As a matter of fact, pretty much any book that is published anymore is in digital format before it is in print format. Those are the files that are transmitted to the printing press. In the 1990s I was acquainted with a person who was involved with converting all the backlist of Pathfinder Press to digital format for that purpose, but Pathfinder Press is not a commercial publisher. It is a small press that publishes political books to promote the political cause it is affiliated with. These commercial publishers did not necessarily convert all their backlist and do not necessarily intend to do so. It would be nice if the publishers which have a contract with Bookshare would provide a date at which they started making everything in electronic format, but I would not count on their doing that. Bookshare is not their highest priority in the first place. It would be well to remember that if a book is older than the date at which the publisher started digitizing their stock even if it is published by one of the so-called unsafe publishers it might very well never be provided to Bookshare in electronic format and it would be a good idea to scan it anyway. I am prone to scan older books and small press books anyway, so I don't think any of my own scans have been replaced by publisher quality books, but I am inclined to think that if I do come across a book that is not in the collection and is on an unsafe publisher list I might just go ahead and scan it anyway. If it does get replaced then there are some reasons to work on it anyway. For one thing, I will have had the privilege of reading it before it became other wise available. For another thing, I will have provided it for Bookshare users earlier than they would have had it otherwise. As someone else put it when so many volunteers were complaining that their work had been for nothing when their contributions were being replaced with publisher quality books, if you were volunteering for a homeless shelter would you complain that your work had been for nothing if the residents of the shelter had all gotten homes? The point is that you had helped them during the time that had passed before they got homes. Similarly, if you submit a book to Bookshare and put in a lot of work to do that then you help Bookshare patrons up until the time that they are replaced. If you really want your work to last, though, then work on the safe publishers list or work on old books.
On 1/16/2012 7:53 AM, Kelly Pierce wrote:
I have noticed that older titles from 20 to 30 years ago or more rarely are available in electronic form for Bookshare to convert, unless the title was extremely popular or had consistently good sales. These older titles will likely only become accessible to people with disabilities by scanning even if Bookshare has a relationship with the publisher. Kelly On 1/15/12, Roger Loran Bailey<rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:I am pretty sure that Penguin is on the safe list. Hey Alisa, I think it might be about time to forward us the latest version of that safe and unsafe list along with the next wish and books being scanned lists. On 1/15/2012 5:24 PM, Van Lant Family wrote:HI all, I have been slowly cleaning up a book I scanned for myself last summer. There's a fair amount of formatting issues and lines that didn't scan cleanly that I'll have to work on, so it's a slow process.. It isn't in the collection already, but I just noticed that it's published by a subsidiary or partner of Penguin. I'm thinking Penguin is on our PQ list, so I'm wondering if it's worth proceeding. Two other books I scanned in the last year got rejected because a PQ edition beat them into the collection. Of course, a PQ version of this book would be way better than all the work, but it was such a funny book that I wanted others to be able to have access to this. The book is called "MILK MEMOS HOW REAL MOMS LEARNED TO MIX BUSINESS WITH BABIES AND HOW YOU CAN, TOO". Just wondering how the rest of you decide whether a book you wanted for yourself anyway is worth it when the publisher might add a PQ version. Robin 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.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.
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