submitter's own words or taken from the book jacket. If the longer synopsis is copied from the book, the submitter should state this clearly. Synopsis material may not be drawn from sources such as online booksellers. The synopsis should be less than 500 words long. Writing the synopsis ahead of time in a word processor will allow it to be spell checked before it is copied and pasted into the field.
COMMENTS FOR THE VOLUNTEER REVIEWING THIS SUBMISSION. In this field, submitters should write any information that the validator should know about the book along with any information that an Administrator might need to know during the Administrative Approval process.
Now that all the fields on the submission form have been filled out, the book is ready to be submitted. Press the "Upload" button and wait for the thank-you page to load. This may take some time, and there may or may not be feedback for users of screen readers depending on which screen reader is being used and the screen reader's settings.
If a screen reader does provide information from the progress bar during the upload, the submitter should not automatically assume that a book has failed to upload if the thank-you page doesn't immediately display when the percentage reaches 100% since the progress bar is not always correct.
Once the thank-you page loads, the book has been successfully submitted.
If you return to the submission form instead of the thank-you page, then search for the word "error" to find why the book did not upload. If no error message is found, then check to see if there is an apostrophe in the filename since this error does not result in an error message. If you find an apostrophe in the filename, then remove it and try again. However, do not remove the apostrophe from the title.
Also, please check the Step 1 page before attempting to resubmit your book in order to prevent uploading a second copy of your book by accident.
After logging into the Bookshare.org website, choose the "Step 1: Download" link. This will take you to a web page where you will find a list of submitted books awaiting validation. You will also find options at the top of the page which will allow you to search for books by title or author, or filter the list of books by language or format.
To search the list for a specific title, select the "Title" radio button, enter the book title you are looking for in the text box, and choose "Submit". If you only know a part of the title, enter that in the textbox (this will act as a keyword search).
To show only titles by a certain author, select the "Author" radio button, enter the author's name in the text box, and choose "Submit". If you only know a part of the author's name, enter it in the textbox (this will act as a keyword search)
Note that you may prefer to search the entire "Step 1: Download" page using the browser's "Find" command instead of the site's Find feature since that does not cause the page to be reloaded.
To filter the list that displays by language, choose the language you would like from the "Sort by Language" combo box. The choices are All Languages (the default choice), English, or Español/Spanish. After choosing the desired language, choose the "Submit" button.
To filter the list by file format, choose the format you wish from the "Sort by File Type" combo box and then choose the "Submit" button. You may wish to do this if you use a reading assistance application (such as OpenBook or Kurzweil).
When choosing a book, keep in mind which formats you are able to work with. It is much appreciated when volunteers who have access to Kurzweil 1000/3000, OpenBook, or WYNN choose to validate books in the proprietary formats of these software packages. Please only download KES, ARK, or WYN files if you are a user of a relevant reading assistance application (Kurzweil 1000/3000, OpenBook, or Wynn, respectively). Anyone with Microsoft Word may download the DOC files, and anyone with a word processing program should be able to handle RTF files.
Users who have older electronic Braille devices that cannot handle RTF documents are encouraged to validate books using a computer's word processing program since page breaks and other formatting may be lost when converting to TXT.
If you do not wish to filter the list, simply browse it and choose a book.
To get more information about any book on the list, choose the "Download" link which immediately follows the book's title, author and format. This will open a page where a synopsis for the book, as well as other useful information, may be found. If you decide you do not wish to download the book, simply return to the "Step 1: Download" page. Alternatively, Windows operating system users may prefer to press shift-enter on the "Download" link, or right-click on the link and choose "Open In New Window". This will bring up the information page in a new window, which may save time as the window can be closed by pressing alt-F4 and the user will be returned to the "Step 1" page without it having to be updated by the Bookshare.org Web site.
Note that when a book is submitted or returned to Step 1, it will be placed at the top of the list, so the most recent additions to Step 1 can be found at the top.
Once you have selected the title you want to download, click the "Download" link next to that title. You will be taken to a web page with some summary information about the book.
It is very important that you review this information, as it will be helpful in the validation process. This information includes the title and author. Verifying that the information provided here matches what is stated in the book itself is an essential part of the validation process. You may wish to copy and paste this information into a file on your computer, along with copying the filename on which you are working, especially if you intend to validate more than one book at a time.
Pay particular attention to the "Comment History" section of the page, since it may contain important information about the book from the submitter or the Bookshare.org Site Administrator. There may be a request to verify specific information about the book, such as the author's name or copyright holder, or the submitter may have provided vital information about the scan.
At the bottom of this page is a link to download the file associated with this book. When activated, a dialogue box will appear asking what should be done with the file. Select the "Save, "Save to disk," or equivalent option.
Note that the link to download the book will not appear if a volunteer has 5 or more books out for validation. Validators are limited to checking out five books at a time in order to help to ensure that books waiting for validation will be available to the broadest number of volunteers.
At this point, you will be asked where to save the file (note that the file has a "ZIP" extension). Save the file anywhere you like on your computer, preferably in a folder that is easy to find and remember.
