Yes, I agree with Mayrie here. Gwen if one of your books has been waiting for check out for a while, I would be happy to take it and to let you know what I think of the scan. I am not an expert, but have been volunteering for several years. I would be happy to help you in the way that others have helped me in the past.
Lori C.----- Original Message ----- From: "Mayrie ReNae" <mayrierenae@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 5:31 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: courtesy
Hi Gwen, So, here's a question. Are your books not being checked out byproofreaders, or rejected by proofreaders? There is a huge difference. Ifbooks are rejected, there is always a reason given. If they aren't being checked out, well, that's another story. Perhaps you could tell us some titles awaiting proofreading, and some experienced proofreaders could take on one of them and let you know what they find. Mayrie -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of gwen tweedy Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 5:25 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: courtesy Everyone has been nice here, I'm frustrated with myself, because I'm not doing better, and it would benice like I have had in some instances, to know the progress of books, why they are rejected and generally how I can do better, because if something isin limbo for quite some time you begin to wonder am I just spinning mywheels, am I making a difference, should I not put any more books up at all,because you don't want to put all that effort in if it is wrongly done and stuff.Because if I'm not doing any better each book that is put up, I need to know why and if I what I can do better, and if not then I need to stop altogetherbecause it's silly putting up books that will never make it to the list of books that are available to be read. ----- Original Message ----- From: "E." <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 3:25 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] courtesyNow that my first wave of anger has passed, I want to write with a sincererequest. Volunteers invest a good deal of time scanning.Proofers, if we are doing it well, similarly give time to making a book asperfect as it can be. My time and yours as volunteers is valuable. It is valuable particularly when given for free. It is as valuable as the time contributed by anybody who is able-bodied;as valuable as time given by people being paid. We volunteer "for love notmoney". In return we deserve the courtesy such love is worth. Please bookshare staff, let's work together to find a way for books to be given out to outsourcers without undercutting and devaluing the hard work previously performed by submitter and proofreader. It is a small thing. Those small courtesies from staff mean a lot to us volunteers. We hold a special place in our hearts for those members of staff who go out of their way to be courteous. Please staff! Together we can do this!!! I am sending a copy of this message to Pavi and the volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx address. Elizabeth At 04:52 PM 8/24/2009, you wrote:Hi Gwen, Kim, and all other volunteers who may be new to proofreading! I'm sure by now you realize that all of us use different methods to proofread. We may do things in a different order, but the end result should be a book with similar characteristics such as standardized fonts, page breaks, paragraphs and so forth. I well understand that it can seem overwhelming at first, because there's so much to think about and remember. Here's what you really need to remember--proofreading is a learning process. It is not something you learn all at once. For example, it is only in the last few books I have proofread where I have converted emdashes to double hyphens, standardized and enlarged chapter heading fonts,and converted smart quotes. Why didn't I do this before? I didn't understand how to do this even though I had read the excellent directions provided by several people on this list. It made me feel pretty inept, so I did nothing about it--and I've been proofreading books since Spring, 2008. A few weeks ago, I began an e-mail conversation with Mayrie about something totally unrelated. I felt comfortable with her, so I asked if I could ask her a few questions. She graciously agreed, and I sent her an example of text where I had replaced the em dashes with double hyphens. She looked at it, and told me I had done it correctly. After that, I was embolden to tackle smart quotes and changing fonts for chapter headings. I mention this is a way of encouraging you to begin the process. Start with something simple--maybe a short book or a children's book. Make sure it's something that interests you. Also, as others have said, it's very helpful to begin with books that have been scanned by careful scanners because you will have less correcting to do. I'm a Braille reader, and I use JAWS and a Braille display to proofread with. I set punctuation to most, and read line by line. I do all of my proofreading in Word. But before I start reading. I refer to my checklistwhich I have Brailed on index cards. I personally do certain things beforeI even read a book. You can do the same thing using speech. I find a checklist of some kind helps me remember what I have done, and keeps me from forgetting things. Here's what I do ... you can use the ideas thatare helpful and disregard those that are not. Remember, we each may have adifferent process, there is no wrong or right order here--Use what works well for you.1. Before I checkout a book to proofread. I look at the book informationpage. I highlight and copy pertinent information such as title, author,copyright date, copyright holder, ISBN number, number of pages, the briefand long synopsis information, the categories which the submitter has indicated for the book, and the submitters name and e-mail address (if available). I save this in a separate text file so that I can refer to it. This also tells me if I'm going to