I have also had similar thoughts to yours Roger. I've only been a volunteer for a few months and really get a kick out of a book I've scanned making its way into the library. It does seem though its becoming harder and harder as we go along. We now have so many places to check to see if a book we want to scan is being done its getting overwhelming.
I'm only scanning books I want to read anyway- those that are missing from a series or those by a particular author that aren't available. That way if something happens and it gets into the collection without me I don't feel quite so frustrated.
Because of the higher standards now set by Bookshare, it is harder to scan and proof books which can be clearly seen in the discussions lately. I think especially for those of us who are totally blind, the time it can take to make sure it meets those standards is very great. Right now I'm struggling to rescan a book that I previously scanned- Vanished. It was a great scan- pretty much perfect it you are blind and just listening to it. However, it was early on in my attempts and the whole line breaks and paragraph thing reared its ugly head so I didn't even submit it. I'm rescanning it, but it's coming along very slowly. Maybe because I've already read the book so my interest isn't as great. I guess my point is the same as another volunteer made. In the early days I could have submitted the book and folks would have been happy to have it as part of the collection. Back in the days when volunteers were the main source for sharing books. Now the process is over shadowed by fonts sizes, appropriate breaks, blank lines at the top of the page and after the chapter name or number... on and on. It's too bad really, but then again with bookshare buying 100 books three times a week the numbers of books available for us to read increases the numbers of books much faster than all of us combined. I guess as with everything else in life, there's a positive and negative side to progress.
Denise At 07:22 PM 8/26/2009, you wrote:
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?"Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot." Vladimir LeninThe Militant: <http://wwww.themilitant.com>http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: <http://www.pathfinderpress.com>http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: <http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html>http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html_
