I will try to briefly chime in here.
I also really enjoyed reading the posts. Kim, I hear you!
I don’t have to have enough credits to pay for my annual dues. But it is nice,
and so I am hoping to reach that credit total before next April rolls around
with the April Showers that bring May flowers. It is fun to have a goal. And it
is fun to spend money on other things, too. (smile.)
After slowly starting to pay enough attention that my scans were replaced or
submissions rejected due to the Publisher Quality additions, I have modified my
idea about what I will do as a long time scanner.
For a good deal of time in my early Bookshare Volunteer career (forI guess
around 10 years now) I would scan as a result of hearing an interview or
reading a review of a new book that I really wanted to read.
Now, while I am sometimes disappointed that a PQ book does not have page
navigation or headings and reading may be somewhat inconvenient to my
preferences, I do see that the need for me to go borrow the local library copy,
or even purchase the book, spend several days producing the best quality
e-version for a Bookshare submission, I could of the book is not at all a good
use of my time. This past year, I was so silly. I purchased a couple of new
fiction titles on the day of its published release, quickly submitted, it and
before it had been proofread it was rejected because it hit the best seller
list and a PQ copy was provided. Duh. Wake up call, Rik? So now, I understand.
I am not at all grumpy. I see this as change, that is all.
Rather than doing Bookshare work, I am mostly using my K-1000 time, scanning
magazines. that are too specialized to be part of the NLS or whatever source
for us print impaired folks. If anyone wants to talk about those, my contact is
below.
That said. I am STILL interested in doing Bookshare work.
Right now this is part of what I am doing.
I have a lot of print books in various reading interests that my wife and I
have.
So I am going through and finding titles that I am interested in reading or
re-reading and I am checking the Bookshare collection. If the title is not
there I am putting it on a planning to scan pile on my work table.
These general subjects are in Popular Music, and History, and in some cases
literature. Montana writers are often things we have collected, too.
Now, I will also offer to scan for Bookshare members who really want to read
something, too.
If the title is something I share an interest in, or have a reasonable
expectation that the scan would not take me forever, I will be most happy to do
so.
That caveat is not hard and fast, but you know there are sometimes books that
are a very difficult job.
Still, I know there are books that you always wanted to read and have just
never found an accessible way to read them.
So if I can help someone by doing that, this is a great thing, and I love it.
I do check the Wish List sometimes. But I have not been regularly doing that.
Anyone who wants to contact me and let me know I will be happy to see if I can
locate the book here locally and scan it and submit it for the Bookshare
community.
Hope that this is useful.
I still much enjoy both using and volunteering for Bookshare.
I am proud of what we have done over these years in helping the service and the
collection to grow.
I like reading electronic text because I can navigate and stop and look up
words and get it spelled if I don’t know it. Something a human voice recording
is just not quite up to doing, don’t you know?
Thanks.
Rik James
Contact me at ohio1803@xxxxx or d28rik@xxxxxxx
