[bookshare-discuss] Re: FW: [bksvol-discuss] My nickel's worth--quality control
- From: "Gerald Mackowiak" <gmackowiak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 20:48:35 -0700
I am curious too. How do you know it is so good, if your scan is so bad?
(grin)
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Bond" <wildblinker007@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 5:47 PM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: FW: [bksvol-discuss] My nickel's
worth--quality control
> Ready, okay! by Adam Cadre.
>
> _____
>
> Why settle for the lesser evil? Cthulhu for president!
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "CJ Vining" <GrayRainbows@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 10:47 PM
> Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: FW: [bksvol-discuss] My nickel's
> worth--quality control
>
>
> > And what is this amazing book? Curiosity is killing me!
> >
> > Joanie
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "James Bond"
> > > I have to agree. I have scanned a grand total of one book. I would
like
> to
> > > add that this book is quite possibly one of the greatest and most
> > overlooked
> > > books that I have ever read in my entire life. But I cannot, and will
> not
> > > submit it to bookshare, for the simple reason that the quality is not
> just
> > > bad, but is in fact actively embarrassing. Whole pages are reduced to
> > > braces, "s and other garbage characters. I cannot find a single page
> that
> > > does not have at least one error. Going trough and fixing even close
to
> > all
> > > of them would be not only tedious, but also may be impossible as I
need
> to
> > > know what it was actually trying to say before I can fix it. If I am
> ever
> > > going to even think of submiting it to bookshare--and i am, as it is
> truly
> > a
> > > wonderful book that is hard to find for *anyone*, let alone a blind
> > > person--than I will simply re-scan it with my new scanner and new Open
> > Book
> > > program, and make sure that each page is relatively error-free before
> > > continuing. Its find to have a whole bunch of books in your
collection,
> > but
> > > when most of them have portions that are wholly ilegible, the point
> > becomes
> > > rather moot. I have seen at least one book--The Outsiders, by S.E.
> > > Hinton--where whole pages were excised--for no reason that I can tell,
> > I've
> > > seen five pages at a time just not included in the text. Even two
pages
> of
> > > missing text can--and was--crippling to my understanding of the book,
as
> > it
> > > skipped over several key plot points. This just cannot go on.
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Liz Halperin" <lizzers@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > To: "Bookshare" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 2:21 PM
> > > Subject: [bookshare-discuss] FW: [bksvol-discuss] My nickel's
> > worth--quality
> > > control
> > >
> > >
> > > > Ok, I suspect I may get bashed, but here goes anyway:
> > > >
> > > > I wish everyone would just SLOW DOWN. There seems to be this frenzy
to
> > > > get books into the collection, and less care on their quality. As a
> > > > braille reader, I know I am in the minority, but my patience for
> sloppy
> > > > books is low.
> > > >
> > > > When I scan a book I am very careful to send a clean copy up. I
don't
> > > > expect the validator to have to do much of anything except make sure
> no
> > > > corruption of the file has occurred. I am proud of quality over
> > > > quantity.
> > > >
> > > > I have been doing some validating and there have been a few books
> > > > equally clean as those I submit. They are a joy to validate. Most
have
> > > > problems. I fix what I can. Books are submitted without the ISBN
> listed
> > > > (even though it's right there), sections missing, whole messed up
> pages.
> > > > When I am faced with many blank pages and then text pages run
together
> > > > and too many spelling errors and character errors, I feel no guilt
to
> > > > reject the book. It's not worth spending so many hours on. Better to
> get
> > > > it rescanned in a better version. When I finally validate something,
> > > > it's clean and ready to go. Any problems after that are from the
> > > > Bookshare conversion processes.
> > > >
> > > > With over 500 books waiting for validation, I wish there would be a
> > > > moratorium on scanning submissions. When there was too much backlog
at
> > > > the Bookshare end, they made a concerted effort to get caught up.
It's
> > > > now OUR end that needs the effort, the volunteers.
> > > >
> > > > The two lists, books-volunteer-discuss and books-discuss, are very
> very
> > > > busy. What if all the time spent reading and writing on the lists
was
> > > > spent on validating, for awhile, at least?
> > > >
> > > > What if scanners made an effort to send up better quality? What if
> > > > validators had better quality to start with and so could approve
> faster
> > > > and cleaner? What if we humans went beyond spellcheck and made sure
> that
> > > > other errors were caught? Errors such as "form" for "from" and "end"
> for
> > > > "and" and stuff like that? What if we went for quality over
quantity
> > > > for awhile?
> > > >
> > > > Liz in Seattle
> > > >
> > > > Liz Halperin
> > > > Seattle, WA
> > > > lizzers@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
Other related posts:
