DVD Project Volunteering

This page is for those who are interested in helping Project Gutenberg distribute its materials to people who do not have high-speed access to the Internet. We strongly encourage all potential DVD Project volunteers to become very familiar with this page and its contents before getting started. Please also be sure and contact us first, to make sure we still need volunteers from your area.

Note to International Volunteers

In the past, individuals from outside the United states and Canada have helped us greatly in efforts to burn and mail discs. However, since we have started mailing manufactured discs, this is no longer practical nor economical. Nevertheless, if you live outside the United States and Canada, we may still need your help in verifying addresses and other administrative work, so feel free to share your information with us, and we will let you know.

Of course, there are many other ways to help Project Gutenberg, no matter where you live. See the Volunteering for Project Gutenberg page for some ideas.

Prerequisites

Before you volunteer, please make sure that you have the following resources available:

• A computer with a printer (to print package insert letters and possibly mailing labels)
• (Optional) A CD burner with burning software capable of burning ISO images. Many times such software will come bundled with your computer or burner. If your burner does not include suitable software, we recommend doing a web search as there are several good freeware utilities that will do the job. If you don't know whether or not your software includes .iso burning capabilities, we recommend you check the documentation or simply ask us.

The CD burner is optional, because we don't get many CD requests. So, if you don't have a burner, you can still mail DVDs for us, which we will send you.

You will also need the following supplies (more specific information is provided under the heading Note on Mailing Supplies, below):

• (Optional) A copy of the Project Gutenberg CD which you may download (see how to download for details) or you may request that copies be sent to you (see if you cannot download for details)
• (Optional) Blank CD-R media
• CD/DVD sleeves
• Mailing envelopes of sufficient size (we recommend 6" X 9"
• (Optional) Mailing labels (many people just write or print directly on the envelopes
• Blank letter-size printer paper
• Customs forms (see below)
• A stack of pre-manufactured DVDs (We will send you these)

Finally, you should subscribe to the DVDVol mailing list, as detailed below.

Let Us Know

To indicate your willingness to volunteer, please send e-mail to cd2010_AT_pglaf.org that states your name, location, and an e-mail address that you would be willing to share with those to whom you send Project Gutenberg materials. Please also let us know if you will be mailing CDs, or just DVDs, and about how many you think you can send per week. You may not wish to use your primary email address because it will be sent to everyone to whom you mail discs and it might cause you to receive spam.

Once we receive your information, we will send you a copy of the form letter that accompanies each set of Project Gutenberg materials. You will need to personalize the contact information at the bottom of the page prior to printing copies of the letter. We will also send you a small stack of manufactured DVDs to get started with. Once you notify us that all the discs have been mailed and any problems have been resolved, we will create an account to provide you with access to the CD and DVD request tracking database.

Getting Ready

You will need to obtain an initial inventory of supplies before you can begin. If you wish to be reimbursed for your out-of-pocket expenses, you must save the receipts for your expenses and submit them for reimbursement. Otherwise, Project Gutenberg thanks you for your donation.

Where you are located and how much time you intend to donate to the project will determine the appropriate quantity of materials to purchase. Many of the necessary items are available for purchase in a variety of quantities. Often, bulk purchase lowers the per-unit price. However, laying in a multi-year supply of a particular item ties up funds that could be available for other purposes. A local office supply store, an office supply chain (such as Staples http://www.staples.com, Office Depot http://www.officedepot.com, or OfficeMax http://www.officemax.com), a discount store (like Wal-Mart http://www.walmart.com or Target http://www.target.com), or a shopping club (like Sam's Club http://www.samsclub.com or Costco http://www.costco.com) would stock the supplies necessary to get started.

Again, don't purchase anything before you contact us and we discuss your particular situation and how many discs you will be mailing.

Note on Mailing Supplies

Please coordinate all bulk supply purchases through cd2010_AT_pglaf.org.

Since the release of the July 2006 edition of the Project Gutenberg DVD and the change in our request system to allow people to request two copies of the DVD, the demand for copies of the CD has declined precipitously. It may make sense for new volunteers to concentrate specifically on distributing the DVD and allow existing volunteers to distribute CDs as the current level of requests for them are such that one person can easily handle them all.

One of our U.S.-based volunteers notes that blank media and CD/DVD sleeves are available at competitive prices from Shop4Tech http://www.shop4tech.com. If you visit their web site, create an account, and join their mailing list, they will send periodic emails announcing their special promotions. The emails typically come every Monday, and offer discounts of between 10-20%. Note however that if you do not live in the United States, there are almost certainly less expensive alternative suppliers that serve your country. Also, if you are only ordering a small amount of sleeves or other supplies, a local store might be cheaper than ordering online, so shop around.

Other supplies are available from DiscountOfficeSupplies http://www.discountofficesupplies.com. They too offer periodic e-mail promotions to members of their mailing list. Useful supplies include the following:

• 6" x 9" (152 mm x 229 mm) kraft paper catalog envelopes without metal clasps. A box of 500 is their part CEB03343.
• 4" x 2" (102 mm x 51 mm) laser mailing labels (10 up on a page). These labels are appropriate for mailings within the U.S., and to Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. A box of 2500 labels is their part CEG03420.
• 3-⅓" x 4" (85 mm x 102 mm) laser mailing labels (6 up on a page). These labels are appropriate for general international mailing. A box of 600 labels is their part CEG03212.

