[bksvol-discuss] What is Mandatory Vs what Are Guidelines for Books (was Re: Re: was Navigation what do members prefer?)
- From: "Judy s." <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2012 18:40:51 -0600
HI Evan and all,
Again, I entirely agree that and heartily promote that we follow what I
originally posted, as that was pulled directly from the manual. smile.
However, we've all been told repeatedly that these are not required
standards and that books will not be rejected if they don't precisely
meet them, and that most of what is in the volunteer manual is not
mandatory.
We volunteers can all argue about this until the cows come home, but
there is very little that has been written down as mandatory and required.
Here's what's required and mandatory, straight from Bookshare. Log in as
a volunteer and go to this link for the full details:
https://wiki.benetech.org/display/BSO/2.+Topics+for+Submitters+and+Proofreaders
A. Must contain both copyright holder and copyright date
B. Cannot be copyrighted dramatic works
C. Cannot be proprietary digital books, or obtained in breach of
contract, or illegally
D. Cannot be standardized testing materials
E. Must not already be in the library, or must be of higher quality
than the current version
F. Must contain Page Breaks that correspond as closely as possible to
the print edition (a book must have at least 90% of its page breaks)
G. Must contain Page Numbers that correspond as closely as possible to
the print edition (required to have page numbers on at least 90% of
their page)
H. Books must be complete (Title/author page, Copyright page, Table of
Contents, Dedication, Acknowledgments, Main text of the book)
I. Must be submitted in a single file
J. Cannot be exams, Teachers' Editions, course packets, or sample
course materials
That's it. That's all that's required. Everything else we do is
encouraged, and often strongly encouraged, and often we're told it's
required and then we're told it isn't, but when it gets down to it,
those ten things are all that are mandated under Bookshare policy, at
least as far as it's been shared with volunteers in writing.
As a volunteer, I find this frustrating. As staff rotate we get told
various things are required, then they aren't, then they've changed,
then they haven't. The confusion on this list reflects that constantly.
We volunteers remember what we were taught under one staff member, and
then another one comes in and someone else is taught something else, and
that of course is what they remember. And then what we're supposed to do
shifts back to what the first volunteer was told to do. There is no one
standard that sticks.
Personally, I've begged Bookshare staff for over five years now to make
a whole lot of what we do, like font sizing for daisy navigation, very
specific and required. But I've been told again and again that setting
these things as requirements chases off new volunteers, that it's too
intimidating, and that the majority of volunteers who stay won't
continue if they have to follow a whole bunch of standards other than
the 10 listed above.
For me, it does the opposite. if I have a specific clearly laid out list
of what has to be done that I can check off and say, yup, I did that, I
learn how to do it through the process of meeting that standard. And I
feel we wouldn't end up with the confusion that we constantly have
going on here.
But that's my opinion and I'm not in charge. grin. Plus, I don't work
with the hundreds and hundreds of volunteers that the staff do, so I can
only speak from what I perceive from my own little corner of my own
little house. The big picture that staff sees of what works and what
doesn't to train and retain volunteers could be vastly different. smile.
Judy s.
On 11/24/2012 1:26 PM, Evan Reese wrote:
Hi Judy,
While what I wrote earlier was technically correct, I do think it is
better to follow the approach of 16-point chapter headings. In
addition to having the advantages of consistency and simplicity, it
can also eliminate unnecessary work.
As an example, I had a book which I recently submitted in which I
started by putting the titles of the parts in 16-point and the chapter
titles in 14-point. But then, well into the book, the author decided
to put some subheadings into one of his chapters. So I had to go back
and resize all of the fonts I had done. It didn't take a huge amount
of time, but it was still extra work.
So I am backpeddling -) on what I said earlier. Because although it
wasn't exactly wrong, following the guidelines is a better approach
for multiple reasons: First, as others have pointed out, it is
consistent. Second, it is simpler to remember. And third, unless you
page through the entire book ahead of time, (and how many of us are
going to do that?), you can't be sure you won't have chapters with
subsections in them at some point.
Apologies for any part I may have played in causing confusion.
Evan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Judy s." <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2012 12:49 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: was Navigation what do members prefer?
Hi Ann,
While I agree with you in spirit regarding "how it's done", in fact
Bookshare has very few actual requirements on what a book must have
to enter the collection. The volunteer manual, with few exceptions,
provides guidelines on what a book should have in terms of contents
and quality, and how it should be formatted, not requirements. smile.
Judy s.
On 11/24/2012 6:44 AM, Ann Parsons wrote:
Hi all,
Gary, the need for stars when there is a change of scene in a book
is not at issue here. This all started because instead of repeating
that volunteers should follow the manual, some people have been
advocating a laissez faire attitude which is detrimental, especially
to new volunteers and to the consistency of copy on Bookshare. They
talk about the preferred method instead of saying this is how it's
done. They talk about what you can do instead of what you should
do. You can't have laissez faire, you have a manual, it should be
followed, period!
BTW, please do not abbreviate Bookshare like that. As you can guess
it looks odd, especially to Americans. We all know we're talking
about Bookshare, if you need to specify, just say staff. I, for one,
find the abbreviation offensive.
Ann P.
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