Volunteers

Volunteer Profiles

Bookshare’s goal of dramatically increasing access to books by people with print disabilities has been achieved through dedicated Volunteers from the beginning. The Bookshare volunteer community is a vibrant mix of people, both with and without print disabilities, who love books. Techies and non-techies, grandmothers and high-school students, science-fiction buffs, published authors, teachers, artists and others, all come together virtually to help make the printed word accessible. Here is what some Volunteers have to say about volunteering for Bookshare:

 

Sangeetha Tripuraneni

My name is Sangeetha Tripuraneni and I have been volunteering at Bookshare since December 2009. My main task at Bookshare has been to develop a ‘Bookshare University Volunteer Program.’ The main goals of this program are to promote Bookshare’s visibility on college campuses, add more post-secondary books into Bookshare’s collection, obtain more Volunteers to help Bookshare with image descriptions to sign up more Bookshare Members and increase Member usage. Developing this program has entailed everything from brainstorming and outlining a plan, researching and choosing two schools for a pilot program, developing relationships with Bookshare’s contacts at the schools, and working with other Volunteers to develop materials/literature for the program.

 

Dan Beaver

I have been a Volunteer for Bookshare for several years.  I first purchased a membership because of needing some of the technical books that Bookshare offered.  After a year, I decided to give back to the community by helping to add more books to the collection.
I purchased a very plain and normal Epson flatbed scanner for the work.  It and the Fine Reader software I purchased have served me very well in doing the scanning.

I am blind and have been so since the age of eight years… Over the years I have validated many books and have submitted a large number of books that I scanned.  My wife has also scanned books and asked me to submit them.

 
One of the largest group of books we submitted are the Boy Scout Merit badge booklets...  This was done in order to support a young man we are very close to in his efforts to earn his Eagle.  It was fun working alongside other Volunteers in our community who helped with this project.

 

Mark Lind-Hanson

My name is Mark Lind-Hanson and I have been a Bookshare Volunteer for about a month. I have a background as a musician, artist and writer, and also ten years of experience working in nonprofit administration. As someone who has a love for books, Bookshare’s mission to increase access to books for people with print disabilities is highly appealing to my own sense of social purpose.

Currently I work part-time for Book Buyers, a used bookstore in Mountain View, and on one day a week I contribute some time to Bookshare. What I have been doing is editing metadata for books submitted for approval.

 

Jamie Prater

I've been a Member and have been volunteering for almost two years…
My first book was a child's book that I had read and I proofread it and added it to the collection.  It thrilled me that because of me, one more book was added that people could download and enjoy and the collection number was higher.
I remember what it was like not to have the number of books accessible to me and to not be able to read to little kids when they would hand me a book, and not to get to read all of what the other kids were reading, so Bookshare involvement both as a Member and a Volunteer has changed my life in many ways. 

 

Learn more about volunteering. 

 

Getting the Help You Need

When you sign up as a Volunteer to scan or proofread books, you will have access to the Bookshare staff to orient you and hundreds of helpful, experienced Volunteers to answer your questions and provide mentoring.

 

Volunteer Manual

The Online Scanning and Proofreading Manual provides comprehensive guidance for scanning, proofreading and uploading books to the Bookshare library.

 

Volunteer Discussion List

You can join the Volunteer Discussion List and meet other Volunteers. This is a very active list, so you may want to subscribe to the digest form. That way you’ll only get one email a day containing all the emails sent to the list that day.   

 

  • Subscribe: Send a blank email with “subscribe” in the subject line to: bksvol-discuss-request@freelists.org        
  • Digest Form (one email per day): Once you have subscribed, send a blank email with “set digest” in the subject to: bksvol-discuss-request@freelists.org
  • Manage your subscription. 

 

Quick Links to Resources      

 

Volunteering

 By volunteering with Bookshare, you not only help add books to the library, you also become part of a very lively community. Bookshare Volunteers hold contests, sponsor books clubs, and run a discussion group. In addition, Volunteers with print disabilities can earn credits that can be applied to their membership fees.
If you scan a book for your own use and want share the book file with others, or if you just want to help build the Bookshare library with other efforts, join us as a Volunteer. We have a number of opportunities currently available. Sign up to Volunteer.

In This Section

Overview of Volunteering

 

Volunteers are essential to the success of Bookshare. They determine the content of our library as they scan and proofread books from their homes. Volunteers also apply their skills in design, software development, marketing, research and more, either remotely or at our Palo Alto, California offices.

 

For a more complete overview of volunteering at Bookshare, including a listing of open positions, visit our Volunteer Overview page. Or, if you are ready to sign up, visit our Volunteer Sign Up page.