You might want to obtain a small letter moistener, a sponge, or a barely damp folded up paper towel to help seal the envelopes once you have stuffed them.

Some of our higher volume volunteers choose to use mailing labels for the sake of convenience. However, this is not a requirement. You should feel free to simply write or print directly on the envelope if that works better for you.

If you do decide to use labels, two different sizes of mailing labels are appropriate because addresses in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and some other countries, tend to have fewer, longer, lines, while addresses in other countries tend to have more, shorter, lines.

The process of completing the customs forms manually can become quite tedious. If you are mailing a lot of discs, it might make sense to purchase a pre-inked stamp of your return address to help ease the process. Such a stamp allows one to complete the Sender's Name and Address portion of the customs form in one easy motion. A supply of 1" x 2-⅝" (25 mm x 67 mm) laser mailing labels (30 up on a page) may also be useful. (These labels are available from Avery as part number 5160, and from other vendors as well.) One can copy each intended recipient's name and address from the large mailing label for the outside of each package on to a small label used to complete the customs form. The font size on the small label can be adjusted to ensure that the intended recipient's entire address fits on the label (the font can get quite small at times). Then, after completing all 30 labels and printing that page, one can complete the Addressee's Name and Address portion of a customs form by applying the corresponding label to the form.

U.S. Mailing Rates

Recently, some of our volunteers have reported being charged non-machinable rates by the U.S. Postal Service. However, we have reviewed the rules governing when non-machinable rates should be applied, and our packages do not seem to qualify. Furthermore, the USPS sends millions of mail pieces each year that are very similar to ours to and from Netflix and BlockBuster, and they are not charged the non-machinable surcharge. Unfortunately, not all postal employees are fully conversant with what does and does not qualify for the non-machinable surcharge. If you find this to be the case with your local postal workers, you might have to speak with the post master. Be prepared to cite the specific rules governing non-machinable packages (they can be found at http://www.usps.com/prices/USPS_prices_nm_pop.html) and also mention the fact that your packaging is very similar to that of Netflix and BlockBuster.

This of course means that you need to make sure that the envelopes you are sending do in fact not require a non-machinable surcharge. This should be the case if you are using a non-cardboard non-padded paper envelope measuring 6" by 9", and have only placed a single sheet of paper inside, along with the two DVDs in paper sleeves. Also, the envelope must not have any metal clasps, strings, or other accessories. You should also try to get the discs to settle at the bottom of the envelope. Doing all this should give you a final weight of 2.0 ounces, or less.

If you do have any problems of this nature with the USPS, please contact us and let us know. We will try to help.

International Mailing from the U.S.

If you are mailing from the United States, you need to complete a customs form for each international mailing and each mailing to an APO or FPO (military) address.

You can obtain a small supply of customs forms from your local Post Office, or you can order multiples of ten (up to fifty) from the USPS.com web site. Go to the Postal Store and search for Form 2976. You will need to create an account for yourself, but the forms will be shipped to you at no cost. Once you have received a shipment of customs labels, and you have your customer identifier available, you can call a toll-free number and request a larger quantity of customs forms than the Postal Service web site will allow you to order.

Form 2976 is also available electronically at https://webapps.usps.com/customsforms/ Be careful, the form you want is form 2976, not form 2976A.

Burning CD Media

• Use the published MD5sum to verify that you have a good copy of the CD master file before you begin.
• When you burn media, turn on the verify feature of the burning software. In the verify pass, the software reads back the data from the newly burned disc and compares it to the source file to ensure that the media was burned correctly.
• Label the new media with a permanent marking pen (like a Sanford Sharpie® marker). Do not use an adhesive label of any kind on the disc. A label can change the rotational physics of the disc or its aerodynamics as it 'flies' within the CD or DVD drive. As a label ages, it may detach from the disc and become lodged in the CD or DVD drive. It has also been found that labels, even if specifically designed for CD or DVD media, tend to warp the data layer over time.
• Carefully write the following on the disc: "Project Gutenberg CD, August 2003" and optionally the web address "gutenberg.org"
• After the marking dries, carefully insert each disc into a paper CD/DVD sleeve.

Using the Request Tracking Database

Once you have printed a supply of insert letters, prepared a quantity of media, and obtained a supply of envelopes, then you can assign yourself requests to complete. Or, if you wish, you can assign yourself requests first, and then prepare them.

As a new volunteer, you will be provided with the URL for the Request Tracking database, your enrolled e-mail address, and your assigned password. With this information, you can log in. If you have cookies enabled, you should only need to login once, but keep your password on file, just in case.

The main window presents an administrative message and a personalized greeting. The next line presents five options: Requests Awaiting Checkout, Your Checked out requests, Requests you've completed, Requests you marked not completable, and Requests you flagged for administrative attention. Requests Awaiting Checkout is selected and the list of requests waiting to be fulfilled appears below. The oldest requests are at the top of the list. If you scroll down to the bottom of the list, there are two different filters you can use to view a selected subset of the requests. You can choose to view requests for a particular media type or requests from one or more countries. When you select the desired option(s) and click the Apply Filter button, the system filters the requests and displays those that meet the specified criteria.

