[bksvol-discuss] Re: Introducing myself
- From: chatter8712@xxxxxxxxx
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 11:59:30 -0500
BSO = Better scan of, not reserved. You can check out a BSO without
waiting, only if it says reserved should you wait.
On 2/5/09, Denise Wagner <denisecwagner@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks, Monica, for the tips, and especially for sharing your story. I
> think I chose a book I'm going to like (I checked out the synopsis on Amazon
> before I downloaded it:-)), it's rated Excellent, and it's been waiting
> since July, so I'm feeling quite happy about it. I eventually want to get
> to scanning -- my office has a duplex copier that will scan into pdf -- but
> I have no idea how to go about it. I think I'll wait to explore that aspect
> of Bookshare until after I've done some proofreading first:-).
>
> I do have another question, though. When I was browsing for a book to
> proofread, I found alot of BSO books. I was bummed since some of them
> looked like my kind of genre. How does a person get a book reserved for
> her? Is it "who you know"?
>
> Also, my husband likes completely different books than I do, and he's a
> scientist (yuck), so if he decides he'd like to give it a try, is it ok to
> let him proofread under my account, or does he need to set up his own? He
> may never do it, but I just thought I'd ask.
>
> Denise
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Monica Willyard
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 11:27 AM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Introducing myself
>
>
> Hi Denise. Welcome to Bookshare. I'm so glad you're here. J Yes, this list
> has archives you can browse through if you like. Even more helpful than our
> archives is our Scanning and Proofreading Manual found at
> https://wiki.benetech.org/display/BSO/Scanning+and+Proofreading+Manual This
> manual is written by Bookshare staff whereas the posts on this list are
> mostly written by volunteers who may interpret the manual in various ways.
> If you go to //www.freelists.org you can search for this list and read
> through our archives.
>
>
>
> I have three tips to share with you that will make volunteering easier and
> more fun.
>
>
>
> 1. Relax. Don't worry about making mistakes. We've all made them when
> we were new, and we probably have made worse ones than you. You'd have to
> work at it to top some of the ones I've done. Since we all started out where
> you are, don't be afraid to ask for help or think your question is a silly
> one.
>
>
>
> 2. Have fun. Work on books that matter to you, ones that make you smile
> or that you feel passionate about. Many of us have discovered that we do our
> best work when we truly care about the book we're working on. If nuclear
> physics bores you, you won't notice scannos nearly as well as if you're
> reading a book from a genre that you like.
>
>
>
> 3. Start with easy books. For people who are new proofreaders, I recommend
> taking books rated excellent. Books rated good are often harder to fix up,
> and some of them actually have to be rejected. Since there are some things
> to learn about how Bookshare works and about proofreading scanned books, I
> think new volunteers do better if they start with an easy win, success that
> helps them feel more confident. This is just an opinion on my part.
>
>
>
> I didn't know about the whole book quality thing when I came to Bookshare.
> The first book I took to proofread was rated fair. It was a textbook, and I
> took it because it had been waiting to be proofread for over a year, and I
> wanted to be helpful. I cleaned up what I could, but there were a lot of
> messed up pages in the book. In hindsight, I should have rejected that book.
> It really was a mess. I didn't know that though, so I put the book into the
> collection with a fair rating. Then I found out about rejecting books with
> lots of totally unreadable pages and discovered I'd made a mistake. I
> thought everyone would notice and would be upset with me for doing that and
> stopped volunteering for awhile. It took awhile to see that others had made
> similar mistakes and that people sort of expect new volunteers to have
> questions and even make some bloopers at first.
>
>
>
> Bookshare no longer accepts books that are fair scans, scans that have
> serious problems. You won't make the same mistake I did. I'm just sharing my
> story so you'll see why I've made these suggestions to you. I broke all 3 of
> my "rules" by worrying about a mistake, taking a book about a subject that
> didn't interest me, and starting with a book other volunteers had taken and
> put back because of its flaws.
>
>
>
> Monica Willyard
>
> "The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker
>
--
-Shane
Website: http://www.blind-geek.com
AIM: inhaddict
MSN: shane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: chatter8712
Twitter: blind_geek
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