[bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?

  • From: "gwen tweedy" <gstweedy@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:38:06 -0500

The only thing I can see as a totally blind person is OK some of the earlier 
books
had things like this
I am  reading this boo
 instead of I am reading this book.
Now things like that that  really wow mess up a book,
certainly need to be corrected and dealt with I can understand that.
But from a reading/listening stand point as only I have,
if all the words are right,
and all the carrots and asterics dashes stuff that makes terrible reading are 
fixed,
and it's just  text and I'm reading along,
I'm not gonna care whether I can see a font or chapter heading, because for me,
that is not what I'm doing,
I'm just reading,
I don't care if a paragraph is there or not,
as long as it reads right in my ears.
I know such things have I gues to be taken in,
but for a blind reader,
who is finally getting to possibly read a book I've never read before simply 
because it was not available,
hey I'm not that picky hey I'm just glad to get to read it.
I can understand where you clean things up that kind of thing.
But for a totally blind person who can't see the darn thing anyway,
I know seeing people need it,
and pictures, those don't  intrest me,
in fact that doggone  Against All Odds,
and that was the first book I did,
where I did have some help from Bob, to even see if I could scan and how to do 
it,
it had those pictures caption things,
and it was a mess,
but if the pages aren't shiny
like those were,
how's a blind person gonna know if there's a picture there anyhow,
I just thought I'd love to put a book up I had or got,
lots of us can't even see these things,
and then if one has a book rejected,

I understand quality I mean I do,
I thought this was part of the wonderfulness of bookshare,
the uniqueness of a person's contribution of help.
Gwen

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Denise Thompson 
  To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 2:16 PM
  Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?


  I think we have noticed it, but no one right now is prepared to deal with it 
since it was once the foundation of the organization itself. It was one of the 
big draws in the beginning which led to many news stories and funding. 

  The other issue for me is who is benefitting from all the changes. I mean the 
changes in terms of the correct preciseness of books scanned now. Certainly phe 
push to get rid of garbled text and scannos is wonderful and can easily be done 
today with impprooved OCR software. The other things though I wonder. It's true 
that I read in the Daisy format very seldom. Mostly I quickly convert my books 
to text and put them on my phone to read. When I'm listening to a book, it 
sounds exactly the same to me if it has paragraph marks at the end of each line 
or double paragraph marks for real paragraphs. It sounds the same if chapter 
titles are in 16 point font or in 12 point. The only real factor that affects 
me as a blind person listening to the book is the cleanness of the scan. I know 
that the other factors mentioned work better in a Daisy translation and create 
better divisions on a daisy player. Perhaps for text books this is more 
important, but for reading for pleasure, it makes no difference in listening, 
but makes a whole lot of difference in scanning, proofing and getting a book 
accepted into the library.

  My last thought on this is a concern about pictures. I foresee a time when 
people who are blind will no longer be able to scan because it will become 
important that the pictures be included. Now I go through the new books and 
there is the added choice of downloading daisy with images. In the last book I 
scanned I was aware there were some pictures, but I'm not able to really deal 
with them because I can't tell how over all they are affecting the page lay 
out. I deleted them when I knew one was there. I knew one was there primarily 
by accident if it was at the top of the page as I checked for a paragraph mark 
I would be told a picture was there. I don't know if I got them all or if some 
still remained. The book was accepted, but I don't know what the proofer had to 
do in order to make that happened. I may not be expressing myself well, but its 
almost now as if we're creating books that would pass in the sighted world with 
all the same bells and whistles. It seems that maybe we're loosing sight of the 
mission a bit. But, again, I guess if the books can be done with all the bells 
and whistles more quickly without us and we still get the benefit of the 
greater numbers, maybe it doesn't matter. 

  Denise
   


  At 10:36 AM 8/27/2009, you wrote:

    If I had a stack of those gay and lesbian books on hand I can imagine that 
I might send them off to Bookshare and I might be out the postage and the cost 
of the books if I had bought them, but I would also be out many hours of 
volunteer labor to get them into the collection. I am not particularly 
interested in children's picture books, so I have not downloaded any, but I 
would think that outsourcers could handle them. I think that Pavi, in fact, 
said that the more difficult books have priority for being outsourced. The main 
thing I have noticed, though, is that the proportion of books added to the 
collection by means other than volunteers is now considerably greater than the 
proportion added by volunteers and that proportion is growing. Also, a good 
many books already in the collection by means of volunteers are being replaced 
by other means. Furthermore, the proportion that are being added by volunteers 
could , in most cases, be done faster and just as easily or more easily, by 
those other means. No one has mentioned it. In fact, the Bookshare staff is 
proceeding away with more and more innovations for volunteers. What I was 
really wondering is whether volunteering is becoming obsolete and nobody has 
noticed it.

