Create One-Stop Search Tool for Volunteers
When deciding whether or not to scan a book volunteers should be able to key in the title, author name and do One search to pull up info on whether it is in the collection, on the books being scanned list, on the checkout list, in process, with one of our outsourcers, or being handled by a publishing partner. Lack of this tool is resulting in duplicated efforts.
pavikaye
shared this idea
4 comments
-
Monica Willyard
commented
This issue has two sides, the technical and the emotional. Both matter since morale directly impacts how volunteers work.
It's especially important to those of us who buy and scan books to know which publishers are donating content so we can make good choices about what to buy. Many of our volunteers are living on limited incomes, so a $20 book is a more substantial purchase than it would be for a working person. When we buy, scan, and proofread a book and then have it replaced a month or two later, we feel like we've wasted our time and money.
We embrace and understand the value of publisher quality books. We don't want to stop them. We just need to know how and where to invest our resources so we feel we're on the same team. Being on your team matters a lot to us, more than most Bookshare staff know.
As a short-term solution, could Bookshare post a central list of publishers who have donated content, including their imprints? I didn't know until this week that Random House owns William Morrow. There is a lot of confusion about which publishers are safe bets to scan, and it would help stop the guessing and rumors to have a central list somewhere that we can read when we're looking at buying books.
-
Kim Friedman (TEST)
commented
I'd really like it if there was a place where I could read a submitter's comments on his/her scan so a proofreader would know about any problems that occurred or were solved. I'd also like it if there was a place where proofreaders could comment about a scan. It would be nice and would ease my conscience if I had to release a book or reject itthen the submitter would know my thoughts on the scan. Commenting places should be easy to find. Maybe there could be a link called "comments". Kim Friedman.
-
Cindy commented
This suggestion has been made several times recently.. My understanding is that such a lone-stop list is inprocess
-
Rick Costa (TEST) commented
Yes! Am wondering if lost hours & dollars because such a tool is not available is truly appreciated? In addition to volunteer productivity is the affect of lost time by staff: Pavi, Carrie, Linda, Lindsie, Rick, Amy, + ?.
I think Carrie's suggestion is a good one: allow volunteers access to Show All States in Advanced Searches. This would provide a one-stop search for:
1. Checkout List,
2. Books in Process (even at showing "Number of records per page" = 100, today this list has 3 pages, not atypical, which means doing 3 searches here),
3. Awaiting Approval (aka Approval Queue; at 100 records per page this list usually has at least 2 pages, which means doing >=2 searches here),
4. Recently Rejected Books, and, what's left?
5. oh! the Library!
That's 8, 8 searches in 1!