Note: If, at this stage, your browser attempts to download "download.html" instead of a ZIP file, the download process is likely being interfered with by an anti-virus program, a pop-up ad prevention program, or by heightened security settings in your browser. Please turn off any such program or lower your browser's security settings and try the download again. If you receive the same error, please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx In your email message, please copy and paste the error message you are receiving so that staff may be better prepared to respond.
Please validate books in a timely manner. Remember that other volunteers may have noticed the same books on the "Step 1: Download" page and be eager to read them. Try to be considerate of the community and only hold onto each book for a reasonable amount of time?for perhaps a month. If it is not possible to validate a book in that time, please release it so that others may validate it. Doing so will support the growth of the collection and give all members of the community a chance to download the books they prefer to validate.
Also, please do not validate your own submissions. A second review of the book by a different volunteer helps insure high quality books, which is an objective of Bookshare. Failure to comply with this policy will result in your book being kicked back to Step 1 if it is spotted during Administrative Approval.
When you download a book for validation, it will be a zipped file. Zipped files are used because they are much smaller and take less time to download. The name of the zipped file will be the first eight letters of the book title plus "ZIP". To open the book file, you will need to unzip the file.
The Windows XP operating system has ZIP decompression built into Windows Explorer, so if you are using Windows XP, you can simply double-click the file icon and then choose "Extract All Files" in the window that appears. You can also use the keyboard command shift-F10, then "Open With", and finally choose the appropriate utility from the menu in order to unzip your file. When unzipping the book, make sure you note the folder you are extracting the file to in order to prevent having to search for the book. The resulting extracted file will be in the format of the book as that format was identified on the download list. The book is now ready for you to validate.
If you do not have Windows XP, WinZip and PkUnzip are two examples of utilities you can use to unzip the file.
Before you start cleaning up and proofreading a book, it's a good idea to check several things to make sure that the book is acceptable for approval. The items to check are:
For details about what requirements a book must meet to be recommended for approval, please read the section titled "Requirements That Books Must Meet Before Being Added to the Collection."
If there are problems with the book , volunteers have the option of obtaining a copy of the same book and fixing them. If it is not possible to obtain the book, then volunteers on the Voluhteer Discussion List are usually more than happy to help find the book and rescan one or two pages for someone. Keep in mind though that it may be easier for the submitter to fix the problems since he or she may still have the book. If there is no way to fix the book in a reasonable amount of time, please recommend the book for rejection.
To recommend a book for rejection, first log in, and then select the "Step 2: Upload" link. When the list of the books you are currently validating is displayed, select "Upload" for the one on the list with the problem. When you get to the "Upload for Publishing" page, at the bottom, there are two buttons. One is "Accept", and the other is "Reject". Select "Reject" and you will be shown a screen with a list of reasons for the rejection. Please choose a radio button to indicate the reason for rejection and also enter a comment explaining why you think the book should be rejected. an Administrator will review your comments and withdraw the book from the system if he or she accepts your recommendation. If not, then the book will be kicked back to "Step 1".
If the format of the file you are validating is anything other than "RTF", you will need to convert the file to RTF format before you upload your validated book for approval. Do this by selecting "Save As" and saving your file as type "Rich Text Format" in your editing application (such as Microsoft Word).
Note: Please retain your uploaded file on your computer until the book has been approved for publication. This will prevent you from losing any of your work if the submitted copy happens to be kicked back to Step 1 for any reason.
If you wish, you may zip the validated book before uploading it.
The Windows XP operating system has ZIP compression built into Windows Explorer, so you can simply right-click on the file icon, choose "Send To", and then choose "compressed (zipped) folder". If you are using a keyboard, when your cursor is on the filename, hit shift-F10, choose "Send To", and then choose "Compressed (zipped) Folder".
If you do not have Windows XP, WinZip and PkZip are two examples of utilities you can use to zip the file.
Once a book has been validated, it can be recommended for approval. If a Bookshare.org administrator agrees with the recommendation, then the book will be added to the collection.
After logging into the Bookshare.org website, choose the "Step 2: Upload" link. If you have more than one book on hand for validation, you will need to choose the one you intend to upload. Click on the "Upload" link for the book you intend to recommend for approval.
Once you do, you will be taken to a form. Much of the information on the form will already have been filled in by the submitter. The validator's job is to verify that the information on the form matches that found in the book itself and to enter any optional information which the submitter neglected to enter. For a detailed discussion of what should be put in each field, see the section titled "Guidelines for Filling Out The Submission and Validation Forms."
The first four fields on the form for accepting a book are "Title", "Author(s)", "Copyright Holder", and "Copyright Date". For each of these items, verify that the information entered by the submitter matches the information contained in the book.
SHORT SYNOPSIS. The next item on the form is the place where a short synopsis may be entered. If the submitter has not entered a synopsis, the validator may choose to do so. If the submitter has entered a short synopsis, check to see that there are no obvious spelling or grammar errors, and correct any that are found.
CHECK-IN FORMAT. At this time, the only option for this field is "RTF", so this field will not need to be modified.
