[bksvol-discuss] Re: New 3 hold maximum in check out queue
- From: "Mayrie ReNae" <mayrierenae@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:05:12 -0700
Hi Mike,
And guess what, the meeting isn't today. It hasn't been decided when it
will be exactly, but some day next week around 8:30 in the morning PST if
that seems workable to most folks.
So maybe you can join and say all that again?
If not, Your note is well said and I am holding onto it.
Mayrie
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of misha
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 6:28 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: New 3 hold maximum in check out queue
I can't make the meeting this morning, so here are my thoughts on the holds.
First, the holds themselves aren't a new problem, this topic is discussed on
this list every few months. Comments fly back and forth, fast and furious,
with about as many in favor of holds as against them.
That to me indicates that this is a problem with no simple easy solution.
Even when there were many more books on the checkout list, when proofers
can't find books they are interested in, except ones with holds, we complain
(and some resort to poaching). When those who scan books get burned by poor
proofing of one of their books, we complain (and resort to picking those
they will accept as proofers and putting holds on all their scans).
One factor that to me has improved the situation is that over about the past
year, the way books are approved for entry into bookshare has improved
greatly. Now, when Carrie checks whether the final book is ready to go into
the collection, she also checks how much time has been spent on proofing,
and she compares the original submission to the proofed scan. If hardly any
time or effort has been put into the proofing she puts it back on the
proofing queue, with a hold for the proofer. So, bookshare itself is adding
to the number of books with holds, but in a way that improves the quality of
the books that get into the collection. Bookshare has also moved the books
for the outsourcers to a separate queue. Those books always have holds for
on them so when those were in the same queue as books for volunteers, the
number of unavailable books really looked bad. There was also the training
program for new scanners that resulted in a hold for of a test book being
put into the queue for each new proofer. There were also books with BTC
added to the title that were supposed to be reserved for new proofers
because an automated system had been used at bookshare to do many of the
routine tasks proofers do to make the books easier for new proofers to
tackle.
One negative factor (from the point of view of volunteers, though very
positive from the view of overall bookshare users) is the huge increase in
books from publishers. Especially since the publishers insist that their
copy should replace any volunteer supplied copy. This is probably in part
why there are fewer volunteer submitted books, some volunteers don't want to
scan any more if their work will just be replaced by a publisher copy.
So, I've been thinking maybe there are a few more things bookshare can do to
provide more books for volunteers who only or mostly proof.
Carrie used to scan books and place them in the queue for proofing. As I
understand it, this isn't being done any more mostly because processing the
large number of books for the educational grant has kept everyone at the
bookshare office too busy to get around to scanning extra books. Perhaps
bookshare could set aside a little time to put books into the volunteer
queue. Also, without knowing what kind of computer it runs on, maybe a
version of the BTC processor could be made available to scanning volunteers.
Then, scanning volunteers could get more books into the queue faster.
Finally, on the human (and thus more difficult side), perhaps a few
reminders could be posted to the list (I know not everyone who volunteers
isn't on the list). One to ask scanners and proofers who work together to
coordinate their work so as few as possible books go to the submit queue
with hold for on them. That is, don't submit 10 books to the queue when the
proofer can only take 5 at a time meaning that five of the ten will sit in
the queue for some time. Another notice that proofers who ask for holds
should be conscientious about getting these off the queue as soon as
possible. And another reminder that whenever possible (regular fiction and
shorter non-fiction) scanners should put books up to be available to any
scanner.
Personally, I think the original idea for bookshare, that since blind
readers have to scan print books in order for the books to be accessible to
them, then wouldn't it be great if the result of that work could be made
more widely available rather than repeated by every blind person, and the
Chaffee amendment to the copyright act making this legal is such a good
idea, everyone should be willing to put some effort into keeping it going.
Remember, this is work being done by people volunteering their time, it
won't always be efficient, I won't always be able to work on what I'd like,
you won't always get the results you want, but it is work being done that
wouldn't be done otherwise, and the work really is being done.
Well, maybe it's good I can't make the meeting, that is so long it would
have taken the whole meeting by itself.
Misha
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
Other related posts:
