Hi Mickey,
You know that I am pretty new to this whole
Bookshare thing, but let me just
share a bit with you.
Seems to me that Bookshare is in flux at the moment.
However, the staff
positions seem to be getting filled.
Whenever I look at the news at the top of the
bookshare page, the number of
available books keeps going up. The only conclusion
I can reach is that
somebody is doing something.
Sounds as though you have a lot of books that are
ready for approval, but
it's taking time. Well, in my short time, I've
picked up three books for
validation; 1 wouldn't upload when I finished it, 1
had missing copyright
info, and each chapter was in a different file, and
the last one has missing
pages. It is also an earlier edition of a book
whose newest edition is
coming out in 2006. It also is only half the book
since it is in 2 volumes,
and only vol I is available.
Frustrating, right. Besides, I have a hell of a lot
of things I could be
reading. At this point, I'm waiting for some
comments on the list to see
whether I should proceed with this validation, or
just reject the book and
hope for a later scan.
fifteen hours a week is a lot of time to be putting
into an activity which
seems to be bearing little fruit. Might I suggest
that you just back off
considerably, say to 3 hours a week or so, rather
than just going away. It
may seem that your work for Bookshare is not
appreciated, but that's not so
at all.
Bookshare is primarily our organization, and it
always will be what we make
it. The professional staff can only do so much, and
the rest is up to us to
keep it growing. That means that whatever anyone
does as a volunteer is an
important contribution.
I can't fault you for wanting to get on with other
things, and I can't fault
you for your frustration with the number of books
you have ready for
approval. Guess I'm saying, don't go from one
extreme to the other. Get on
with your work as a proof reader and medical
transcriber, but don't give it
up altogether on Bookshare.
My apologies to the rest of the list, but I think
per haps what I said to
Mickey may be of benefit to others. I know I
thought it was pretty cool.
"Of all the things I've ever lost, I miss my mind
the most."
Ernie
----- Original Message -----
From: "mickey" <micka@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 3:46 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Sad decision
> HHi, Scott.
>
> I would bet, first of all, that I have 15 books in
the admin queue. I've
> done several books, which were already in the
admin queue, so they didn't
> need two copies.
>
> I believe in Bookshare, would like to work for it,
but can't spend 10 or
> 15 hours on a book, to find that it got approved
the day before I finished
> it. That tends to be very discouraging.
>
> I am a proofreader by profession, and keep busy
with that and my course.
> Maybe it's time to just work on that.
>
> I'll keep looking to see if anything I've done
needs extra work.
>
> I hope to be back soon.
>
> Mickey
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Scott Blanks" <scottsjb@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 3:39 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Sad decision
>
>
>> I'm curious to know how the validations were a
waste of your time? I'm
>> asking mostly because I didn't understand your
explanation. What has
>> disappointed you?
>>
>> Scott
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "mickey" <micka@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 11:32 AM
>> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Sad decision
>>
>>
>>> Hi, Group.
>>>
>>> This is my third year of volunteering with
Bookshare. I think it's a
>>> great source of wonderful reading material of
all types.
>>>
>>> However, I know that the Palo Alto center is
understaffed, that they're
>>> behind. But in the past month I've validated or
nearly validated books
>>> that were in the administrative queue, which
ended up being a total
>>> waste of my time. I read a book thoroughly,
making corrections when I
>>> can as well as spellchecking.
>>>
>>> It's impossible to know what is being done, or
what has been done--both
>>> for the scanner and the validator.
>>>
>>> I'm taking a course in medical transcribing,
plus working, and can't
>>> afford to spin my wheels.
>>>
>>> So, for now, I'll stop volunteering. I'll keep
abreast of things, in
>>> case things get better, but I'm returning the
books I've taken to
>>> validate.
>>>
>>> It's been good working with you all. Thanks.
>>>
>>> Mickey
>>>
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