Message from the Editor
Dear
Friends,
Welcome
to the first issue of Bound by Books – the brand-new newsletter for Bookshare
volunteers. This quarterly publication will bring you news of the latest
scanning and proofreading guidelines and policy changes, while also offering
up a glimpse of the efforts and spirit of the people who make it all come
together. In addition to the newsletter, we’re pleased to announce the
launch of the blog Bound by Books – a blog
that will allow for more frequent communication from Bookshare staff to its volunteer
community. In this issue of the newsletter we share some new proofreading
guidelines and policies, a quick overview of volunteer contributions, and a
heartwarming interview with Bookshare volunteer Monica Willyard. A great deal has happened since the launch of
the much-awaited new site this January. In the first months of 2009 our
collection of books has grown dramatically, as have our member and volunteer
communities. In breaking news, just last night the number of titles in the
collection jumped past the 50,000 mark, a truly remarkable milestone. As always, we at Bookshare remain tremendously
grateful for the long-term support and unwavering dedication of the Bookshare
volunteers. Thank you for all that you continue to make possible.
Warm
regards,
Pavi
Mehta
pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Volunteer
Coordinator, Bookshare
Notes from “The Chop Shop”
This
section of the newsletter covers the latest policies, guidelines and tips
from Bookshare’s in-house chop, scan and proof division.
Bookshare’s
Page Number Policy
In
order to better ensure that readers are able to navigate books with ease and
that students working on assignments can keep up with class reading, Bookshare has formed a new policy for Page Numbers.
All
text books, educational books, non-fiction and best sellers submitted to Bookshare are required to have page numbers on at least
90% of their pages in order to be accepted. Page numbers will not be required
for books that do not have page numbers in the original text (this is
often the case for children’s books). For books in other categories, we will
make exceptions to this rule on a case by case basis as necessary.
Note:
When editing in Kurzweil (an accessible
software used to scan, read and edit documents), often times proofreaders
will inadvertently strip out page numbers along with headers. Please ensure
that page numbers are left intact.
What
if the page numbers in a book don’t scan?
If
page numbers don’t scan, the first thing to do is to try adjusting your
scanner settings. If this doesn’t work, where possible please number the
pages manually. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can do this by using the
“insert page numbers” tool. If you run into trouble or are unable to
number the pages for some reason, please include a note for Bookshare administration in the comments section
regarding this when submitting a scan or checking in a proofread book.
Standardized
Guidelines for Footnotes, Superscript and Sidebars
Bookshare
appreciates the insertion of punctuation (brackets or parentheses) around
footnotes but does not require it. Footnotes may be retained as they appear
in the scanned copy.
Bookshare
advocates the retention of superscripts where possible, but in cases where
your scanner pushes them onto the line above or omits them entirely, please
drop superscripts into the text line..
If a
sidebar only repeats what is already in the text on that page, it can be
deleted entirely. If it doesn’t and contains different content then please
use your discretion in placing it either at the end of the page or in between
two paragraphs of the same page where you think it least disrupts the flow.
[
All the above information has been incorporated into Bookshare’s Scanning and
Proofreading Manual. If there are other aspects that you would like to see
guidelines for, please write to us at volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Making A Difference
This section offers a quick overview of the wide-ranging
volunteer contributions at
Bookshare
We
now have a total of over 1500 people signed up to volunteer with Bookshare.
Though we realize that not every one of these people is an active volunteer, we
know for sure that hundreds of you are. Your virtual scans and proofs have helped us steadily build up to a total of more than 50,000 books in the
collection – an amazing feat. Now we are
delighted to share news of the fact that more and more people are interested
in offering their time and specialized skills to Bookshare. Since the
beginning of this year we have integrated fifteen volunteers who are
currently engaged in projects apart from scanning and proofreading. Of the
fifteen, seven are engineering volunteers working on projects ranging from full text search to geo-reporting, four
volunteers are working in-house with the collection development team, two
volunteers are working in Marketing doing some data crunching from the
education campaigns, one member/ volunteer is helping with Spanish
translation work and proofing, and yet another volunteer
helped set up the volunteer blog and is now assisting us with exploring ways
in which social media technology can be better leveraged. The skills, enthusiasm and effort each of you
bring to the table as volunteers is extraordinary and raises the bar for what
is possible at Bookshare.
Booksharian Heroes
This
column of the newsletter is dedicated to conversations and interviews with
the behind the scenes heroes of Bookshare – its growing community of
remarkable volunteers.
When
I Grow Up I Will Be Able To Read
An
Interview with Bookshare Member-Volunteer Monica Willyard
 (In this picture: Monica
Willyard with her daughter)
I
grew up in a really small town in Illinois. I was born blind, and when I was
a little girl I loved to touch the pages of print books. I would get the
books from shelves in the library and turn the pages. I would pray and ask
God to let me read because I was such a curious kid. I'm the kind of person
that would read the backs of cereal boxes if she could see. I told people
that God had told me when I grew up I would be able to read books. It
wasn’t like I heard a booming voice or anything, but I just knew it would
happen. My mother would scold me for saying such things. Then, on my 18th
birthday, the age of adulthood in America, I got my first scanner. I
was grown up, I had a scanner, and I could read. Not quite how I’d envisioned
– but it was a very auspicious time.
