I want to add in, Sandi has done a wonderful job on some old books from us, and
some are reprinted photocopies, so indeed some are much messier than others.
Another thing I am running into is paperbacks on recycled papers tend to
speckle and add spurious marks than complicate the OCR progress.
I will add that despite the fact I scan and proof far more fiction than
non-fiction, I am surprised at how often italics are used and how many scenes I
proof have them all stripped. I usually try to let the scanners know so they
can alter their settings since italics give important cues to foreign language,
titles, names of publications, and ships, etc. I hate to have to add them back
in since it can add hours on a proof and since my need to use Bookshare is
based on a physical disability, I have problems holding a book well enough to
navigate, and I have to take frequent breaks when applying italics, so even
though it may take only 2 hours , in reality it may be 4 or 5 with breaks to
rest my hands and avoid further damage.
Valerie, who loves being a Bookshare volunteer!
On Nov 9, 2015, at 9:48 AM, Sandra Ryan <sjryan2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Scanning is the easy part. I can do a larger book one page at a time at about
10-15 seconds/page. Smaller hardcovers and paperbacks I scan in two-page
mode, and each two pages takes 10-15 seconds. I read along as I scan to be
sure the entire document is not a mess when I’ve finished it, but after
scanning I correct scannos, pagebreaks, page numbering, strip headers,
spellcheck, and check for missed paragraph breaks. I make sure all chapter
headings are present, and since I do that I usually put in the DAISY
navigation fonts. If, in doing these things, I identify pages that have not
scanned well, or are missing letters, for example, I may rescan a page or
two, or go through the page with missing letters and add them in.
When a proofreader gets a book from me, they shouldn’t find many errors—but
they still need to read through the entire book, because some errors are
always missed!
Probably about 15-20 hours per book, depending on how big and how messy.
Sandi
