[OLPC library] [Testing] gnubook testing

Tue Jan 20 18:57:44 EST 2009

I agree with Carol - this sounds great.  Reviewing / revising offers a
few lovely nuances
 - reviews for a particular audience (not one review for everyone)
 - proofread editions to correct errors
 - revisions by various groups to make derivatives -- again for
particular audiences.

You can see some of this in action in current media libraries in the
various versions of movies made for different display formats,
different levels of censorship (for tv or airplane play), and multiple
variations of directors' cuts.  I don't know the details of how
libraries currently handle such variants, but it would be nice to
mainstream that process and perhaps even improve on the current
default classification schemes.

SJ

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 3:21 PM, Rebecca Hargrave Malamud
<webchick at invisible.net> wrote:
> I agree. With public domain works, the electronic texts could, in theory, be
> revised - I am very excited about that. Improving the OCR is a big focus for
> IA this coming year.
> We do have a review module as part of the Open Library site - we could
> re-instate it to work together on something like this (a much more
> interesting application than simply "review this book").
> The efforts could be a modern day, interactive version of this book:
> http://openlibrary.org/details/rightreadingforc00welsrich/leaf33
> (but with inline annotations)
> :-)
>
>
> At 11:52 AM -0800 1/20/09, Carol Farlow Lerche wrote:
>
> We need to be aware that many of these very old children's books have some
> very unfortunate racist aspects about them, as well as the sexism you note.
> It would be good to have some way to collaboratively review these books as a
> guide for educators in the third world who might want to use them.
>
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Rebecca Hargrave Malamud
> <webchick at invisible.net> wrote:
>
> More information on PD books for kids  -
>
> Robert Miller, Director of Books at the Internet Archive reminded me of the
> collection on the Archive:
>
> http://www.archive.org/details/iacl
>
> Many of these are replicated in Open Library, but the alternative method of
> classification uncovers some gems. (including the Tag Cloud)
>
> Here are some new ones I culled working on the BPL Scan-on-Demand project:
>
> Uncle Wiggly's Adventures
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=unclewiggilysadv00gari
>
> Sea yarns for boys: spun by an old salt
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=seayarnsforboyss00hend
>
> The comical creatures from Wurtemberg
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=comicalcreatures00plou
>
> Dorothy Dainty at school
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=dorothydaintyats1904broo
>
> The ABC Book
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=abcbook00fall
>
> Things a boy should know about electricity
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=thingsboyshouldk00stjo
>
> Handicraft for handy boys
>
> http://openlibrary.org/olpc/embed?id=handicraftforhan00hall
>
> Best -
>
> Rebecca Malamud
>
> PS - I removed this from the somewhat high-trafficked Testing list - seems
> more approproate to the Library-OLPC - would definitely like feedback on the
> appropriateness of the material. Some are unfortunately gender-specific -
> but they are over 100 years old. I forgive the author :-)
>
>
>
> At 5:57 PM -0500 1/15/09, Chris Leonard wrote:
>
> These are not currently ideal for redistribution (read the terms and
> conditions), but maybe you can talk to UVA about some of them.
>
>
>
> http://etext.virginia.edu/subjects/Young-Readers.html
>
>
>
> cjl
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Rebecca Hargrave Malamud
> <webchick at invisible.net> wrote:
>
> Hi, Carol -
>
> I agree! Karen Coyle (http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/) has historically
> suggested that it would be good to engage some children's and young adult
> librarians to offer additional insight. LC has subject headings for
> "Juvenile literature" and "Children's literature," and there is a code in
> MARC for "audience level" - but they don't capture everything that one might
> deem appropriate for children (like "Tom Sawyer"). We could also get the
> audience level from ONIX records as well.
>
> So, yes,  I am in agreement - and will be fun to let users add to these
> collections as well!
>
>
>
> At 10:31 AM -0800 1/15/09, Carol Farlow Lerche wrote:
>
> Hi Rebecca -- It would be awesome to have a directory that showed reading
> levels for the English language books.  In my efforts to provide literacy
> materials to emergent readers via XO (and otherwise) this is an important
> piece of data for the teacher to have available.  It also reveals the dearth
> of materials suitable for emergent readers to read independently, as much of
> the what's available is too advanced and must be read aloud by an adult or
> older person.
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Rebecca Hargrave Malamud
> <webchick at invisible.net> wrote:
>
> Excellent, SJ!
>
> Someone directed me to the International Children's Digital Library (
> http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ ) as a possible source for content. I
> haven't contacted them yet - but will.
>
> Also, I am working with Open Library on a partnership project with
> BPL (Boston Public Library) known as Scan-On-Demand:
>
> http://openlibrary.org/bpl
>
> There are some children's books - unfortunately, they aren't
> categorized by subject (yet) - fortunately, I am redesigning that
> page :-) - I am building a similar collection of the "best of" books
> from what we have scanned - I will send the Library-OLPC list
> anything I find -
>
> In the meantime, feel free to queue up any books you find interesting
> for scanning!
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Rebecca Malamud
>
>
>
>
> At 3:34 AM -0500 1/15/09, Samuel Klein wrote:
>>A quick update about the gnubook ajax bookreader : I'm talking to the
>>developer, Raj Kumar about how to improve the experience on the XO.
>>
>>you can test out the latest reader here:
>>   http://openlibrary.org/olpc/bookreader
>>   http://github.com/openlibrary/bookreader/tree/master
>>
>>and file feature requests and bugs here:
>>   https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnubook
>>
>>Please recommend specific books from the Internet Archive you'd like
>>to see tested on  the demo site; particularly from the children's
>>library collection and this set, many of which Rebecca has tracked
>>down:
>
>>   http://openlibrary.org/details/rightreadingforc00welsrich/leaf33
>>
>>
>>Cheers,
>>SJ
>>_______________________________________________
>
>>Testing mailing list
>>Testing at lists.laptop.org
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>
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