[bksvol-discuss] Re: Three Asterisks: An explanation from the staff
- From: "Martha Rafter" <mlhr@xxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 09:13:59 -0400
Hi Jenny,
I want to welcome you to volunteering. It sure can seem overwhelming at
first, but I’m pretty sure that we all felt that way at first. This mailing
list is a really great place to ask questions, so never feel reluctant to go
ahead and ask. The people here are the greatest! Oh, yes, please scan, if
you’re comfortable with that. Actually we need scanners more right now than we
need proofers. I hope that you love volunteering as much as I do. Again,
welcome!
Marty Rafter
From: Jennifer Piening
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 2:53 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Three Asterisks: An explanation from the staff
I am a new volunteer, and all I have to say is wow! This whole asterisk
issue sounds really overwhelming! I'm going to begin with scanning books, and
I'm wondering if we make some mistakes along the way, will we get penalized or
will we be given a chance to get better as we go? Is it OK if we don't get all
of these rules incorporated into the scans and the proofreaders might have to
correct some of our mistakes? Before we officially had to volunteer, I
submitted some scans, and I think one of them got rejected, and now I know why.
It was because of page breaks. With all of these rules, though, I'm feeling a
bit intimidated by it all.
Jenny
----- Original Message -----
From: Cindy Rosenthal
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 11:49 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Three Asterisks: An explanation from the staff
page break, page number then if there are blank lines before chapter title,
*** in the space then chapter title, and thenif there are blank lines before
the txt, ***
THQT'S WHAT I UNDERSTAND.
On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 6:09 PM, Martha Rafter <mlhr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Madeleine,
Thanks for this, but I think I’m either confused or really, really
dense! Don’t we need to put in a blank line between the page break and the
chapter heading any more? Then it would be:
Page break
blank line
Chapter heading
* * *
text of page
Again, thanks you!
Marty
From: Madeleine Linares
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 5:43 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: mailto:cynthr@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Three Asterisks: An explanation from the staff
Hello everyone,
My sincere apologies for my delayed response re. asterisks but here is
what’s going on:
In Braille, neither bolding nor font size changes show up, which means that
it is really difficult to tell when there is a new chapter or section.
Therefore, three asterisks are added after each chapter title or chapter name
to make it clear where the chapter title or name ends and where the text
begins. For example:
-----page break---
Chapter Three
***
[text]
----page break-----
It could also look like this:
-----page break-----
[text from ch. 4]
***
Chapter Five: Kristy Kills
***
[text for ch. 5]
--------page break---------
This is especially important if there is a chapter name. For example,
Chapter Three: The Woman in Red (or whatever). Without the star, Braille
readers would have no way of knowing whether or not “The Woman in Red” was the
first line of text or a chapter title.
Three asterisks are NOT needed at the beginning of a page before a new
chapter (if the new chapter starts at the very top of a page) but ARE needed if
the chapter starts in the middle of the page. Three asterisks are also used to
show other breaks in the text, whether it’s a change in narration and the
sighted reader sees a font change or all italics, if there is a symbol in the
page to indicate a time change or something, and when there is a new section of
the book (such as Part One or Book One of several).
Many volunteers already do this, which is wonderful. Since we want
Bookshare books to be as accessible to everyone as possible, we strongly
encourage adding in three asterisks after the chapter number or name. I know
there has been a lot of confusion about this. From my understanding it is not a
new idea, but it has never been enforced, which is likely why some people do it
and others don’t and have never been aware that they should. We want to
encourage it going forward.
Please contact me directly with any questions or concerns.
Thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication!
Best,
Madeleine Linares
Volunteer Coordinator
Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative
650-644-3459
madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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