[bksvol-discuss] Re: Headers, pages, and the future

  • From: James Nuttall <jnuttallphd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 13:05:08 -0700 (PDT)

Thanks Rick for your thoughtful posting. I would love to be able to play 
DAISY/NISO books say on my BookPort. It would be good to be able to set things 
like say or don't say the headers. This kind of technology would be great. At 
time I like headers and I do want to skip to certain pages. Thanks for the 
clarification.
Jim Nuttall

Rick Ely <ely.r@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Though this is not a comment on what the stripper does or does not do at any 
given time, I do want to comment on the long discussions regarding the presents 
of headers and page numbers for the future. Though as users we can elect to 
download a Daisy copy of a book, those copies are not examples of fully 
implemented Daisy books. The DAISY/NISO Standard is a means for creating 
accessible media that may or may not include human voice recordings. If actual 
text is use, it can be marked up to greatly enhance its delivery and 
accessibility. Headers, footers, page numbers and many types of text structure 
can be indicated. With a fully functional player or reader, one could choose to 
show headers 
or page numbers or to effectively turn them off. Someone wishing to read 
through a book ignoring pages or footnotes could do that, while a student 
needing to know a page number of a particular quotation could have access to 
that structural information. 
 
If the books that volunteers produce have no headers or page numbers, then 
obviously no one now or later can determine just where they are in the print 
equivalent of that book. When, in the near future, there is full implementation 
of the DAISY/NISO Standard, the value of a collection like that of BookShare or 
the Gutenberg project  will be determined by how much structural data is 
present in the digital text. If there are no page numbers, then they cannot be 
marked and it will not be possible to jump to page 247. For any of you who have 
found the correct page in a book by listening to little beeps, then the notion 
of entering a page number and accurately landing there must seem magical.  
 
As readers, we are at a very early stage in digital access. I am sure that 
BookShare wishes they could fix that stripper this Monday  and use all of the 
DAISY/NISO  features next week. What is important to remember is that the 
"Halfblood Prince" was available the same day it was released in print. In the 
days when NLS was the primary source for accessible books, that production 
would have taken nine months to a year. It is volunteers who have changed all 
that. If those volunteers allow  the annoyance of the stripper, to stop them 
from submitting, then we, at some level, surrender our rights to timely, broad, 
access to information.
Rick 

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