[Athen] Bookshare manual was ] Great news, for Bookshare.
Kestrell
kestrell at panix.com
Wed Oct 3 12:02:27 PDT 2007
Here is the link to the manual. It is also downloadable, though I had to log
in and go to the volunteer page before I could find the link, which was
named "Volunteer Manual."
http://www.bookshare.org/web/VMMain.html
Kes
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Bailey" <jbailey at uoregon.edu>
To: "Access Technologists in Higher Education Network" <athen at athenpro.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 1:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Athen] Great news, for Bookshare.
>
> How do we get a copy of the Bookshare scanning/formatting manual? /jb
>
> --
> James Bailey
> Adaptive Technology Access Adviser, University of Oregon
> 1299 University of Oregon
> Eugene, OR 97403-1299
> Office: 541-346-1076
> jbailey at uoregon.edu
>
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2007 13:18:52 -0400, "Kestrell" <kestrell at panix.com> wrote:
>> Another point to keep in mind is that one of Bookshare's strengths is its
>> reader volunteers. Many of these readers are college students and college
>> graduates who are far more knowledgeable about digital formats and
>> formatting concerns than the DSS providers to whom they have to keep
>> explaining about new tech. I say this as a former student who had to
>> often
>> explain to the DSS office about scanning technology like Kurzweil,
>> converting text to Daisy or mp3, etc. Bookshare just released its first
>> manual for scanning and formatting books, and I expect this will become
>> increasingly sophisticated as time goes on.
>>
>> Kestrell
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Robert Beach" <rbeach at kckcc.edu>
>> To: "'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'"
>> <athen at athenpro.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 1:08 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Athen] Great news, for Bookshare.
>>
>>
>> > Another point to remember is that BookShare is already partnering with
>> > colleges and universities to collect their scanned books. So, they may
>> > not necessarily have to hire staff who are knowledgeable in textbook
>> > publishing in order to produce good quality books.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Robert Lee Beach
>> > Assistive Technology Specialist
>> > Kansas City Kansas Community College
>> > 7250 State Avenue
>> > Kansas City, KS 66112
>> > Phone: (913) 288-7671
>> > Fax: (913) 288-7678
>> > E-mail: rbeach at kckcc.edu
>> >
>> >>>> "Michael O'Brien" <obriemic at hvcc.edu> 10/3/2007 11:33 AM >>>
>> > All good points, except Bookshare doesn't merely scan books, it cleans
>> > them
>> > up.
>> >
>> > Mike
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
>> > Behalf Of Robert Martinengo
>> > Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 12:02 PM
>> > To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
>> > Subject: [Athen] Great news, for Bookshare.
>> >
>> > The $32 million given to Bookshare certainly speaks well about their
>> > ability
>> > to score big grants, but I remain skeptical about the substance of this
>> > award. I'm waiting to get a copy of the proposal from the DoE, but I'd
>> > like
>> > to offer a few cautionary observations.
>> >
>> > Bookshare doesn't have much experience with textbooks. Their collection
>> > is
>> > primarily novels, mysteries, sci-fi, and romance. They are going to
>> > need
>> > serious upgrades to their infrastructure, and much better relations
>> > with
>> > educational publishers, both of which money can buy.
>> >
>> > They rely heavily on volunteers, as does RFB&D, but volunteers don't
>> > really
>> > enjoy textbooks (As a former studio director for RFB&D, I should know).
>> > Bookshare will have to hire staff with educational publishing
>> > experience.
>> >
>> > Saying they "expect to add over 100,000 new educational titles in high
>> > quality DAISY and Braille formats over the next five years", is a
>> > dubious
>> > claim, for several reasons.
>> >
>> > First, its not the size of the collection that's important (RFB&D had
>> > 100,000+ titles before they went digital), it's speed and specificity
>> > - having the right book at the right time.
>> >
>> > Second, textbooks present challenges to Braille production that require
>> > skilled human transcribers, not just automatic translation, and the
>> > issue
>> > of
>> > tactile graphics must be addressed.
>> >
>> > Third, DAISY/NIMAS textbooks also have plenty of challenges that have
>> > yet
>> > to
>> > be dealt with, and students are going to need major amounts of training
>> > and
>> > support to make effective use of them. Math, and other symbolic texts,
>> > remain a huge challenge.
>> >
>> > The point is, to succeed with this grant, Bookshare will have to
>> > transform
>> > itself from a cozy, volunteer community in to a professional provider
>> > of
>> > professional services. They will try to have it both ways, but it wont
>> > work.
>> >
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