The
8-Year-Old Programmer
I am
very blessed to have good parents who decided early on that they would treat
me like a normal child. When I was a kid my dad told me that computers were
the key to the future and they would be how I would support myself. That’s
one reason he bought the computer when I was 8 years old, insisted I learn to
use it and taught me how to write programs. Everything I did on it was by
memory since screenreaders weren't available at that time. My dad bought a
word processor for me so I could do my homework on it. I used it for 10 years
with no speech. So when screenreaders entered the scene, it was like I’d
learned to run with weights on and then someone took off the weights. After
college, I ended up going to work in the adaptive technology field. There was
a local assistive tech dealer in Georgia (where I now live) who needed
someone to do tech support. I worked with him for 6 years. Then I switched
fields and started to work in marketing in my dad’s business as well as doing
freelance technical writing. In 1999, I took 4 college level courses in web
development because I wanted to be able to build my own website.
My
Coffee Can Subscription to Bookshare
I
first met John Glass and Jim Fruchterman in 1995 at an ACB convention (this
was pre-Bookshare). They both showed me a
wider range of assistive technology devices than I’d ever imagined. Later,
someone did an episode of a show called Main Menu which is an online radio
show on technology. They made a short mention of Bookshare which
immediately grabbed my attention. I went and looked at the website.
Money is tight for me because I’m a single mother who has been able to put
her daughter in a private school. It took me awhile to set aside the money
for a subscription. To save up, I put money in a coffee can -- $5 a pay
period until I could afford to join. That’s how I got my first membership. I
didn’t know I could volunteer for credits back then – but it felt really good
to save and do it myself. When I got my membership I went nuts in the
cookbook and computer book section and downloaded a whole bunch of books all
at once. I kept running out of the room to tell my mom, “They have the
Betty Crocker book! They have the Weight Watchers book!” “Would you just read
one of them?” was what she said to me. One of the first things I did was see
if I could sign up as a volunteer.
Early
Days As A Volunteer:
I
was on the mailing list for two months --- so when I put my first book up it
wasn’t a total train wreck. The book was the new “Dare to Discipline”, a parenting book for toddlers. I was kind of
nervous because I’d only scanned books for myself. I’ve kept the raw scan of
my first submission all these years, just to remind me how I started out…
Gerald
is a hero in my book. He was the list moderator and did a lot to guide
and settle people down when the staff was working with 4 people and there was
really no one around to help volunteers. He stood in the gap and sort
of did a combination of Tech Support and Volunteer Coordinator roles.
Bookshare
Then & Now
When
I first joined Bookshare it was kind of like the Wild West. We had some
basic guidelines: “Don’t turn in half a book,” that sort of thing. I don’t
know if you can imagine this but sometimes if we submitted a book it could
take up to a year and a half to approve it. Things changed dramatically when
Lisa Friendly came on board. She took some time to ask what was working, what
was going wrong, and then she took action. I think she and the team deserve a
lot of the credit. Today books are often approved within 24 hours and
on the new books page there are often 50 or 100 new books posted. On the side
of volunteers it’s easier to sign-up, there is the volunteer manual which is
awesome and the ability to report a quality problem. I did a quality report and
it was fixed this morning. Lindsie posted it and is a friendly person to work
with. Every once in a while I look at the list of resolved quality issues and
see steady progress. It’s a totally different place from the end users
experience!
All
Time Favorite Book:
“The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Swartz
I
like it because whenever I’m feeling down or like what I’m doing doesn’t matter, I go read the book and it
reminds me of why I’m doing what I’m doing even if at the moment I’m bogged
down in the challenge of it. Problems are opportunities that look like
work.
One
Wish for Bookshare:
One
thing I would really like to see happen is a growing collection of Publisher
quality cookbooks. Cookbooks are hard to
scan because of all the fractions in the measurements. (Fun Monica Fact: I
like to bake. One of my favorite recipes is a chocolate cake that my grandma
taught me the recipe for – it has three types of chocolate in it, including
chocolate curls..)
Advice for New Volunteers: Everyone who volunteers has
problems putting up the first couple of books. But don’t quit! --- people
just need to be patient and we can work through it together. Ask for
help. Look for someone who will help you with constructive feedback. We
have enough talent in the volunteer pool to run a small country, the scope is
amazing.. The volunteer list is a great resource but sometimes you can get
mixed advice. With so many personalities and ideas, you have to learn to take
it with a grain of salt.
To
the Volunteer community:
Remember where you started and how confusing it was to you and be willing to
reach out and lend a hand.
Why
I Volunteer:
I
had a dream for a long time that someday blind people and those with other
print disabilities would have the same level of access as people who don’t
have disabilities. I didn’t have a detailed vision of how that would happen.
But today, Bookshare is making that dream possible and that is the biggest
reason for why I volunteer.
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