Actually, I am coming to doubt the necessity of the hold system at all.
As I understand it, before I came to Bookshare, there was no limit on the
number of books that one might have checked out. That was changed because
it was being abused. That is, someone would check out books and hold them
for very long periods of time running into years. Okay, a limit of five
was established, but what good does that do if the same books that used
to be hoarded in one's checkout pile was then hoarded in the open on the
public checkout list? The only difference I see is that they were then in
the way when someone was looking for something to proofread and had to
skim through pages of holds to find one. On the other hand, though, I do
see some reasons that it might be good to hold a book for someone. Back
in August of 2008 I had almost finished proofing a certain book into
which I had put quite a bit of work and I had a hard drive crash and was
out of commission for a while. I contacted Cindy and asked her to grab
that book when it expired and save it for me, but I think she contacted
Carrie to ask that a hold be put on it for me. That was a case in which I
was glad I could get one held for me. Another case of a legitimate hold
is the case of Carrie having to return a book to the checkout list for
some minor correction. It is only fair that the proofer who had just
worked on it get a chance to correct it, but all too often those proofers
never bother to pick it up again and it just sits there with a hold on
it. With exceptions like I just mentioned you would only find an
occasional hold on the checkout list and then only for a little while. As
things stand, though, it seems to me that the abuse that the limitation
on the number of books one may have checked out was not solved, but just
made more public.
_ _ _
"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the world"
Virginia Woolf
The Militant:
http://www.themilitant.com
Pathfinder Press:
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
Granma International:
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html
----- Original Message -----
From: "gwen tweedy" <gstweedy@xxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 10:33 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: The Hold discussion again.
Yeah all the neat books have a name on them and some have been there
practically a month and some much longer.
I realize people have a say on their books which is wonderful, some
people have tuns of books, and there would be no way they could possibly
get to that many books in a two week time period, and a person who would
truly enjoy proofing a book can't. I understand most folks have
theirpreferences who does their books and that too is wonderful, but
what happens to those who don't have anything to proof, can't scan for
health reasons and truly want to help bookshare grow the library.
Books just sitting up there in the line, are just sitting there.
Some have choices because they can scan, some of us, don't have choices
because we have to go with what is up there for us to choose from, then
if they all have names, and for a month or more, that limits us in what
we can do for Bookshare, and the point is, to get the books in the
library quality wise of course, but in a timely manner as well.
----- Original Message -----
From: robert tweedy
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 9:08 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] The Hold discussion again.
I am going to give an example of this post and I think that there should
be something done about this hold business so we can get these books off
the check out page if and when possible. Here's the example and by the
way it was submitted December 10, 2009 so that is more than two weeks.
HOLD FOR LINDA F The Shepherd, The Angel, And Walter The Christmas
Miracle Dog
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