[bksvol-discuss] Re: synopses, quality, etc.

From: "Pratik Patel" <pratikp1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:53:16 -0400
Hello Noel,
 
Oh, you don't have to do any research on it.  You can tell the results
by just reading my mail.  As you already guess, my already truncated
synapsis led me to suggest that truncation would be good for our
synopsis.  I'm possibly your first subject.  My synapsis don't work
right.  When your tired, overworked, and sleepless hands don't follow
the signals submitted by your brain, there's a lot wrong with you,
including--I'm sure--neurotransmitters, dead nerve cells etc.  But, the
first thing I would suspect  are my synapsis!  (Or is it synopsis?
interesting question.)  Oh, never mind that last bit, I'm talking to
myself again.
 
Pratik
 
 
 

Pratik Patel 
Managing Director 
CUNY Assistive Technology Services 
the City University of New York 
(718) 997-3775 
ppatel@xxxxxx 

-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Noel Romey
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 4:17 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: synopses, quality, etc.


Hey Pradic,
Can I mess with you a bit?  Well, I guess there's no stopping me now.  I
agree with you but I'd rather have a truncated synopsis than a truncated
Synapse.  A synapse is the bit that connects your nerves together and
helps send signals to various body parts and your brain.  Though maybe I
should truncate my synapses.  Interesting idea, maybe after I get my
degree I'll start research on it.  What do you think?  LOL

Ner, champion of the typo
At 01:20 PM 4/29/2004, you wrote:


Hello All,
 
I think Guido's suggestion not only accomplishes what the volunteers
need but has an added benefit.  From a marketting perspective, allowing
people to read a truncated synapsis in the listing would give a further
incentive to people to go and look at the entire synapsis unlike some
current approaches that tell people to  "see long synapsis for detail."
 
Pratik
 
 

Pratik Patel 
Managing Director 
CUNY Assistive Technology Services 
the City University of New York 
(718) 997-3775 
ppatel@xxxxxx 


-----Original Message-----


From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Guido Corona


Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 12:52 PM


To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: synopses, quality, etc.




Assuming a redesign of the database is feasible, or even advisable,  one
possible way to handle a single synopsis is to have only a long
synopsis,  which is viewed in its entirety when displaying the book
record.  The same long synopsis would instead be displayed in a
truncated form on multiple book listings pages. 



This would simplify the life of volunteers,  while still presenting
subscribers with a highly usable  and flexible interface. 



Guido 



Guido 




Guido D. Corona


IBM Accessibility Center,  Austin Tx.


IBM Research,


Phone:  (512) 838-9735


Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx



Visit my weekly Accessibility WebLog at:


http://www-3.ibm.com/able/weblog/corona_weblog.html






"Sarah Van Oosterwijck" <curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 


Sent by: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 



04/29/2004 11:08 AM 


Please respond to


bksvol-discuss



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[bksvol-discuss] Re: synopses, quality, etc.







Personally, I like having the ability to see a long synopsis when it is


available, so I would be disappointed to see it illiminated.  I just
wanted


to give my opinion in this unofficial and unsolicited E-mail poll. :-)



Thank you for your answer about the textarea tag.  Some html guides
online


must be incorrect, which I suspected since my tests with it didn't work.


Could you tell me if there is a reason why textarea is used instead of
input


when input would allow for easy limiting of the number of characters


entered? I know there may very well be a good reason for the other tag
that


I just don't know about. I know it will allow 200 characters as a
length,


because I tested that.


Thanks.



Sarah Van Oosterwijck


curious entity at earthlink dot net




----- Original Message -----


From: "Jesse Fahnestock" <Jesse.F@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 9:06 AM


Subject: [bksvol-discuss] synopses, quality, etc.




> Hey all -- sorry I've been offline for some lively conversation! I'll
try


to weigh in where necessary. As always, please feel free to email me
offline


about any of these issues.


>


> 1. Synopses: Just to be clear, while I understand the desire for
synopses,


books missing one or both forms of synopsis should not be rejected on
that


basis, by volunteer or administrator. I have no problem with the urging
and


cajoling of our fellow volunteers to include them, but making them
mandatory


would simply be prohibitive and discouraging for some of our submitters,


especially those who submit in bulk.


>


> 2. The synopsis bug: There are a few cases where the synopsis being


entered will not stick: namely, books that have previously been
submitted


and approved, whether or not they have since been withdrawn. In those
cases


the original synopses will stick. Validators are able to change the
synopses


on brand new submissions, however, so please don't be discouraged! The
vast


majority of your synopses are sticking. We're working on fixing it for
books


that have already existed on Bookshare.org, but it's been a tricky one.


>


> 3. Synopses from other sources: please do not copy synopses from


Amazon.com or any other source, unless it is the same copy found on the
book


jacket. That is copyrighted material, and while it is "quotable" in a
news


context (like Alison's newsletter) it should not be used as the synopsis
in


our collection.


>


> 4. Site improvements: the categories issue is a long-standing one, and
one


we've spent a lot of time trying to plan for. While we do acknowledge
the


need for better category management, making changes would require a
large


amount of database work (not to mention likely manual recategorization),


and, if it were not a completely robust solution, might need to be done
over


and over again. The full-scale answer is to change our metadata source


entirely to something like what the library of congress uses. This
change is


probably a ways out still, but given our limited resources, it probably


makes more sense to make that change once rather than try to take


half-steps.


>


> The notification for users of rejection reasons is on the way, I'm
told.


Look for it in a rejection notice coming to you soon! (grin)


>


> The short synopsis field is a textarea field, and that does not accept
the


maxlength attribute. As Sara (I think) noted, fixing the length would


require javascript, which is problematic for many users. I will float
the


idea for a single synopsis -- keep in mind that this will be displayed
on


the search results page, however, so it would still need to be pretty


limited. You couldn't have a 100-word synopsis there.


>


> 5. Regarding text quality: I love the fact that this group has high


standards -- I'm consistently amazed at the effort being put into the
scans


of others by our volunteers. But I'd encourage us to try to avoid
accusatory


messages when it comes to text quality. There are many mitigating
factors,


some of which have already been pointed out here, and we would be wrong
to


discourage anyone from submitting the books they want to share. So let's


focus on ensuring the readability and legibility of what has been
submitted,


and of course encouraging our fellow scanners with tips and techniques
as


many of us already do.


>


>


> ________________________


>


> Jesse Fahnestock


> Collection Development Coordinator, Bookshare.org


> www.bookshare.org <http://www.bookshare.org/> 


>


> A Project of The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity


> 480 S. California Ave., Suite 201


> Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609  USA


> (650)475-5440 x133


> (650) 475-1066 FAX


> jesse@xxxxxxxxxxxx


> www.benetech.org <http://www.benetech.org/> 


>







Noel Romey
Arkansas, USA
View my insights at my
live journal: http://djner.livejournal.com
<http://djner.livejournal.com/>
References:
- [bksvol-discuss] Re: synopses, quality, etc.
  - From: Noel Romey
[bksvol-discuss] Re: synopses, quality, etc.

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