Lora and Shannon, I respectfully would like to comment on something you've written on this subject because I don't think you have understood part of what has been said. No one is questioning our ability to scan our own books and get them approved. I don't think anyone wants to force Carrie to read a book she doesn't like either, and I know no one wants to paint Carrie as a villain here.
Lora wrote:
When Power to the People came out, Carrie was volunteering. She'd already made it publicly known on this list that certain books weren't within her comfort level.
This isn't supposed to be about Carrie's comfort level. It's about how Bookshare funds are being used and which New York Times bestsellers are being put into the collection with excellent quality. Carrie isn't the only person who scans at Bookshare, but she does control which books are being purchased. She has said so in several posts where she discusses which books she orders. Therefore, though I don't think that she has done this intentionally, her preferences do directly impact timely availability of certain bestsellers. Over the past year, she has chosen which books are ordered and has also included several books that did not make the bestseller list while leaving some bestsellers out of the purchase. While I think it is a waste of time to question every book that's purchased, some of us are becoming uncomfortable whith what appears to be a tendency to avoid certain subjects. If we do not discuss this and work it out while it is merely a concern, we are worried that this tendency may grow into something more pronounced over time. So we are talking about it in the hope that a system of checks and balances will be activated. I don't want to force Carrie to read a book she doesn't like. I do want timely and equal access to books if the American public chooses to put them on the New York Times bestseller list. I know we are able to scan the books we like. No one is questioning that. We are questioning the current bestseller process, and we are asking for clarification on how this process will work in the future.
For now, several people have told Chris to scan the books he's asking about. He doesn't have the software to scan books. Due to Carrie's discomfort with the books, it doesn't look like buying them and mailing them to Bookshare would solve the problem. I'm willing to scan them but know I can't handle the charts in Power To The People very well. So if I get a copy of that book, there's no way it'll go into the collection as excellent quality.
BTW, have any of you tried getting a bestseller from your library lately? I'm number 37 in line for getting Power To The People, and my library won't even let me put a hold on the Coulter book because they have 100 people in the queue. Yikes! Since our library allows 2 weeks per person with books like these, it could be as long as a year and a half before I get Power To The People. I hope they have multiple copies and that people read it really fast.
Monica Willyard To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
