[bksvol-discuss] Re: Wrote just now to Pavi

  • From: "Kim Friedman" <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:54:45 -0800

Hi, Roger, you know, I did understand where you were coming from. It makes
me happy to fill in gaps in book series for one thing. I like the sense of
closure, second, I benefit because when plots are filled in, nobody has to
grieve because they don't know what's happening next. Think of this as a
service; I'm the gal that fills in the O's. I started out doing this because
of my desire to "Know what happens next". The one sort of book I haven't
gotten for Bookshare are folksong collections. It may interest me, but I'm
not so sure if other people would care for that sort of thing. 
I suppose I should search amazon.com for retellings of world myths (The
Greeks are well-represented so I want the stuff that isn't
well-represented.) Take care and best regards, Kim. P.S.: I like the tag
line. K.

  _____  

From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 1:14 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Wrote just now to Pavi


Let me make something clear. I did not urge Kim to spend money on wish list
books just to make people happy per se. It was simply that she mentioned
making people happy as a strong reason for buying books and sending them to
Bookshare and I suggested that if she was going to spend the money anyway
she could be better assured that it would make someone happy if she selected
books from the wish list to buy. It occurred to me that she might not have
thought of that. As for myself, I don't have much money to spend on books,
but even so, I have bought some for Bookshare myself. In my case, though,
given that limited budget, I have bought some books to scan myself and if I
am going to put all the effort into them that scanning entails my prime
criteria for selecting them is to make me happy. I have put a number of
titles on the wish list that are a bit too expensive for me and are not
available in my local library, but I have no intention of asking anyone else
to spend money on them for me. I simply figure that if they are on the wish
list they might stand a better chance to make it into the collection by
whatever means than if they are not there. One of them, in fact, I have my
eye on as a possible scan for myself. I just might fulfill one of my own
wishes. If, on the other hand, my motivation was to just make other people
happy by either spending my money or time on books I do think I would look
more closely at the wish list for making a selection. Even so, though, I
would, of course, look for books on the wish list that I was interested in
too and give those priority. I think any of us would do that. Whatever the
case, though, I just wanted to make it clear to anyone who might have
misunderstood that I am not trying to tell anyone how to spend their money.


 
"I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen
of the world." Eugene V. Debs     

             The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com
<http://wwww.themilitant.com> Pathfinder Press:
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html
<http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html> 
             _

table with 2 columns and 6 rows
Subj: 
[bksvol-discuss] Re: Wrote just now to Pavi   
Date: 
11/2/2009 3:43:23 PM Eastern Standard Time  
From: 
rhyami@xxxxxxxxx  
Reply-to: 
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
To: 
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
Sent from the Internet 
(Details) 
table end

Kim, I think you make people happy by choosing books that make you happy. I
know Roger's desire is to be helpful and let you know about the wish list.
What
he says makes sense. I think our community is so large and diverse that
there are bound to be many members who like the things you put into the
collection.
Yes, we have a large and active wish list. That doesn't mean you necessarily
want to read or pay for what someone else is wishing for. By purchasing
books
you want to read, you are actively taking steps to fill your own wish list
requests. You're not adding books to the ever-expanding wish list; you're
taking
a tangible step toward getting them into the collection. So the net result
seems to be the same. (smile)  

I think my email may sound somewhat stern. I don't intend that and think I
should explain why I'm saying these things. The nature of our wish list is
that
there are some people who have requested over 100 books at a time while
being unwilling to help get them into the collection, whether through
volunteering
to proofread or by providing the books to be scanned. I'm not referring to
people who physically can't volunteer or to people who request books and who
help with the proofreading. In theory, I do want those hundreds of books to
be added to Bookshare, no matter who requested them, because I want everyone
to be able to access any book they wish. Still the reality is that the
burden of buying, locating, and/or scanning these books falls on our
shoulders.
This also means that if we spend our time and money on these books, we can't
spend our time and money working on books that are important to us. So I
feel
frustrated when someone says that a volunteer should spend money working on
the wish list books instead of buying her own to make people happy.  

When I get books from Amazon or Paperback Swap, I tend to get 2 books for me
and 1 book from the Bookshare wish list. Even then, I primarily use my
credits
on books I'm willing to read so I can prepare my scan well. I'll take books
somewhat outside my interests if the request is clearly for a student or an
adult needing a book for their employment.  

I used to try to be totally fair, doing a book for me and then a book for
someone else, whether I liked it or not. I've taken on books in the past
that
didn't interest me at all, and I found that proofreading them was rather
like pulling out my eyelashes strand by strand. I felt drained and burned
out
pretty quickly. Now I focus on what I do well and trust that others with
interests in other areas will do likewise. Sue and Jill taught me to do
this,
and I am so grateful that they taught me how to keep from overwhelming
myself. 

Monica Willyard

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker 

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