[bookshare-discuss] Re: Am I the inferior validator?
- From: "Mary Otten" <maryotten@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 23:30:24 -0500
Gerald,
I'm with you with regard to commending validators, especially the ones who have
the patience to slug through a rather badly done scan and fix it up. But I
don't agree that scanning is pushing a button and turning a
page. Scanning should involve some preliminary work with each book before you
start flipping pages and pressing the scan key. The amount of adjustments one
can make when scanning depends on the particular
ocr package one has. But they all allow for at least some fine tuning, and
spending some time to get the settings right for your book, by testing a few
different pages and adjusting parameters that can be adjusted will
produce a better scan and save clean up time. And then, after the scan is done,
there is the clean up stage, which shouldn't be left to the validator. I
realize that peoples' ability to fix their scans may depend to some
degree on the tools at their disposal. But those of us who scan are in the
best position to check for things like completeness and accuracy of the text,
because we have the print book. And, if you think about it, we
who scan get 5 times the credit that those who validate receive. So it would
seem pretty clear that the majority of the responsibility for the end product
is ours. If we scanners do our part to run spell checks and double
check completeness of book before we upload, the validators will be able to
follow the rather minimal bookshare guidelines without fear that they're
letting inferior text quality into the system.
Mary
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