                                                              "Can a nation be 
free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot." Vladimir Lenin     

                 The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: 
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
    Granma International: http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html
                 _

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    Subj:Â 
    [bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?   
    Date:Â 
    8/27/2009 4:25:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time  
    From:Â 
    rwiley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
    Reply-to:Â 
    bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
    To:Â 
    bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
    Sent from the Internet 
    (Details)Â 
    table end

    Roger, this is an excellent summary of some of the things I have also been 
thinking. 

    When I first started with bookshare a couple of years ago, there were tons 
of books whose rating was fair, and in most cases that designation was kind.
    But, the books were available, and for a group starving for reading 
material, they were great to have. Â 

    However, our tastes--and our tolerances--have improved. Where once we would 
accept day-old bread because we were starving, we now want freshly baked goods.
    (Wow, I must be hungry). 

    So, I think your comments about the changing role of the volunteer are 
right on target. There will always be a need for volunteers to do the specialty 
books
    (such as children's books with pictures), and books of special interest. I 
can't imagine NLS having a whole category of gay and lesbian books, nor can
    I imagine the department of education wanting their money going toward that 
end. (I'm not being critical, just can't imagine it happening.) But, we 
volunteers
    can make it happen. We can also put books in the collection from those 
publishers who won't cooperate with us (after all, we have the law on our 
side). 

    In short, I see the role of the volunteer changing, but not going away any 
time soon. 

    There's an old Chinese proverb that says "may you live in interesting 
times." I've always wondered whether that was a curse, challenge or a blessing. 
Whatever
    it is, we live in very interesting times with bookshare. 

    Bob 

    â?oWe know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us 
will live on in the future we make,â??
    Senator Edward M. Kennedy 

    block quote
    ----- Original Message ----- 

    From: 
    Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx 

    To: 
    bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

    Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 9:22 PM

    Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Are volunteers really that important anymore?

    I am not taking a position one way or another. I just thought I would 
express some thoughts and questions that have been running through my mind. I 
have
    been involved with Bookshare for just a little over a year now and have 
seen some considerable changes. I have also surmised changes that came about 
before
    I came along. As I understand it the name Bookshare was literal in the 
beginning. That is, people posted the books they had scanned for themselves and
    actually shared them with others who were posting books they had scanned 
for themselves. That would have meant that the only source of books Bookshare
    had for the most part was from the volunteers. Since then, though, 
publishers have come to contribute large numbers of books. Bookshare is 
acquiring books
    from donations or from buying them and scanning them in house or 
outsourcing them. It actually appears that the number of books added to the 
collection
    by means other than volunteers is considerably greater than those added by 
the volunteers. I have noticed other things being done that volunteers do that
    may be being done more prolifically by other means than by volunteers. On 
more than one occasion now I have made a quality report for a book that 
contained
    an error or errors. To my surprise the whole entire book was promptly 
replaced by an outsourcer. That makes me wonder why we should bother with 
scanning
    a BSO. Volunteers are more and more frequently finding that the books they 
intend to scan are being added by outsourcers before the volunteer get a chance
    to add it. Yes, that means that the volunteer can work on something else, 
but it still remains that work that would have been done by a volunteer is being
    done otherwise. We were asked for some suggestions about gaps in the 
collection and I made a suggestion. As I scan the new books lists I see that it 
appears,
    to my gratification, that my suggestions are being acted on. I am pleased, 
but I cannot help noticing that it is being done without volunteers. If time
    is money I wonder if it might be more efficient to donate money to 
Bookshare to buy books and pay outsourcers rather than donate our time. If we 
want certain
    books in the collection I wonder if it might be faster and more efficient 
to just donate the books rather than put so much of our own labor into them.
    As things change devices to accomplish our goals become obsolete when they 
are replaced by better devices and certain jobs become obsolete when better
    and mor efficient ways are found to do things. I wonder if Bookshare 
volunteering is a job that is becoming obsolete. Since we have not even heard 
hints
    from Bookshare that new volunteers are no longer welcome or that volunteers 
can give up on certain jobs I wonder if Bookshare volunteering is becoming
    obsolete and the folks at Bookshare do not even realize it yet. It does 
seem that the volunteers are becoming less important to Bookshare and that 
Bookshare
    could probably now do quite well without volunteers while still adding 
books at a rapid rate. I am not saying that is good or bad. I am not saying that
    I want it to be like that or that I don't want it to be like that. I am 
just wondering and thinking. What do you guys think about what I have said?  

    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â 
                  "Can a nation be free if it oppresses other 
nations? It cannot." Vladimir Lenin     

    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  The Militant: 
    http://www.themilitant.com 
    Pathfinder Press: 
    http://www.pathfinderpress.com
    Granma International: 
    http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  _ 
    block quote end

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