Next to each request is a check box. You can click the box to select the corresponding record. At the top of the page are two buttons: Select all and Select range. If you click the Select all button, the system checks the box for every visible record. If you want to select a contiguous subset of the visible records, you can check the box for the first record you want to select, check the box for the last record you want to select, and click Select range. The system will check the boxes for the records in the gap between the first and last records.

After you select the records, you can click the Check Out button at the top or the bottom of the page. Doing so brings up a reminder that you should check out only as many records as you plan to process in the next few days. After you acknowledge the reminder, the records will be moved from the waiting for checkout list into your list of checked out requests.

If you find you've checked out more requests than you can handle, or if something comes up and you aren't able to fulfill some or all of the requests you've checked out, please don't feel bad about checking them back in to the queue for someone else. Life happens, and most volunteers have had to return requests to the queue for one reason or another. Just remember that it's much better to return requests you can't handle to the queue as soon as possible so that they can be fulfilled by someone else, and so those folks don't have to wait longer than normal for their discs.

If you click the list of Your Checked out requests, you will see each of the records you have assigned to yourself. The media type is on the top line, above the e-mail address specified in the request. If you click the e-mail address, the system will open a window in your e-mail program to allow you to correspond with the person who submitted the request. (Note that this may not work if you use a web-based email service; in that case, copy and paste the email address into an email message.) The next line has the name specified in the request and it is underlined as a link. If you click the name link, the system opens the request in an edit window so you can make corrections or add comments to the request. There is no "undo" feature, so do be careful if you use this feature.

It is not all that often that you will need to email someone directly. While we ask that people take care to enter complete and accurate address information, they do not always do so. If you see an address that appears to be incomplete, take the time to respectfully ask the requestor to verify the address for you. While you wait for a response, you can add a comment to the request explaining the situation and close the request as not completable. When you receive a response, you can reopen the request, fulfill it, and close it again as complete.

If you ever encounter a request about which you have a question or problem, or a request which simply needs to be brought to someones attention, you should mark the request for administrative attention and email us. (Don't forget the last step of emailing us, as we don't automatically know when something has been checked in for administrative attention.)

The media type specified in each request is a guide to what media to send. However, you should verify that the comments included with the request do not contradict the requested media type.

Why we ship two discs

In the United States, postage is computed by the ounce (where one ounce is 28.3495231 grams according to Google). The weight of one disc in its sleeve, a letter, and an envelope is just more than one ounce and postage for two ounces is required to mail the package. However, the weight of two discs in sleeves, a letter, and a paper envelope is just less than two ounces. One disc or two, the postage in the U.S. is the same!

Recently, however, requests have come in for two copies of the DVD accompanied by the comment, "please send me a CD too." The third disc would cost additional postage, if mailed from the United States. It is up to you as the volunteer to decide how to handle these cases. If you plan to submit your expenses for reimbursement, please do not send more than two discs to fulfill each request. You may choose to honor the media specification and ignore the comment by sending two DVDs or you may choose to ignore the media specification and honor the comment by sending one CD and one DVD. If, on the other hand, you are covering the costs yourself, then you may do as you wish, provided you send at least two discs. If you are located outside the United States, then postage in your country is most likely billed by the gram. Depending on the exact breakpoints in your country, each additional disc may increase the cost of postage. In that case, priority should be given to distributing the DVD (because it includes more material). If you need to discuss a particular request to determine if it merits exceptional treatment, please do not hesitate to contact cd2010_AT_pglaf.org.

Download a batch of addresses

From the Your Checked out requests page, you can download the requests as a comma-separated values (CSV) file or as a text file through one of the links provided on the page. One of these files could be used with a spreadsheet, database, or word processing software package to produce custom mailing labels through a so-called "mail merge" operation. Check your software's documentation to learn how to do this.

Validating addresses

A number of resources are available to help you address packages in a manner that will allow the Postal Service to process them most efficiently and effectively.

• For U.S. domestic mail, you can validate a delivery address and obtain the corresponding ZIP+4 code at the ZIP Code Lookup page at USPS.com.
• One of the best resources for information on international mailing is Frank's Compulsive Guide to Postal Addresses, which is maintained by Frank da Cruz of Columbia University, New York City.

Note that we often receive India addresses that lack a 6-digit PIN code. This appears to be a mandatory but often forgotten portion of the address, and mailings without it will usually be returned as undeliverable.

One per customer

Because we are a small organization, staffed solely by volunteers and funded entirely by donations, we have established a policy that we send one set of materials per person who requests them. We have some measures in place in an effort to identify and cancel duplicate requests, but if you can keep your eyes open for any we might have missed, we would appreciate it.

You are not alone

If you have any questions or if any issues arise during your volunteer service, please do not hesitate to send e-mail to cd2010_AT_pglaf.org. We also strongly encourage all of our volunteers to subscribe to the DVDVol mailing list. You can do so at http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo/dvdvol.