So, Roger, are you saying I should not be able to proof books I have bought just because I cannot do them in 2 weeks? That does not sound fair to me at all. I do not check out books to read, I only scan and proof, but far prefer proofing to see the end product and ensure it is as complete as possible, including paragraphing, something many blind people cannot do. I have bought many hard to find old series, and I think I have bought the right to proof my own books. If not, my services would be better used elsewhere... Valerie On Mar 1, 2010, at 9:59 AM, Roger Loran Bailey wrote: > Actually, I am coming to doubt the necessity of the hold system at all. As I > understand it, before I came to Bookshare, there was no limit on the number > of books that one might have checked out. That was changed because it was > being abused. That is, someone would check out books and hold them for very > long periods of time running into years. Okay, a limit of five was > established, but what good does that do if the same books that used to be > hoarded in one's checkout pile was then hoarded in the open on the public > checkout list? The only difference I see is that they were then in the way > when someone was looking for something to proofread and had to skim through > pages of holds to find one. On the other hand, though, I do see some reasons > that it might be good to hold a book for someone. Back in August of 2008 I > had almost finished proofing a certain book into which I had put quite a bit > of work and I had a hard drive crash and was out of commission for a while. I > contacted Cindy and asked her to grab that book when it expired and save it > for me, but I think she contacted Carrie to ask that a hold be put on it for > me. That was a case in which I was glad I could get one held for me. Another > case of a legitimate hold is the case of Carrie having to return a book to > the checkout list for some minor correction. It is only fair that the proofer > who had just worked on it get a chance to correct it, but all too often those > proofers never bother to pick it up again and it just sits there with a hold > on it. With exceptions like I just mentioned you would only find an > occasional hold on the checkout list and then only for a little while. As > things stand, though, it seems to me that the abuse that the limitation on > the number of books one may have checked out was not solved, but just made > more public. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.