Usually (but not always!) the text explains what the diagrams and charts are illustrating in home improvement and other nonfiction books. Since some people learn better by reading text, some by listening, and some by looking at diagrams, these books try to cover all the bases. I chose books that had lots of text, and ignored the books with lots of pictures. Since we're paying the outsourcers, I'm that they'll do a good job with the books. If they don't, we'll send the books back until they do do a good job. One of our outsourcers gives us a good rate on difficult books, so we're trying to send them lots of hard-to-proofread books, like the Complete Idiots and Dummies series, and cookbooks, and such. They're getting all of the how-to and home improvement books. Carrie ________________________________ From: Robert Riddle <captinlogic@xxxxxxxxx> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 1:31:10 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: gaps in the collection Hi Monica, Unbeknownst to anyone, because the books haven't been put into the collection yet, I bought 20 books at the Home Depot a month ago. These books are on plumbing, wiring, drywall, trimwork, barbecues, kitchen remodeling, brick and tile, landscaping, backyards for children, how houses are built, etc, etc. I also got some books on cutting electricity bills and creating 'greener' houses. And thanks to a donation of 600+ books a couple of months ago, there are maybe 16 books coming on perennials, annuals, orchids, greenhouses, house plants, African violets, etc. And a week ago, I bought a dozen books on films, and some TV series (Lost, Firefly, Star Trek). And I bought a book on the history of American birding. Never occurred to me that someone would write a book about that, but they did, so I got it. I'll see if I can find books on defensive driving, car maintenance, beauty/fashion, scrapbooking, home decorating, and flower arranging. Our star Googler is looking for histories of the various countries around the world from non-American, non-European people, per another person's request. And she's looking for pro-communism writers too, per yet another person's request. Since she likes international politics, she's having a good time with these last two requests. Carrie How are you going to handle all the diagrams and such that appear in those type of home improvement books? It's my experience that such how-to guides don't, as a rule, OCR very well.