CHECK-IN LANGUAGE. Use the combo box to select the language of the book.
FILE TO UPLOAD. This is the field that specifies the file to be uploaded. Either enter the complete path of the file or use the "Browse" button to locate the file. The "Browse" button immediately follows the "File to Upload" field and may or may not be spoken by a screen reader. Once the "Browse" button has been activated a standard file dialogue will appear, and after the file has been selected and the dialogue closed, the complete path of the file to b uploaded will appear in the "File to Upload" field. Note that it is necessary to reenter the filename if the submission fails due to the form not being filled out properly.
After the filename has been entered, press the "Accept" button. Now the book will be uploaded to the Bookshare.org system, which may take some time, depending on the speed of the Internet connection being used. When the book has been successfully uploaded to the system, another form will appear.
TEXT QUALITY. Based on an automated tool, Bookshare.org will give the book a rating of fair, good, or excellent. This automated rating may be overridden by the validator if necessary.
ADULT CONTENT. Based on an automated tool, the book will be rated regarding its adult content. Review the results to help determine whether or not the book should be marked adult. If the tool determines that a book does contain adult content, and you feel it is in error, then please provide your reason for overriding it in the Comments field found at the bottom of the form. Be aware that the book could contain scanning errors overlooked during validation which are causing the book to deserve the Adult rating, and the book may need to be cleaned up more before it is uploaded. See the section titled "Guidelines for Marking Books 'Adult'" for more information.
CATEGORIES. Next is a list of categories. Verify that the submitter has chosen all categories that pertain to the book. The validator may check or uncheck categories where appropriate. Please always choose either Fiction or Nonfiction.
ISBN. If the submitter has not entered the book's ISBN, the validator is encouraged to do so.
LONG SYNOPSIS. Next is a field where a long synopsis for the book may be entered. If the submitter has not entered a long synopsis, the validator may choose to do so. If the submitter has entered a long synopsis, check to see that there are no obvious errors, and correct any errors that are found.
COMMENTS. Enter any information that may be helpful during Administrative Approval. Note that it is not necessary to pass along comments made by the submitter. The administrator will have access to the book's entire history during Administrative Approval.
Now the book is ready to be recommended for approval. Press the "Accept" button, and the book will be sent on to the Administrative Approval stage.
Volunteers have 7 days to validate a book, but the time can be extended by renewing the book.
The option to renew a book should be available to validators within five days. To renew a book, log in to the Bookshare.org website and select the "Step 2: Upload" link. This will display a list of all of the books you have downloaded and are currently validating. If a book is eligible for renewal, there will be three options available-"Upload", "Release", or "Renew". Simply click on the "Renew" link and you will have an additional 7 days to validate the book.
If the book is not uploaded or renewed by the end of the seventh day after download or renewal, then the book will be returned to "Step 1" after midnight on the eighth day, and other volunteers will be free to validate it. For example, if a book is downloaded or renewed on Friday, the 31st, then a volunteer will have until the end of Friday, the 7th, to renew the book. Otherwise, it will expire shortly after midnight on Saturday, the 8th.
If a book expires, then an email is sent to the validator notifying them that the time to validate the book has expired.
An e-mail is also sent to a volunteer 48 hours before the book is due to expire to remind them to renew the book.
Note that the number of days should be counted based on Bookshare's local time zone (Pacific Time). Therefore, if a book is downloaded or renewed just after midnight local time, the count could be off due to it still being the previous day at Bookshare. To confirm which day the book will expire, visit the "Step 2" page.
In some cases, you may need to release a book. Here are some possible reasons:
If you need to release a book, log in to the Bookshare.org website and click on the "Step 2: Upload" link. This will display a list of all of the books you have downloaded and are currently validating. When you find the book in the list, click the "Release" link associated with the book, and the book will be returned to Step 1 again for someone else to validate it.
An Administrator will check for the following when reviewing books which have been recommended for approval:
The Administrator will also review the comments for specific matters about the book that either the submitter or the validator may have raised.
After reviewing all the information about a book, the administrator will do one of the following:
Note: At this time Bookshare.org is not able to automatically notify validators if a book gets returned to the "Step 1: Download" page. It is the responsibility of validators to check the "Step 1: Download" page periodically and search for any books they may have previously validated should they wish to address any issues raised by a Bookshare.org administrator in the title's comment history.
An Administrator will review books that have been recommended for rejection.
Validators may recommend that a book be rejected for one of the following reasons:
After reviewing the validator's reason for why the book should be rejected, the Administrator will do one of the following:
Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2007, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.
Title: Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual Section 3This is a copy of the August 3, 2007, edition of the Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual. Please check Bookshare.org periodically for the latest, most up to date version of the manual.
All volunteers should be familiar with the information in this section.
In order to comply with copyright law, books must meet the following requirements before they can be added to the collection:
It is Bookshare.org's policy that books also meet the following requirements in order for them to be added to the collection:
The following subsections explain why books must meet these requirements.
