[bksvol-discuss] Re: Getting burned out
- From: "Donna Smith" <donnafsmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 10:51:37 -0400
Grace is absolutely right here. The way to sustain a volunteer pool over
the long haul is to volunteer to do something you really enjoy doing and
keep to a manageable level, volunteering to do that which is not enjoyable,
even when you really believe in the results of the unenjoyable work.
Having said that, I want to invoke the spirit of a former volunteer list
member, Guido, who use to say that it makes more sense to throw out badly
scanned books and rescan them than to spend the inordinate amount of time it
takes to fix them through the validation process. I think BookShare staff
can go through the books that have been on the step 1 page for a while and
assess their value as "savable" books. I think it's safe to say that the
volunteer pool has already made that assessment by leaving them on the page
for so long. If they are books that people want to or need to read, then
someone else will scan them or request to have them scanned and perhaps the
next version will be better and more worth our time and effort to validate.
Over the years, I have worked in volunteer projects that took in food and
clothing for redistribution, and there's always a point at which you assess
whether the things donated are of a value worth redistributing. To be more
straightforward, there's always a certain amount of junk that gets donated
along with the usable stuff, and someone has to decide to throw it out. In
this case, it's not really our decision as volunteers what should be thrown
out, but our actions indicate to staff our opinions of what's not worth our
time and effort to validate, and they are responsible for doing the actual
elimination. It's kind of a natural weeding out process.
Anyway, I've gone off on a bit of a tangent. Monica, validating 16 books
and scanning 7 within a month is a phenomenal amount of volunteering! You
should feel no guilt for taking whatever kind of vacation you choose!
Peace and Hope,
Donna
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Silvara
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 9:21 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Getting burned out
Hi Monica:
I definitely understand the burned out feeling. I think it was last summer
or fall I felt so burned out that I just had to stop validating. I was so
frustrated with books that needed a lot of work that I couldn't take it any
more. So I scanned books that I wanted to read instead.
Now I have validated 2 books in the past month, and they were not quick
validations.
So do yourself a favor and take the time you need.
Grace
----- Original Message -----
From: "Monica Willyard" <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 10:40 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: books on step 1 ten months old or older
>
>>Hi, Cindy. I think we have an active validating community because of what
>>I see in the admin queue. Of course, we always do need more validaters.
>>I think, in the case of these older books, that they haven't been
>>validated due to format and subject matter. I can only share where I am
>>in validating at the moment. I have validated 16 books in the past month,
>>and I have scanned 7 books while validating. I used to agonize over
>>fixing up the more obscure books and textbooks because I wanted people to
>>get their credit for scanning. I'm burned out on those books and promised
>>myself a summer vacation of only working on books that I genuinely want to
>>read. I still care about submitter's getting their credit, but I just
>>can't stand
> to read a lot of serious nonfiction right now. I'm hoping that taking the
> summer off will help me feel more like working on these kinds of books
> again. I feel like when you've had too much of a food you don't like for
> a long time so that where you tolerated it for awhile, now it makes you
> want to just leave the table. If some of the Openbook formatted books are
> still there in September, I will validate them. I don't really like this
> burned out feeling and wish I felt more like doing the work because these
> submitter's cared enough to scan these books. Maybe others are feeling
> this way too, or maybe I'm the only one. That's where I am and how I see
> things though.
>
>
> "Don't let yesterday use up too much of today!" Will Rogers
> Monica Willyard, rhyami@xxxxxxxxx
> Add rhyami to your Skype if you'd like to chat.
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