have to add additional information, or do any editing in that area. 2. After downloading the RTF file, I make a copy of it and store it either in a different folder on my computer or, as I usually do, on a flash drive. I do this in the event I make a mess of my original file. 3. Next I open the RTF file and standardize fonts, line spacing and paragraph format, set the paper size to legal,and immediately save the changes. I don't proofread technical reference manuals or text books, so it's easy to do the standardization of fonts and paragraphs.4. Next, I look to see if the number of pages in my RTF file matches thenumber I obtained from the book information page. If it matches, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. If it does not, I know that I have to figure out why things don't match. maybe the preliminary pages are notincluded in the submitter's page count. Maybe, there are unnumbered pagesat the end of the book. Maybe additional page breaks have been inserted. Maybe there a duplicate pages. Maybe, there are actually pages missing, and I may have to contact the submitter and ask to have some pages scanned. In any case, I don't get overly concerned. The reason for the numbering discrepancy will likely become apparent as I read through the book. I just know it's something I will have to resolve.5. Next, I look to see if there is a page numbered as "1." I use that asa reference point to number the preliminary pages. I'm a very orderly person, so it's important to me to know what I have to do with page numbers. Everyone does this differently. Page numbers are not absolutely required. Some books do not have them. At any rate, once I find a page numbered "1" or find any page number, I can begin to track page numbers. 6. Next, I do things like convert em dashes to double hyphens, remove "smart" quotes, split dialog, and make sure there are no spaces either preceding or following dashes. I also make sure the ellipsis are treated properly. Instructions for how to do all of these things as available on the "volunteer" page. Some people spell check prior to reading the book,and again after reading it. Personally, I do not spell check until I haveread the entire book because I find it too easy to change things Ishouldn't such as the spelling of proper names and certain intended slangwords. After I have read the book, I can more easily recognize what maybe a scanning OCR error. But if it's helpful for you to spell check priorto reading, by all means do so. Just be careful about what you change. 7. I now begin reading the book. As I read, I make sure that page numbers and chapter headings are surrounded by a blank line, make surethat there is a blank line at the top and bottom of each page, change thefont of chapter headings or chapter numbers to Times New Roman 16 point, remove extra blank lines that should not be there, remove any extra pagebreaks that have been accidentally inserted, remove headers or footers atthe top or bottom of pages which contain the book title or authors name (only in the text pages), correct known OCR errors, and remove any extra characters such as back slashes, slashes, brackets, spaces, and carets that the OCR program inserted during scanning. Most of these occurrencesare easily caught when punctuation is set to "most". When I come across apage that is blank, I make sure to insert [This page contains no text.]If there are picture captions, I make sure they are noted as such. Again,there are instructions concerning how to deal with picture captions and descriptions on the "volunteer" page. I'm especially alert to strangecharacters that appear at the top and bottom of pages, or at the end of aline of text. Usually it's pretty obvious that they are "junk characters"and should be removed. 8. As I read, I make a list of things I need from the submitter such as missing pages, a rescan of any pages because I cannot figure out what a word or sentence should be, or any other clarification I may need. I do my best to include page number references for the submitter, and if I think my question is confusing, I will copy the particular word or sentence about which I have a question. I e-mail the complete list of what I need to the submitter after I have read the entire book, unless I know that I particular submitter likes questions one at a time. 9. After I receive what I need from the submitter, I make all necessarychanges, spell check the entire document, and copy the file to a folder Ihave created on my computer called "submit." Personally, I find it easierto upload a book when it is the only one in a folder. I've come veryclose to uploading the wrong book, so having it in a separate folder is agood insurance policy for me. 10. Before I upload the book, I open the text file I had saved whichcontains the book information and make sure that the title, author's name,copyright date, copyright holder, ISBN number, publisher, page count, andbook categories match what appears on the book's "checkout" form. I removeany "hold for" designation that may be in the title. If the book is part of a series, I make sure that the title reflects that. I also reread the brief synopsis and make any necessary changes. I usually include a long synopsis if one is not provided, though it is not necessary to do this if an ISBN number is present. I do so only because I enjoy knowing as much about a book as possible before I decide if I want to read it, and I assume others may feel that way also. I hope this encourages some of you to try your hand at proofreading. The real key is don't be afraid to try, and most of all, don't be afraid to ask questions as you go. Asking questions is the only way to learn, and none of this is easy, at first. *smile* blessings. Lynn I __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4364 (20090824) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. <http://www.eset.com>http://www.eset.comTo unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. 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