[bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?
- From: "E." <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:36:22 -0400
Roger, I am going to answer this inquiry with the thought it deserves.
Let me start by saying I began volunteering in the early days of bookshare.
You and I agree on some points.
First, bookshare certainly has changed over time.
Bookshare received a grant from the Department of Education several
years ago and began to work more actively with paid outsourcers and
with publishers directly. Some of that came about because of the
grant. Some of it came about as bookshare found these to be new ways
for the collection to grow.
Grow it certainly did.
The list which bookshare has just provided which shows what
outsourcers are doing and future lists which show what publishers are
doing are important links.
They help us volunteers avoid duplicating work or avoid spending
money when books are somewhere in the pipeline.
The lists point up something else though.
They point up what volunteers truly can contribute.
We can contribute books which bookshare has not given to outsourcers.
We can contribute books which publishers may be unwilling to give us
themselves.
Most importantly, those books will add our personal twists to the collection.
Volunteers are the people who actually read bookshare books. We work
on books which go into the general collection and read books for
pleasure which exist in the collection.
So volunteers are in a unique position to provide feedback about the
system. How well is the scanning and proofing being done? How well
does the braille translator work? All kinds of necessary feedback
simply will be lost if there are no more volunteers.
Our roles may change as bookshare evolves.
Those roles have already changed in the over seven years I have been
a volunteer.
Together staff, volunteers and bookshare will keep each other honest
and growing. We have created something amazing here.
So much better than reading books on seven inch open tape reels like
I did thirty years ago.
E.
Elizabeth
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