All scans must contain complete copyright information, including the copyright holder and copyright date. Even if you are sure the book is in the Public Domain, the original copyright information must be included. This is required by the amendment to copyright law which makes Bookshare possible.
Copyright law does not permit Bookshare to distribute copyrighted dramatic literary works.
Dramatic works include the following:
Any books which fall in to the above categories should be recommended for rejection.
Note that this only applies to copyrighted dramatic works. Bookshare can accept dramatic works which are no longer copyrighted.
Bookshare.org cannot accept any materials that are proprietary, or were obtained in breach of any contract or illegally.
This includes the following:
In other words, a book must be scanned by the submitter in order for it to be acceptable by Bookshare. If you have reason to believe that the submitter did not scan the book, then the book should be recommended for rejection. Select "Other" as the reason for rejection and include any passage from the book on which you are basing your decision to recommend the book for rejection.
Note that RFB&D and Web-Braille books may include passages like the following:
"PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE BOOKS ARE INTENDED FOR RFB&D CONSUMERS ONLY. DISTRIBUTION OF THE BOOK IS NOT ALLOWED."
"PRODUCED IN BRAILLE FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED, BY ASSOCIATED SERVICES FOR THE BLIND."
If you encounter either of these messages, or messages similar to them, then the book should be recommended for rejection.
Bookshare.org is not authorized to distribute standardized, secure, or norm-referenced tests and related testing material. Copyright law specifically states that these materials are not included in the material which can be distributed to blind or other persons with print disabilities by nonprofit organizations and specialized government agencies.
Bookshare.org has made it a matter of policy not to accept exams, teachers' editions of textbooks or sample course materials based on a request from the textbook division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
For practical and legal reasons, Bookshare.org does not accept books which are not complete.
The following material is required for a book to be considered complete:
The following material is not required but should be included whenever possible:
The following are examples of materials that are not required:
Check to make sure that the book is complete. Some users may accidentally submit partial book scans, or individual chapters. Validators should at least scroll to the end of the book and ensure that it ends with a complete sentence. While voluhnteers are not required to check every page of the book, if any single page of required material is found to be missing or garbled, then the book should be recommended for rejection.
If you include text from a book cover or book jacket, please place it at the end of the scan. This will insure that the additional material does not affect the book's page numbering.
Bookshare.org has made it a matter of policy to no longer accept books without page breaks. It is part of Bookshare's on-going effort to raise the quality of books in the collection.
New books should not only contain page breaks but should be paginated the same as the scanned books. This is necessary in order to effectively facilitate reader discussions, searches, and indexing.
However, Bookshare.org does not wish for a book to be rejected if a book is only missing a few page breaks. As a guideline, a book must have at least 90% of its page breaks and they should be in the correct places. In other words, if there are problems with more than approximately 10% of a book's page breaks, and the validator is unable to fix the problems, then the book should be recommended for rejection.
Volunteers should be aware that all page breaks may be lost if the document is converted to the TXT file format. Since the loss of page breaks during validation will result in the book being returned to the Step 1 page to be revalidated, it is NOT recommended that volunteers convert books to TXT when working on books.
For obvious reasons, Bookshare.org does not accept books which are already in the collection, unless the new copy is a higher quality than the copy already available for download.
Bookshare's tools are not designed to process books which are split into multiple files, so books must be submitted in a single file.
Note that if a book is zipped before submission, it must still be in a single file before it is zipped in order for the tools to process it.
If a book has been submitted in multiple files, then it should be recommended for rejection.
Use the following guidelines to enter information in fields on the submission form when submitting a book as well as when validating the information when a book is being recommended for approval.
Occasionally, the title on the cover of the book will be different from the title inside the book. Check the copyright page to see what the official title is.
If the book is part of a series of books, please add the series number to the title. For example, "The Hidden (Animorphs #39)" or "Dark Force Rising (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy Vol. 2)".
If there are multiple editions of the book, please add the edition number to the title. For example, "Financial Accounting (8th edition)".
If you are submitting an improved copy of a book that's already in the collection please add "BSO-" in front of the title of the book. This tells an administrator that this book should replace the one currently in the collection with the same title and author. For example, "BSO-Eye of the Needle" or "BSO-The Tale of Peter Rabbit".
Of course, the title should be in the same language as the content of the book.
Also, the title should not be in all caps or in all lowercase.
Figuring out what to put in the "Author(s)" field can sometimes be a bit challenging. Please follow these guidelines for each author's name:
Follow these guidelines when the book contains multiple authors:
Enter the name(s) of the copyright holder(s), , for the copyright notice which is associated with the latest copyright date as based on the guidelines in the next section.
Do NOT follow the guidelines for entering authors. Instead enter the name(s) of the copyright holder(s), EXACTLY as stated in the copyright notice.
For the first example below, since the copyright notice for "The Hunt for Red October" is "Copyright © 1984 by Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd.", then enter "Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd." into the "Copyright Holder" field. Ensure that all punctuation, as well as "Inc.", "Corp.", or "Ltd." are included if you find them in the name of the copyright holder.
The Hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
Copyright © 1984 by Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd.
Another example is the copyright section of "Dragon's Kin":
Dragon's Kin
Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey
Ballantine Books
Copyright © 2003 by Anne McCaffrey and Todd J. McCaffrey
Here the copyright holder is "Anne McCaffrey and Todd J. McCaffrey", not Anne McCaffrey, Todd J. McCaffrey.
Sometimes several pieces of a book will have different copyright holders - the preface, the illustrations, the text, the graphics, the afterwords, etc. Use the name of the copyright holder of the latest copyright notice of the text. Ignore all the other copyright notices.
For example, this is the copyright section for "The Abyss":
The ABYSS
A Novel by Orson Scott Card based on an original screenplay by James Cameron
Copyright © 1989 by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Afterword by James Cameron copyright © 1989 by James Cameron
Afterword by Orson Scott Card copyright © 1989 by Orson Scott Card
Here the copyright holder is "Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation", not James Cameron or Orson Scott Card. James Cameron and Orson Scott Card are the copyright holders of the Afterwards, not the main text.
If there is no copyright holder, please reject the book. All books must have a valid copyright holder.
If you are unsure what copyright holder to use, you may send an email to volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the entire copyright section pasted in the email. Alternatively, you can post the question on the volunteer discussion list.
If there are several copyright notices for the text, NOT including copyright notices for the preface, introduction, illustrations, afterwords, or short stories, then use the copyright notice with the most recent date.
This can be tricky, so here are a number of examples:
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Copyright 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948 by Dale Carnegie
Copyright © 1984 by Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie
The most recent copyright date is 1984 and the copyright holders associated with that date are "Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie".
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Copyright © 1936 by Dale Carnegie
Copyright renewed © 1964 by Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie
Revised edition copyright © 1981 by Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie
The most recent copyright date is 1981 and the copyright holders associated with that date are "Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie".
In the example below, the copyright date is 2003 and the copyright holder is "David Weber" since he's the copyright holder of the entire short story collection, where the other people are copyright holders of only their short stories.
The Service of the Sword: Worlds of Honor #4
Copyright © 2003 by David Weber.
"Promised Land" © 2003 by Jane Lindskold, "With One Stone" © 2003 by Timothy Zahn, "A Ship Named Francis" © 2003 by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell, "Let's Go to Prague" © 2003 by John Ringo, "Fanatic" © 2003 by Eric Flint, "The Service of the Sword" © 2003 by David Weber.
The following omnibus edition was previously published in separate volumes.
Ngaio Marsh: Five Complete Novels
Copyright © 1983 by the Estate of Ngaio Marsh All Rights Reserved.
Scales of Justice Copyright © 1955 by Ngaio Marsh
Death of a Fool Copyright © 1956 by Ngaio Marsh
Tied Up in Tinsel Copyright © 1972 by Ngaio Marsh, Ltd.
Grave Mistake Copyright © 1978 by Ngaio Marsh Ltd.
Photo Finish Copyright © 1980 by Ngaio Marsh, Ltd.
This 1983 edition is published by Avenel Books, distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc., by arrangement with Little, Brown and Company, Inc.
In the above example, the copyright date is 1983 and the copyright holder is "the Estate of Ngaio Marsh" (NOT Ngaio Marsh or Ngaio Marsh Ltd.) because the Estate of Ngaio Marsh is the copyright holder of the entire collection, while the other names are copyright holders of the original separate volumes. The publishing and distributing statement should not be used to determine the copyright information.
In the case where the book is an omnibus of several books, and the omnibus does not contain a separate copyright notice - due to it not containing any new material which would require a copyright notice - then enter the date associated with the most recent copyright notice from among the books included in the omnibus.
"Protector of the Small" is an example of an omnibus where the omnibus itself doesn't have a copyright notice.
First Test Copyright © 1999 by Tamora Pierce
Publishing History: Random House Hardcover, May 1999; Random House paperback, May 2000
Page Copyright © 2000 by Tamora Pierce
Publishing History: Random House Hardcover, May 2000; Random House paperback, May 2001
Squire Copyright © 2001 by Tamora Pierce
Publishing History: Random House Hardcover, May 2001; Random House paperback, August 2002
Lady Knight Copyright © 2002 by Tamora Pierce
Publishing History: Random House Hardcover, August 2002; Random House paperback, August 2003
First SFBC Science Fiction Printing: November 2004
In this example, the copyright notice for the last book in the series must be used since it has the most recent copyright date. Thus the copyright date to be recorded is 2002 and the copyright holder is "Tamora Pierce". The publisher name wasn't explicitly provided, but it's the Science Fiction and Fantasy Bookclub as identified in the last line of this example by its acronym ("SFBC"). The subsequent years of 2003 (for "Lady Knight") and 2004 (for the omnibus) are associated with the publishing history only and cannot be used for copyright dates.
