[bksvol-discuss] Re: Don't worry! and 2 questions

  • From: "Lori Castner" <loralee.castner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:59:36 -0700

Monica,

I absolutely agree with you.

When someone holds a book in their hands and looks at a page, the person can say "Oh yes that page is blank." But in a electronic format, there is no page to reference with the blankness, so even if the page number is not stripped, the person reading does not know if there was a picture, a chart, a blank page. Writing [blank page] gives the reader the information that someone with the hard copy in hand would ascertain for themselves.

Also, if the page number is stripped a reader does not know for sure (as you said) whether or not something is missing.

Also, I really encourage submitters to scan all pages, blank or not and not to leave out numbered pages that are blank. If numbers are missing in the numeric sequence of pages, Carrie cannot tell if pages are in fact missing.

Cat Lover Lori

----- Original Message ----- From: "Monica Willyard" <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 2:05 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Don't worry! and 2 questions


Hi, Evan, Paula, and Lissi. I make a note that the page is blank for
two reasons. First, I number that page so the Bookshare stripper won't
ignore the page, messing up the page numbering as a result. When the
current Bookshare stripper sees a page with nothing on it, it skips
that page. If all the tool sees on that page is a number, it may or
may not detect it as a page. The tool looks for text on the blank
page, so I tell it that the page is blank. So the stripper sees the
page and keeps the page numbering intact. I'm especially likely to
make time to do this if I'm working on a book that students might use.

My second reason for noting that a page is blank is more subjective. I
try to let the reader know if a page contains a photograph, drawing,
or chart, even if I can't describe them. I want the reader to know
when a page is blank due to having no content rather than being blank
because I had to delete garbled junk that's actually a picture of
something. Again, I'm more likely to do this in a textbook or a book
comminly read by students. It's my way of trying to give the student
as much feedback about the print book as possible, given that I can't
see to describe things.

It used to bug me when I had books from RFB, and the book would skip
from page 120 to 122 with no explanation. I'd ask myself questions
like, "What happened to page 121? Did they forget to read it? Was it a
picture? Did I just miss something important?" I'd have to find a
sighted student and ask them about it. I'm trying to prevent Bookshare
readers from having to do that when I can.



--
Monica Willyard
Visit my blog at http://www.scannersguild.com
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