[bksvol-discuss] Re: Book Quality
- From: "Monica Willyard" <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:36:42 -0500
Shane, you've asked a great question. You're a guy who seems to be on the
ball and ready to act when something isn't working. I like that. (smile)
Yes, there are three ways books like these can be fixed. This is an area
where anyone can pitch in and help, even if it's just to let Bookshare know
which books are in trouble.
First, a volunteer can scan a replacement for poorly scanned books, no
matter the rating in the Bookshare system. This is the preferred way to
handle things when possible. A lot of us get books like this from our local
school or public library.
Second, if the scannos are clearly ones that can be fixed easily, like torn
for Tom or die for the, Carrie will sometimes put the rtf file of the book
on step 1 for a specific volunteer to take. You have to write to
volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx to ask her to do this for you and explain that you
think you can fix the book. Obviously, this can only be done if the text is
fully intact and just needs some more thorough proofreading. This won't work
for books with garbled paragraphs, missing pages, and lots of gibberish.
Those types of books must be rescanned.
The third and final way to get a book cleaned up is to use Bookshare's
"report quality" link. If the book is of poor quality, they may be able to
purchase and replace it. I know they want to make sure all of our books are
of excellent quality. This is a big goal for Bookshare. According to the
staff, the grant money they have for purchasing books stipulates buying and
adding new books to the collection. It doesn't cover replacing books already
in the collection. This isn't Bookshare's mandate. It's the Department of
Education's stipulation. So purchasing and replacing books of poor quality
has to be done from other funding like Bookshare's general operating budget.
That fund doesn't have nearly as much money in it as the grant, so getting
Bookshare to replace all books that are rated fair isn't a viable option
right now. It could be over time though. I tend to work on BSOs of novels
and popular nonfiction, and I ask Bookshare to help with replacing more
obscure books that I can't find and scan myself.
So why should you even report a quality issue? It helps Bookshare know which
books are in trouble, and it also puts the titles on a public website. This
lets volunteers know which books are in immediate need of attention and lets
volunteers offer to help Bookshare replace the damaged books. for now, we
volunteers work with Carrie and her staff to replace what we can. She uses
her budget wisely to get books that members need for classes and for work.
It's a partnership that's vital to Bookshare's future so our users can gain
access to books that are currently unreadable. Carrie's commitment to this
project has been so powerful, and she has helped to glue us together to make
a strong team. It's taking some time, but we're getting there. The number of
fair-rated books has been slashed by two thirds since I arrived at
Bookshare. They've been replaced by much cleaner scans, sometimes even by
publisher quality books. If we work together, we can get the number of
fair-rated books to zero in a year or two. (smile)
Just because it's on my mind, I want to thank Jill, Jamie, Evan, Barbara,
Laura Ann, Lissi, Gary, Larry, Susan, Elizabeth, Marilyn, and Sue for
helping to get several BSO books I've wanted to read into the system during
the past year. There are many more people doing BSO work. These are just the
ones I know about. You all are champions that make Bookshare work better for
everyone.
Monica Willyard
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shane D
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 1:34 PM
To: bksvol-discuss
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Book Quality
Hello,
I have noticed several books that appear to have not been proofread
very well. Take for example
http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/9173/Flawless%20Consulting%20?returnPat
h=L3NlYXJjaD9rZXl3b3JkPUNvbnN1bHRpbmcm,
which has weird symbols replacing text throughout, and is completely
unreadable, or a book like Elantris by Brandon Sanderson or Wizard's
First Rule, which both have inconsistant letters. (Sool V. Fool, harm
V. Ham, torn V. tom)
Is there any process by which vollunteers can help clean up poor books
likes these?
--
-Shane
Website: http://www.blind-geek.com
AIM: inhaddict
MSN: shane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: chatter8712
Twitter: blind_geek
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