[bksvol-discuss] Re: Books rated excellent recently added to the collection that are really only good
- From: "EVAN REESE" <mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:16:04 -0400
Your question is misdirected. Of course, nobody WANTS to see such facts
promulgated. That is not the issue. I do sympathize with your point of view,
and the temptation can be overwhelming, when I see a typo, or a missing word
that is not a scannoe but is in fact a misprint. However, we are in the
business of reproducing books so that they are accessible to the print
impaired. We are not in the business of fact checking, or editorial
improvement, or grammar checking, or otherwise altering the books to make
them fall in line with what we believe to be either more correct, or more
accurate than what is published.
There are times when the form, but not the content, may need to be altered
to ensure accessibility. I had to do that in one book I'm validating now.
There are some numbers written in scientific notation. I wrote them in words
to ensure that they would be readable in both speech and braille. There is
precedent for this, for in another place in the book, the number in
scientific notation is actually written out in words, so I felt that it
would be okay to do it elsewhere, so that readers would be sure to know what
the author said without ambiguity. Given the limitations of our antiquated
braille translator, writing them in Nemeth code seemed a bad idea, as did
writing them in superscript mode, which is how they appeared in the book.
And I did not know how the superscripts would sound in speech version. So I
opted for writing them out in words. But, this is not changing the content,
only the form. There are other examples of this kind of alteration of form,
such as putting sidebars in a convenient place, instead of in the middle of
a sentence, where they can often appear in the print version. But, I
emphasize, this does not change what the author actually said, only the form
of how it was said, to ensure readability for those who cannot read the
original print version.
Changing the actual content, however, is a totally different kettle of fish,
and I believe that should be avoided altogether. I know the temptation can
be nearly irresistible at times, but I think you need to resist it. If you
start down that road, where does it end? Would you alter an author's grammar
so that bad grammar is not promulgated? What if an author makes an argument,
in a book promoting a certain political viewpoint for instance, which is
obviously slanted and misleading by omitting certain facts, or misstating or
misapplying others. (This is often the case with books from both the left
and the right, by the way, which are biased by their very nature.) Would you
feel justified in adding your own facts or "correcting" those of the author,
or putting in commentary in order to bring more "balance" to the
understanding of the reader?
I am not saying that you would do any of these things. I am only putting
some questions out there for consideration. If you feel that an author is
giving wrong information, where do you stop correcting him/her? It's a
slippery slope, and I think we need to try and avoid starting the slide down
it. What you are suggesting is definitely a big push down that slope.
Then there is the issue of mucking about with the content of copyrighted
work, which I will not say any more on since it has already been mentioned
here.
Evan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Curtis Delzer" <curtis@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 1:34 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Books rated excellent recently added to the
collection that are really only good
> You want to see such facts as Truman was elected in 1960? <grin> It is
> that
> kind of error, blatant!
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lora" <loravara@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 6:22 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Books rated excellent recently added to the
> collection that are really only good
>
>
> Oh no, no, no. We should never correct facts like that. As was said by
> someone else, it violates the author and publisher copyright. And we
> should
> have the same experience as the sighted public in our reading.
>
> More to the point, and please understand that I mean no offense, I want to
> read what the author said, not what anyone thinks he or she should have
> said.
>
> In fact, I'd love to see Bookshare make a policy regarding this, if they
> haven't already. We should not change content, only correct the errors
> that
> were introduced by the scanning process.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Curtis Delzer
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:09 PM
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Books rated excellent recently added to the
> collection that are really only good
>
> Well, if it is an obvious error, if we are absolutely sure of the correct
> title, (as in my case with the Roy Orbison book which I should submit for
> review, then I will do it. If I am not sure, I will not even begin to get
> the idea I should change it. All Roy Orbison fans should know the correct
> title of that song referred too in that book, but if you were not a fan
> or
> didn't know the titles of his songs, then you might think that "breaking
> up
> is hard to do," is correct, when in fact, it is not. So, since I know, I
> changed it to "breaking up is breaking my heart," the correct title. It is
> like saying, in this case that president Truman was elected in 1960, when
> in
> fact, it was not. :)
> :) <grin>
> Authors are human, they do not know all the facts or they can, even in
> book
> form, make mistakes. We are not "authors" as such, but if you have a fact,
> it is a fact after all, and whether or not it is a book, published or not,
> if that fact is continually allowed to flourish via your hands as
> "editors"
> as such, then you are responsible if you do not change it to the correct
> facts, if your ground is as certain as the rock that is the essence of
> this
> planet. <grin>
>
> Curtis Delzer
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "eric troup" <yakkoman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 11:09 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Books rated excellent recently added to the
> collection that are really only good
>
>
> Agreed. And if it's even a little unclear, I believe you have to give
> the author/editor the benefit of the doubt. It's a slippery slope as
> is.
>
> On 18 Apr 2008, at 03:43, Cindy Ray wrote:
>
>> Well, we were admonished to fish the kinds of errors mentioned when I
>> was studying the braille transcription program at NLS. However, you do
>> have to be sure the change should be made. Most of the time you can
>> tell.
>>
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>
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