As a final example, more recently, the two books by Dale Carnegie (that were mentioned in earlier examples) have been reprinted together. While each book contains multiple copyright dates and copyright holders, the collection itself has no separate copyright notice.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Copyright 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948 by Dale Carnegie
Copyright © 1984 by Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Copyright © 1936 by Dale Carnegie
Copyright renewed © 1964 by Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie
Revised edition copyright © 1981 by Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie
After a review of the copyright notices from both books, the most recent copyright date to be applied for this omnibus is 1984 and the copyright holders are "Donna Dale Carnegie and Dorothy Carnegie".
If there is no copyright date, please reject the book. All books must have a valid copyright date.
If you are unsure what copyright date to use, you may send an email to volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the entire copyright section pasted in the email. Alternatively, you can post the question on the volunteer discussion list.
Volunteers are encouraged to enter a brief synopsis. If you are unable to do so, enter the word "None" in the field.
The short synopsis must be less than 200 characters, including spaces, in order for the book to upload, and it should be in the language of the book.
Do not use any part of a quote or a review that has been attributed to a person, magazine, or newspaper, or a review from an on-line bookseller's website such as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.
You may find the information on the front or back covers of the book helpful in writing your synopsis. Feel free to use it, but again, please do not select content from book reviews or other quoted material.
The ISBN can normally be found on the copyright page of a book. It is often found on the back flap of a book jacket or the back cover of a paperback, as well.
This field is optional since older books, and even some new books, do not contain an ISBN. Bookshare.org strongly encourages submitters or validators to enter it, however, if the ISBN is included in the book.
Please enter the 13-digit ISBN if it is available.
Book jackets or back covers of paperbacks often contain a synopsis for the book. However, volunteers can write their own if they wish.
Do not use any part of a quote or a review that has been attributed to a person, magazine, or newspaper, or a review from an on-line bookseller's website such as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.
The synopsis should be less than 500 words and in the language of the book.
While you should omit opinions on the quality of the book, you may want to include information to clear up potential confusion regarding the quality of the scan. For example, an author's writing style (such as the use of dialect) could cause members to think that the book needs a rescan when it is actually an excellent scan. Also, errors left uncorrected by an author or publisher may lead members to consider rescanning the book. In these instances, a note explaining the concerns could help prevent an unnecessary rescan and the associated reprocessing by an administrator. If you choose to include a note, isolate the comment in a new paragraph beginning with the word "NOTE: ".
Enter any information which would help a volunteer validate the submission as well as any information that an administrator might find helpful when approving the book.
For example, if the copyright page is at the back of the book instead of the front, or if the ISBN is on the back cover but not inside the book, please mention these things in this section of the form.
Volunteers can also copy and paste the book's copyright notice into this section to help make the approval process easier or to help explain how the book's copyright was verified if verification is requested by an administrator.
Optionally, validators would also appreciate it if you included your e-mail address when submitting a book since it will allow them to contact you if they encounter a problem that requires your help.
All scanned books will have some character recognition and formatting errors. Volunteers are encouraged to correct these errors since these corrections improve the quality of books in the collection. Bookshare.org staff understands that correcting errors without an original copy of the book can be an inexact science, so correction of all errors is not required.
Software packages like Kurzweil 1000 and OpenBook provide tools which can be helpful in cleaning up books such as Automatic OCR Correction, Automatic Hyphen Removal, and Ranked Spelling. The use of these tools is encouraged, but volunteers should be aware that automated tools can cause some errors at the same time that they are correcting many others. The tools should only be used when the benefits outweigh any problems they can cause. The best way to determine this is by making a backup copy of a book, running the tools, and checking the results.
Volunteers validating books should be aware that the submitter may have run these tools before submitting the book and corrected any errors which were introduced, so running the tools again may occasionally cause more errors than running them will fix.
Notes: A library stamp, while not a scanning error, is also not a part of the copyrighted text and should be removed.
On the other hand, the symbol "©", a copyright symbol, appears in many copyright notices, and volunteers need to be careful not to mistake this for a scanning error or to accidentally change it while validating on an electronic Braille device like one of the Braille notetakers.
These errors should not be changed since doing so is editing an author's work rather than cleaning up a scan. Bookshare.org understands that mistakes can be made as part of the process for adding a book to the collection, but volunteers should understand that correcting errors in a book when they know the error is not a scanning error is a violation of their volunteer agreement and could result in a violation of copyright law.
It is rare for an entire page of the main content of a book to be illegible. While you are free to fix errors in a book's main content, simply removing illegible text does not improve the reader's experience and may in fact make the book harder to read, as well as disrupt pagination. Therefore, you may fix illegible text within the main content, but you should not simply remove it.
Illegible text may be removed in material which is not required for a book to be complete if the removal does not make the book harder to read or disrupt pagination. For example, removing lines of illegible text in a Table of Contents would make a book harder to read since it would be obvious that lines were missing, while removing illegible text caused by scanning a picture would make a book easier to read. In the event that an entire page of illegible text is removed, then the page should be left blank or contain a brief note about the contents which were removed in order to preserve page numbering. See the following section for examples of notes which are permitted.
