[bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission

  • From: "Julie & Miss Mercy" <mercy421@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:11:04 -0400

But the PQ books are there to represent the exact copy of the print book, 
basically. That's what it is...a digital file, most likely, used to make the 
print books in the first place. I agree that hyphenated words between pages 
are annoying but they're not hard to fix. That's not something I think we 
need to spend our volunteers' time on. There are a lot of other books that 
need validating that our volunteers could spend their time on. Those books 
might actually have scanning errors, where the publisher quality books 
wouldn't. Take care.
Julie Morales
Email and Windows Live/Windows Messenger:
inlovewithchrist@xxxxxxxxx
I'm a sales rep for Avon, All Mixed Up Gourmet and Scentsational Delights. 
Contact me for more info.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike and Lori Castner" <mandlcastner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:50 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission


Maybe what we need is validators for PQ books.  One of the things I hate
most is words that are hyphenated between lines, and worse yet, between
pages.  There may be other things to look for.  We want the best reading
experience we can possibly deliver and my example of hyphenation would
certainly detract from any book, including a PQ book.
Mike
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:46 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission


> Reading the thread about publisher quality submissions, I thought it was
> worth weighing in with more information.  The mission of Bookshare.org
> is to get better access to books to people who cannot effectively access
> print.  I know our volunteers support that mission.
>
> I consider the issue of possibly losing quality content, that is,
> something that makes the reader experience better (like picture
> descriptions), is always worth looking at.  That's because it ties
> directly to our mission. I hear people worrying about throwing out
> children's picture books with picture descriptions and replacing them
> with publisher-supplied versions.  But, I don't think we have any
> children's book publishers providing us with digital content. We're not
> focusing on them, because there isn't a big win there (34 words in a
> kids book is not that hard to get in by typing).  We're focusing on
> textbooks and technical books, and getting trade books when we can.
> Scholastic gave us permission to provide their books globally, but
> didn't give us any digital content.  So, I think folks should not be
> worrying about a surge of kid's picture books with 34 words in place of
> 34 words plus nice picture descriptions.
>
> The other important part of publishers supplying content is that almost
> all of them provide these global rights that enable us to expand
> Bookshare.org to serve all print disabled people globally.  That's
> really important for our mission: many more people need us than live in
> the U.S.  Publishers often require us to replace the scanned books with
> the digital books, to minimize the concerns publishers and authors have
> about having errors in their work.  This is a big, big concern of
> authors, and we have to acknowledge that as creators of the wonderful
> books we share, we have to respect their concern that their works be
> communicated in the as close to the original quality as possible.  Our
> community has benefited from the dedication of our validators to ensure
> these outcomes.
>
> The issue of "throwing away" volunteer work to give the reader a better
> quality book seems like an odd issue.  Improved quality content has been
> the number one issue of Bookshare readers when we survey them.  It's
> certainly the number one issue of ex-Bookshare.org users, and I take our
> failure to serve them seriously.  Our volunteers have always embraced
> making better scans of books.  Why does this change when it's the
> publisher volunteering a better version of the book? We wouldn't keep
> the fair version of a scanned book around when it was replaced with an
> excellent scan: we've been throwing them away with our dedication to the
> readers.  Plus, the publisher quality books are increasingly coming to
> us with improved navigation options.
>
> Let's be honest: volunteers will continue to be the primary source of
> books for a long time: years and years.  95+% of the books in
> Bookshare.org is there because someone in our volunteer community
> decided it was worth having.  If someone complains that a book isn't of
> the quality it says it is, we'll replace it with a better one.  That's
> we've decided that if one person in our community thought it was
> important to have, we will invest the money to buy the books and the
> energy to replicate it.
>
> We're here fighting for equality for readers with disabilities.  The
> "powers that be" are pretty clear about mission and our entire team
> spends a lot of time trying to figure out the best ways to accomplish
> that mission.   My suggestion is that when there are changes (and there
> are going to be a lot of really great changes) to Bookshare.org, that we
> can assume that everybody on the Bookshare.org team, users, volunteers
> and staff, are all trying to accomplish the grand goal: the highest
> quality books at the same time as non-disabled people have them, for the
> same of lower price!
>
> Jim Fruchterman
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