[bksvol-discuss] Common Ground and Some Suggestions for Progress
- From: "Donna Smith" <donnafsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 21:54:26 -0400
Hi all. I've been reading the continuing thread on validation requirements
and text quality, and am beginning to notice some commonly held ideas and
facts amid the polarized philosophies of book quality, that I think might be
useful to point out and from which we can perhaps build a loose plan of
action.
1. There is a big enough backlog of books awaiting validation to cause
concern for BookShare staff.
2. Bookshare staff have clearly stated the bottom line requirements for
validation.
3. We all agree that it is important to increase the number of books
available to people eligible for BookShare services.
4. A considerable number of us hold quality of the finished product as
highly important.
5. There are a lot of us who agree that it is easier to improve the quality
of a scan through rescanning the entire book than to try to validate it into
good shape.
6. There is a tremendous amount of volunteer energy at our disposal.
Possible Suggestions for Making Progress:
1. Let's apply our collective energy to validation to work this list back
down to a more manageable level. ( I need help determining what an
acceptable level is.)
2. At this stage of the process, let's each validate according to our
personal standards as long as we meet the bottom line requirements set by
BookShare.
3. As we work our way through the list, any validator who comes across a
book they find too onerous a task to validate in its current form, can
notify the list so that those of us who would really prefer to scan anyway,
can volunteer to find and replace the current version, leaving the current
version in place until we submit the replacement so no book will be
inadvertently lost in the process.
4. We can all help Rui keep a list of books in the collection that could
use an upgrade in quality, and work on that list when we've completed the
immediate task of lowering the tide mark of the validation list.
5. Perhaps at the end of this project, we will all come away with a better
appreciation of what goes into both scanning and validating and we'll work
to make ourselves better volunteers.
Just my two cents on a Saturday night. It seems like we have a situation in
our volunteer organization of choice which needs to be corrected, and since
we are the force, for better or for worse, in place to correct it, I thought
that agreeing on a concerted effort might be more beneficial in the long
run. Yes, some of the books on the list will be difficult to find, but we
can get to most of them and then the BookShare staff can decide what's to be
done with those that remain that we can neither validate nor replace.
I've actually spent today scanning two books I just got from Amazon because
I want to read them, and I want to read them now, <smile>, but I won't
submit them until we've gotten the list down. Assuming that we still have
around 550 books on that list, what is a more manageable number?
Peace and Hope,
Donna
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