[bksvol-discuss] Re: DAISY navigation in publisher quality books

  • From: "Judy s." <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 21:12:58 -0500

Hi Cindy,

The ebooks we're talking about are publisher quality books. smile. Volunteers aren't allowed to proof them or change them. Also, volunteers are not allowed to take any ebook that they own or get from a library and submit it to Bookshare.

There are some really solid reasons behind why libraries like ebooks, at least in my State (Wisconsin). Libraries have banded together and negotiated for ebook licenses with publishers in a way that makes the all the ebook titles offered in the deal available to every library in the Wisconsin system. When they do that, the littlest dinky rural library has access to all the same books for their patrons that the biggest libraries have. That exponentially increases the bang for the buck when it comes to how many books libraries can afford. The same has happened with magazines. As a library patron, I can downloaded and read over 200 different popular magazines electronically on my own computer, using my library card that was issued through my little limited-budget local library, including all back issues for those magazines, at no charge.

Judy s.
On 9/3/2014 7:41 PM, Cindy Rosenthal wrote:
Perhaps the ebooks could be mentioned on the list and perhaps some kind person who'd like more credits could scan an edition for someone like me to proof -- or maybe such a book could be put on the checkout list for a proofer who wouldn't mind fixing it.

side comment: I *hate* ebooks and the fact that libraries are stocking them rather than print books (and some authors are publishing in that format rather than print; I understand the libraries: print books take more space and staff time to shelve, but the authors? maybe it costs less for them not to have their books published, but I'm giving up on some of what used to be favorite authors of mine; I have others' books I can read. One, however... did have her next book available in print; (I did write to her but I really don't think I'm responsible smile
Cindy


On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 1:06 PM, Judy s. <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

    Hi all,

    Just some observations on the missing or poor DAISY navigation in
    publisher quality books. As a sighted, but disabled, reader, one
    of the things I hate about the evolution of the ebook format for
    sighted readers for platforms like the Kindle is that publishers
    have decided that page numbers, page breaks and even in many cases
    clearly delineated chapter headings are a thing of the past. The
    publisher quality books we're getting as members here on Bookshare
    aren't worse in terms of navigation than the ones sighted readers
    get when using a kindle or a nook.  Instead, they are equally awful.

    Part of it is of course that a physical page in a printed book is
    itself an artifact of the limitations and demands of the physical
    printing of a book, and the shelf space it takes, the optimal size
    of a book for holding and reading, the book's purpose and all
    sorts of other factors.  None of those translate into the needs of
    presenting a book on an electronic screen. And part of it is a
    learning curve, as the ebook industry feels its way into how to
    make ebooks work. There still isn't any industry standard for how
    an ebook should look on a screen or navigate or all kinds of other
    factors that affect the final product that the consumer (or in our
    case the disabled reader) gets.

    As a member, it's very frustrating to have books with poor or no
    navigation, no page numbers and the like. However, I just don't
    see that Bookshare has a whole lot of say in what comes in terms
    of what's in a book for navigation from the publishers because of
    the above. Bookshare certainly doesn't have the funding or the
    staff to turn around and put all those things into the hundreds of
    thousands of books that have come in.

    I'm not making excuses for the publishers or Bookshare here. I'm
    just sharing my observations.

-- Judy s.
    Follow me on Twitter at QuackersNCheese
    <https://twitter.com/QuackersNCheese>



--
Judy s.
Follow me on Twitter at QuackersNCheese <https://twitter.com/QuackersNCheese>

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