[bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
- From: "Julie & Miss Mercy" <mercy421@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:27:36 -0400
Thanks. <smile> I just moved about two weeks ago and haven't been doing a
whole lot of anything Bookshare-related other than reading books from the
site. <smile> I need to get my scanner unpacked so I can get started again,
huh? Good to be back to reading and participating in list mail again though.
Take care.
Julie Morales
Email and Windows Live/Windows Messenger:
inlovewithchrist@xxxxxxxxx
I'm a sales rep for Avon, All Mixed Up Gourmet and Scentsational Delights.
Contact me for more info.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jill O'Connell" <jillocon@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 3:15 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
Julie, Good to hear your voice on the list again.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Julie & Miss Mercy" <mercy421@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:11 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
> But the PQ books are there to represent the exact copy of the print book,
> basically. That's what it is...a digital file, most likely, used to make
> the
> print books in the first place. I agree that hyphenated words between
> pages
> are annoying but they're not hard to fix. That's not something I think we
> need to spend our volunteers' time on. There are a lot of other books that
> need validating that our volunteers could spend their time on. Those books
> might actually have scanning errors, where the publisher quality books
> wouldn't. Take care.
> Julie Morales
> Email and Windows Live/Windows Messenger:
> inlovewithchrist@xxxxxxxxx
> I'm a sales rep for Avon, All Mixed Up Gourmet and Scentsational Delights.
> Contact me for more info.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike and Lori Castner" <mandlcastner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:50 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
>
>
> Maybe what we need is validators for PQ books. One of the things I hate
> most is words that are hyphenated between lines, and worse yet, between
> pages. There may be other things to look for. We want the best reading
> experience we can possibly deliver and my example of hyphenation would
> certainly detract from any book, including a PQ book.
> Mike
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:46 AM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
>
>
>> Reading the thread about publisher quality submissions, I thought it was
>> worth weighing in with more information. The mission of Bookshare.org
>> is to get better access to books to people who cannot effectively access
>> print. I know our volunteers support that mission.
>>
>> I consider the issue of possibly losing quality content, that is,
>> something that makes the reader experience better (like picture
>> descriptions), is always worth looking at. That's because it ties
>> directly to our mission. I hear people worrying about throwing out
>> children's picture books with picture descriptions and replacing them
>> with publisher-supplied versions. But, I don't think we have any
>> children's book publishers providing us with digital content. We're not
>> focusing on them, because there isn't a big win there (34 words in a
>> kids book is not that hard to get in by typing). We're focusing on
>> textbooks and technical books, and getting trade books when we can.
>> Scholastic gave us permission to provide their books globally, but
>> didn't give us any digital content. So, I think folks should not be
>> worrying about a surge of kid's picture books with 34 words in place of
>> 34 words plus nice picture descriptions.
>>
>> The other important part of publishers supplying content is that almost
>> all of them provide these global rights that enable us to expand
>> Bookshare.org to serve all print disabled people globally. That's
>> really important for our mission: many more people need us than live in
>> the U.S. Publishers often require us to replace the scanned books with
>> the digital books, to minimize the concerns publishers and authors have
>> about having errors in their work. This is a big, big concern of
>> authors, and we have to acknowledge that as creators of the wonderful
>> books we share, we have to respect their concern that their works be
>> communicated in the as close to the original quality as possible. Our
>> community has benefited from the dedication of our validators to ensure
>> these outcomes.
>>
>> The issue of "throwing away" volunteer work to give the reader a better
>> quality book seems like an odd issue. Improved quality content has been
>> the number one issue of Bookshare readers when we survey them. It's
>> certainly the number one issue of ex-Bookshare.org users, and I take our
>> failure to serve them seriously. Our volunteers have always embraced
>> making better scans of books. Why does this change when it's the
>> publisher volunteering a better version of the book? We wouldn't keep
>> the fair version of a scanned book around when it was replaced with an
>> excellent scan: we've been throwing them away with our dedication to the
>> readers. Plus, the publisher quality books are increasingly coming to
>> us with improved navigation options.
>>
>> Let's be honest: volunteers will continue to be the primary source of
>> books for a long time: years and years. 95+% of the books in
>> Bookshare.org is there because someone in our volunteer community
>> decided it was worth having. If someone complains that a book isn't of
>> the quality it says it is, we'll replace it with a better one. That's
>> we've decided that if one person in our community thought it was
>> important to have, we will invest the money to buy the books and the
>> energy to replicate it.
>>
>> We're here fighting for equality for readers with disabilities. The
>> "powers that be" are pretty clear about mission and our entire team
>> spends a lot of time trying to figure out the best ways to accomplish
>> that mission. My suggestion is that when there are changes (and there
>> are going to be a lot of really great changes) to Bookshare.org, that we
>> can assume that everybody on the Bookshare.org team, users, volunteers
>> and staff, are all trying to accomplish the grand goal: the highest
>> quality books at the same time as non-disabled people have them, for the
>> same of lower price!
>>
>> Jim Fruchterman
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