[bksvol-discuss] Re: Romances and grants
- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 21:02:54 -0400
Dear Tammy,Shelley, Roger, and Booksharian Friends,
Thank you, Shelley, for your lucid, experience based explanation of how it is
that most books qualify for grant support at Bookshare. A good example of the
popular fiction books Bookshare is scanning by the dozens is the Goosebumps
series. Some kids love 'em and teachers use 'em so into the collection they go!
Tammy, as a romance lover you're going to find plenty to read in the Bookshare
collection. Bookshare isn't shunning romances, but when spending grant funds,
it must follow grant guidelines from the government which supplies the money.
Several active volunteers contribute quality scans and proofreadings of
romances. In fact, though it isn't my favorite genre, I've scanned and
proofread some romances myself.
As for why Bookshare isn't encouraging donations of romances, aside for the
fact that the grant doesn't supply funds for staff to process it in house,I
suspect lack of space to store donated books is part of the problem. Bookshare
rents office space. I've heard from staff that at times boxes of donated books
have lined the walls of the conference room and they can only be stacked so
high before becoming a hazard.
Did you notice that the first several books on John's list of new books are
romances? Bookshare and many readers welcome them. The cool thing is that we
volunteers are free to submit and proof any type of book we like. I love it
that we aren't bound by grant specifications.
Since I'm a volunteer like you and only communicate with the staff on the rare
occasions, 2 or 3 times a year, when I need information I can't get on this
list, or botch information I've filled in on a form and want it corrected, I
can't answer your questions officially. In my experience the staff are patient
with our questions so don't hesitate to ask them the questions you asked in
your post.
I'll be glad to talk to you off list about your scanning and proofreading
questions. When I began volunteering about three years ago, and all along since
then, I learn techniques and tricks on this list and off list with helpful
volunteers who enjoy sharing what they know. Like Allisa who is new and already
giving good advice, you'll soon be answering questions yourself.
Always with love,
Lissi
----- Original Message -----
From: Tammy Blaker
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 9:04 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Romances and grants
Lissi,
I don't understand , why would Romances not be covered? I love romances and
lots of other women do too. If it covers SCI-FI and other fiction books then
why would it not cover romance? If it is the sex in romances they should read
some SCI-FI and mystery books, because sex is in lots of other books too.
I scan Harlequin books and other romance all the time so I can submit them if
there are proofreaders for them. I want to get the rest of Catherine Coulter
books and scan them too.
Why wont Bookshare do a training class for scanners and proofreaders like
they do for Victor Reader and Read Out Loud? The manual does not give much
info on what is the best fonts, how to do the best headers and how the auto
computers work with the scan programs. I want the books I submit to sail
through without problems and would take the time to fix them so they would.
I set my OCR to English UK and it is doing great now and I'm scanning 50
pages a day. I hope to get faster as I learn. Almost every romances is in UK
English not American.
I have a question. On the book I submitted. Radha Ayalasomayajul Checkout
the book and it says: Active artifact id 421897 (RFT)
Then it say Radha Ayalasomayajula Checkout Active artifact id 421898 (Daisy)
I understand the first Radha Ayalasomayajul is proofing my rft file of the
book. But the second part does it mean she is turning it into a Daisy book so
it can be checked out? Does she work for Bookshare? I'm just trying to
understand the steps from my rft book file to a book that can be checked out at
Bookshare.
Tammy
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