Adding text is a violation of your volunteer agreement and could result in a violation of copyright law. An exception to this would be text entered to explain a picture, chart, or other graphic element rendered unreadable by character recognition. You are not required to enter such explanatory text but may do so if you choose.
Examples of brief notes which are permitted:
It is often helpful to put such notes in square brackets in order to signal to readers that they are a note from the submitter, i.e. [map of Oz].
Blank pages are often found in the following places in books:
Blank pages should only be removed if doing so does not affect a book's page numbering. For example, it is sometimes obvious that a blank page is page 85 because the page before it is numbered 84 and the page after it is numbered 86. In this instance, the blank page should not be removed, and it may be helpful to add the page number to the page to help prevent it from accidentally being lost when converting the file to a different format, accidentally being removed by a volunteer during validation, mis-numbered by the tool which processes page numbers for DAISY books, or by the tool responsible for identifying original page numbers in BRF books.
Note that books often begin numbering pages with the first page of the main content, but page numbering can also begin with the first page of a book. When numbering begins with the first page of the book, then blank pages should be included in the front of the book to preserve page numbering.
Some books will have photos, advertisements, or other material in the middle of the book. Remove these pages only if they do not disrupt the page numbers. Many times the pages on each side of the material will be sequential (for example, page 112, six pages, page 113). In this case, please remove the pages from the scan to preserve page numbering.
When a book is uploaded after validation, the Book Is processed by a tool which attempts to do four things:
Volunteers can assist this tool by insuring that headers and footers are consistent throughout the book.
Note that the text will be removed by the tool if it is consistent, so the easiest way to insure that the tool can identify page numbers is to remove the text from running headers and footers. This is not only much easier for volunteers, but makes the tool's job simpler as well.
If you wish to clean up headers and footers, please do the following for each page containing a header or footer:
Note that lines containing punctuation marks or symbols, such as hyphens and asterisks, are considered lines of text.
The following will also help prevent issues with page numbers in HTML files when creating an HTML file using the Bookshare.org Unpack Tool:
Please use your best judgment for determining adult content. While we understand and respect that different people have different standards for what is acceptable subject matter, a general guideline to consider is this: in a large well-stocked bookstore, would somebody under the age of 18 be able to get this book off the shelf, pay for it, and walk away. Books of an obvious explicit sexual nature or that incite hate should be considered adult content. If unsure, mark the book as Adult Content, and explain in one or two sentences what about the content of the book warrants this selection in the comments field.
Note that Bookshare reserves the right to make the final decision as to whether or not a book is considered adult content.
Volunteers may also wish to read the following web pages under the Legal Information section of Bookshare.org's website for more information:
Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2007, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.
Title: Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual Section 4This is a copy of the August 3, 2007, edition of the Bookshare.org Volunteer Manual. Please check Bookshare.org periodically for the latest, most up to date version of the manual.
Bookshare.org members earn credit towards their next subscription to Bookshare by volunteering.
If a book is added to the collection, then the submitter of the book receives $2.50, and the validator of the book receives $0.50. Unfortunately, neither the submitter or validator will receive any credit if a book must be rejected.
If a volunteer has sufficient credits to pay for a subscription, then the amount of the subscription will be deducted from the amount of credits that the volunteer has earned, and the remaining balance will be left in the account to be applied toward the next subscription.
If a member does not have enough credits to pay for a subscription, then the remaining balance will need to be paid at the time the subscription is renewed.
Non-members will also earn credits which can be used if they become a member.
Note that it is not possible to transfer credits from one volunteer to another, so it is not possible for a volunteer to donate their unused credits to someone else. The reason for this is that Bookshare.org is a nonprofit organization which currently has to rely on help from Benetech and outside grants in order to meet its budget. Bookshare may reconsider this policy at some point in the future, but not before it becomes self-sufficient.
The following are websites that contain information on book series. Note that information on these sites are not necessarily accurate or up-to-date, so you may wish to check one or more sites when looking up books.
Series contain links to books already on Bookshare.org. Some series also contain data about titles that are not yet part of the Bookshare.org collection. Note that this website allows volunteers to add additional series, as well as update existing series, and establish links to books on Bookshare.org by providing Bookshare.org's ID for a book.
This website contains information about mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and romance books. Each series on an author's web page is proceeded by a heading which contains the phrase "Book Series : ", and screen readers can find the heading by navigating through the page's HTML headings. Individual titles can be found in each series by searching for a number sign, "#".
This is a website in the U.K. devoted to fiction. Its main page states that it contains bibliographies for over 10,000 authors and information on over 200,000 books.
Stop, You?re Killing Me! is a resource for lovers of mystery, crime, thriller, spy, and suspense books.
The Kent District Library's database of series fiction can be searched by title, author, series , or genre.
If you'd like to improve the quality of a book in our collection, feel free to do a rescan of the book. To help cut down on confusion, as to whether you're unintentionally submitting a duplicate or intentionally submitting an improved rescan, please title any submission of an improved book with "BSO-"then the title; for example "BSO-The House on Pooh Corner" or, "BSO-Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". This alerts an administrator that the submitter is aware that the book is already in the Bookshare.org (BSO) collection and is intentionally submitting an improved scan.
Note that Bookshare.org is now requesting that books be rescanned if a volunteer wishes to improve a book in the collection. After reviewing the various options for converting books in the collection to one of the formats required for submission, it has been determined that there is unfortunately no way to convert a book already in the collection to a submission format without an unacceptable reduction in the subsequent quality of the books navigation.
Depending on which option would be used, the resulting file will be missing page breaks or page numbers, and it may be missing formatting such as bold, italic, underlining or text size. Since the loss of quality could be as much, if not more, than the quality gained by cleaning up the text, Bookshare.org has decided that it is in the best interests of its members at this time for books to be rescanned if a volunteer wishes to improve the quality of a book.
To obtain the best results with your scans:
OCR software works best when the text is not at an angle. It can compensate for slight angles, but will begin to make mistakes with recognition as the angle increases. verifying that pages are straight during scanning can help prevent recognition errors.
Books need to lay flat during scanning in order for the scanner to produce a clear image near the binding. If the image is not clear near the binding, then words near the binding my be garbled or missing in the scan. Pressing down on the binding enough to cause all but the very center of the book to lay flat should be adequate to produce a good scan. Be careful not to press too hard and damage the binding if the book has been borrowed from a library.
Be sure to verify that ?Two Page Scanning? is turned on when scanning two pages in a single scan. If this setting is not set properly when scanning two pages at once, then the OCR software will treat the image as if it were a single page. It will either treat the image as a single page with one column, or it will treat the image as a single page with two columns. In the first case the text from the columns will be intermixed, and thus will be unreadable. In the second case, the page break will be missing between the two pages, which could cause the book to be rejected.
Be sure to verify that ?Two Page Scanning? is turned on when scanning two pages in a single scan. If this setting is not set properly when scanning two pages at once, then the OCR software will treat the image as if it were a single page. It will either treat the image as a single page with one column, or it will treat the image as a single page with two columns. In the second case, the page break will be missing between the two pages, which could cause the book to be rejected.
Having "Column Identification" or "Column Recognition" turned on when scanning tables could cause the OCR software to treat the table as columns of text if the OCR software does not recognize that the text is a table. For example, if "Columns" are turned on when scanning a Table of contents, the page numbers will be treated as a second column, which will be placed after the text in the first column. If this happens, then all of the page numbers will be placed at the bottom of the page rather than on the same line as the chapters. For tables of data, having "Columns" turned off will cause the reader to read a row at a time, while having it turned on will cause the reader to read a column at a time.
Note that Bookshare.org's tools can handle tables If the OCR software recognizes that it has found a table and inserts a table into the scan.
If the scanner's glass is not clean, then any dust or smudge on the glass could show up in the image. This could affect the OCR software's capability to recognize text. Cleaning the scanner's glass periodically can prevent this from occurring and produce better scans.
Bookshare.org encourages all volunteers to join the Volunteer Discussion List. This allows the volunteer community to share their expertise on submitting and validating books. It also offers a way for volunteers to get to know one another.
To subscribe, send an email message to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. Do not include the quotes.
Volunteers who have difficulty requesting a subscription through e-mail can go to the Bookshare.org Volunteer Discussion List web page on the FreeLists website and request a subscription through the form found on that page.
After requesting a subscription, volunteers will receive a confirmation message from FreeLists Mailing List Manager. Volunteers must reply to the confirmation message in order to join the list. Note that the text of the original message must be included in the reply for the confirmation to succeed.
To unsubscribe, send an email message to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Do not include the quotes.
Volunteers who have difficulty unsubscribing through e-mail can go to the Bookshare.org Volunteer Discussion List web page on the FreeLists website and enter their request through the form found on that page.
After requesting that they be unsubscribed, volunteers will receive a confirmation message from FreeLists Mailing List Manager. Volunteers must reply to the confirmation message in order to be removed from the list. Note that the text of the original message must be included in the reply for the confirmation to succeed.
FreeLists also provides an option for receiving all of the messages at the end of the day in a single message. This is referred to as "Digest Mode". To turn on digest mode, send an email message to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the phrase "set digest" in the subject line. Do not include the quotes. Digest mode can be turned off by sending another message with the phrase "unset digest" in the subject line. Volunteers can also use the form on the Bookshare.org Volunteer Discussion List web page to turn digest mode on or off.
FreeLists also allows users to temporarily suspend messages from the list. This is referred to as "Vacation Mode". To turn on Vacation mode, send an email message to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the phrase "set vacation" in the subject line. Do not include the quotes. Vacation mode can be turned off by sending another message with the phrase "unset vacation" in the subject line. Volunteers can also use the form on the Bookshare.org Volunteer Discussion List web page to turn vacation mode on or off.
FreeLists maintains an archive of the messages sent to the Volunteer Discussion List. Volunteers can search the archives by entering a string in the "Search" field on the Archives page at the FreeLists website, or they can browse a list of messages for a given month by choosing the link for that month under the Browse section of that same page.
Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2007, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.
