Dear Amanda, Roger, Beverly, Deborah, Judy, Larry and Booksharian Friends,
Thank you so much for your quick, informative and compassionate responses.
Amanda, Overall, I appreciate very much the attention to the wish list you’ve
initiated. It’s a big project and delegating resources to it shows your concern
for Bookshare readers. I noticed a whole book about the history and eating of
tomatoes was a wish list scan and as it’s my favorite vegetable and I love
cooking, I can’t wait for it to become part of the collection!
I apologize for repeating misinformation, Amanda. My belief that wish list
scans were outsourced is a case of plucking grapes from the grapevine which
had gone awry. I really thought that your name was on the scans as the
supervisor of the project to scan wish list books as the person who assigned
the job to outsourcers. I just thought they might notice some of the more
obvious blips.
I’m so pampered by the volunteer scans I’m allowed to proof I made the
assumption I could proofread wish list scans without troubling the staff. If
it’s not a drain on staff resources I’ll ask for help in the future. Given my
long-term working style, you know I’ll keep my you hoos for help to a minimum.
It’s pretty obvious how low I am on the learning curve for working efficiently
with wish list books.
As for the outsourcers who scan and proofread books, I’ve never complained
about them, made a negative quality report about them nor have I ever said any
of them needed a BSO. As a user I’ve enjoyed reading the braille version of
many outsourced books.
Beverly and Larry thanks for the info about Kindle books, especially the link
and instructions. Bookshare and NLS provide more wonderful reading than I have
hours in the day to enjoy. I would like to use Kindle as Larry does to help
save money buying books when I need them. Many of the cheap, even free recipe
books also tempt me.
Suggesting the idea to pay people who produce highly accurate scans isn’t a bad
thing. That’s how think tanks work. they generate floods of ideas, good, bad,
ahead of their time, impractical, efficient. Most sink to the bottom but from
the mix emerges the next big thing. If my idea floats off into the vapor I’m
perfectly OK with that but I don’t think speculation is harmful. As I’m not a
scanner the thought wasn’t Bourne of self interest.
Deborah, I’ve never claimed to be a techno savvy or intuitive computer user.
It’s thanks to patient volunteers on this list that I have been tutored to use
word productively for proofreading which have worked until new challenges
occurred on the wish list books. I could have released them but I was inspired
to try and meet the new challenges and to rely on friendly volunteers to coach
me on new skills I might need. For example, just today I learned how to remove
the invisible hyphens or soft hyphens or whatever they’re called, the ones that
don’t disappear when I backspace over them. In a week or two I’ll remember the
name for them and will have mastered a new skill or two to help me shape up
wish list books.
By the way, I plan to continue proofreading the wonderful scans from Evan and
other friends. The wish list venture was my way of staying fresh and growing.
For my part this discussion has cleared the air and relieved my mind. I feel so
much better.
Thanks again to everyone.
Always with love,
Lissi
From: Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2020 8:46 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Deborah Murray (Redacted sender blinkeeblink
for DMARC)
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for other deranged perfectionists
If I am wrong about this then I stand to be corrected, but I don't think the
outsourcers scan books anyway. From what I have seen they seem to proofread
only and I assume that the books they proofread are scanned by Bookshare.
___
Carl Sagan
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder
and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to
nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will
prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront
the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the
Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will
penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
― Carl Sagan, CosmosOn 6/5/2020 6:54 PM, Deborah Murray (Redacted sender
blinkeeblink for DMARC) wrote:
Hi Lissi,
First, the pdf files are used in place of the print book for someone to
proofread with. The pdf is not the copy being proofed.
No one has said that wish list books are’ meant for blind folks. The pdf’s
that sighted proofers can use to proof a book with are necessarily for the
sighted because they are images. No one is discriminating against you.
The wish list books are scanned in-house by staff or interns—no outsourcer is
being paid to do these books.
The books that outsourcers prepare for Bookshare are completely proofread and
are generally of high quality—and that’s what they get paid for.
The idea of paying volunteers real money potentially opens up a real problem
for those volunteers getting any kind of disability and is a terrible idea.
And finally, all of the issues that you listed in wish list book scans are
issues that can be fixed by any competent computer user who knows hw to use
their word processor. Could the scans be better? Absolutely. But largely they
are able to be proofread.
Deborah
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Estelnalissi
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2020 6:20 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for other deranged perfectionists
Dear Valerie, Judy, Beverly and Booksharian Friends,
First I don’t understand PDF very well because my JAWS doesn’t read it but
how can you proofread that kind of file if it isn’t RTF?
Second, I believe those books are prepared by an out sourcer. Can’t they be
expected to deliver books prepared to a higher standard? Are they paid. Are
they adults? Books I’ve proofread from the wish list are full of invisible
optional hyphens, speak in foreign languages with JAWS, have invisible text
that won’t allow me to delete it in the normal ways using Word 10, Have missing
portions of pages. I’ve had to buy the books I’ve done so Evan could rescan
many pages. The dust jackets aren’t scanned at all and I feel Bookshare members
deserve the right to read the book jacket information like any other sighted
reader.
Our volunteer scanners do a far better job scanning books. If the out
sourcers are paid, then why not pay scanners a nominal sum per book in actual
money?
Third, Did I read correctly that wish list books aren’t meant for blind
volunteers? That makes me feel overlooked, and left out as if offering wish
list books for blind proofreaders is too much trouble for Bookshare which was
founded because blind people were sharing their scans of books. So sad.
I remain here, grateful to be able to proofread, which I love doing more than
anyone could believe.
Always with love,
Lissi
If you use
From: Judy
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2020 9:24 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for other deranged perfectionists
*grin*
Judy
On June 4, 2020 8:16:44 PM CDT, Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh well, I didn’t know that.
So I guess my advice to buy the book is kaput. <smile>
Evan
From: Judy
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2020 9:01 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for other deranged perfectionists
Hi Valerie,
Every wish list book scanned by staff has a pdf available from staff that
contains a scanned image of every page.
Send an email to volunteer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, tell them you are proofreading a
wish list book that you'd like to have the PDF for, and list the title and the
author. They will send you a link that lets you view the PDF online, and that
will let you download the PDF as well.
Judy
On June 4, 2020 7:46:44 PM CDT, dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
In recent weeks I have picked up a couple of books off the wish list on
checkout. One of them is a YA book set in Hawaii with a lot of dialect. I have
put a ton of work into it already, realizing that the scanning had not only
stripped most of the italics, but had inferred traditional words in place of
dialect words. I guess my question is more often for sighted volunteers, but
how often do people feel the need to have confirmation from the physical print
in trying to achieve high accuracy? I'm debating about the necessity of paying
$6.50 to have the Kindle copy available to continue making corrections. The
first chapter was available as a peek and it made me realize how much was
missing or improperly handled in the scan. Money is tight, and I hate to spend
the money, but I've also already invested so much in getting this to where it
is now that I almost feel compelled.
Everyone's thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Valerie
