~Box-O-Books Tutorial~

Contents:

click any step below to be taken to that step immediately

if you have questions about Box-O-Books swapping, Click here

1. Finding books, making a Box-O-Books offer to another Boxer

2. Getting a Box-O-Books offer and Responding

3. Boxer Negotiation/Adjustment

4. Agreeing on a swap

5. Printing and Mailing a Box-O-Books

6. Marking a Box-O-Books received and leaving feedback

 

Step 1: Boxer Jack finds Books and makes a Box offer

• Jack places his cursor over Community on the main toolbar at the top of any page on the site, and clicks Box-O-Books in the menu that drops down.

• He is taken to the Box-O-Books area.  On this page:

• • Jack can search all Boxer bookshelves by title, author or ISBN in the first field
    • he can limit his search results by Large Print, binding type and genre
  • He can browse all Boxer books by genre in the Browse by Genre field (choose a genre from the dropdown menu, and select from subgenres that open to the right)
  • He can choose a specific Boxer by entering his or her first name or Nickname in the Boxers field
  • He can check out new Boxers' bookshelves from the links under the Boxer search field
  • He could also find a Boxer in the Forums (there is a Boxer icon on each Boxer's Forum Post)

• Jack decides to check out Boxer Jill T.'s books (he met Jill in the Discussion Forums earlier that day in a discussion of suspense and mystery books):

• • Jack enters "Jill" (her first name) in the Boxers field
  • He clicks her name in the list to bring up her bookshelf. 
• This is what Jack sees:

• He can see (on the upper right of the page) that Jill has never gotten any Boxer Feedback, and she has no Boxer Ratings.
  • This does not surprise him, because she told him she just joined.
  • Once Jill has sent a few Boxes, the Boxer Rating will let other Boxers know more about her Boxing
  • Jack doesn't have any ratings himself; this is his first Box
• Jack chooses books he wants. 
  • He can browse Jill's bookshelf using the buttons at the top of the page; he can
    • browse by genre  or
    • search for a particular book or author, using the buttons at the top of the page
  • He clicks next to each book he wants
  • This adds the book to his Box on the right
  • He clicks the X next to any book in the Box to remove it
  • He finally comes up with 3 books he wants from Jill.
• This is what Jack sees now:

 

• Jack decides to offer this swap to Jill.
  • He clicks under his Box
  • This sends an email to Jill notifying her that she has been offered a Box-O-Books
• Now Jack has to wait until Jill responds.
  • There is no time limit for a Boxer response to an offer
  • The books are not removed from either Boxer's bookshelf until the Box swap has been accepted on both sides
• Jack looks at the swap in his Pending Boxes list in his Box-O-Books area
  • He clicks the Pending tab on the Box-O-Books area page to see the list
  • and then clicks Jill's (or his own) name to see the swap details.
• This is what Jack sees in his Pending Swap details:

 

• He can see from the Details that Jill has no Requestor Conditions
  • If she had asked for books from a house with no pets, he would click now; Jack raises chinchillas

If he were to click Decline, this would cancel the offer, and Jill would get an email telling her the Box-O-Books swap had been DECLINED

Step 2.  Jill gets a Box-O-Books offer and responds.

• Jill gets an email in her inbox saying "OFFER: a Box-O-Books has been offered to you..."

  • She clicks the link in the email to take her to the Box-O-Books area
• She sees Jack's Box offer:

• • She could click if she wanted to send him a Personal Message
  • She could also click this would cancel the swap completely, and send Jack an email from PBS saying the offer had been DECLINED
• But she wants to Box! 
  • First she checks: Jack has no Requestor Conditions listed (if he had she could click to view them)
    • "Good!" she thinks (Jill has pet ferrets, and doesn't send books to members who declare animal allergies in their Requestor Conditions)
  • She clicks under her empty box to go to Jack's bookshelf.

• This is what Jill sees now:

 

• She clicks next to books that she wants
  • She doesn't have to "match" book-for-book, but this is the norm
  • It is customary to give two bound (paperback or hardcover) books for an audiobook you request
  • Many Boxers decide to do "uneven" Boxes (one Boxer sends more books than the other); this is arranged in Personal Messages
  • She chooses 3 books though, to match Jack's 3 books
  • She notices that Jack has put Digital Fortress into his Box although it is also on his bookshelf and wonders about that
• This is what Jill sees when she is done choosing books:

 

 

• She clicks and types a message:
  • "Hey, did you know you already have Digital Fortress on your bookshelf?!?!  You just ordered it again from me!"
  • She sends the PM
• Now she waits for Jack's response.

Step 3: Boxer Negotiation/Adjustment

• Jack gets the email telling him that the Box-O-Books has been UPDATED
• He also gets the PM from Jill in his Message Center (under My Account) and reads it
  • He goes to his real bookshelf and looks at his "PBS Books".  There is Digital Fortress!
  • "Wow, I must be losing my marbles," he thinks.
  • He replies to Jill's PM "I'm sorry, I will remove that book"
• He goes to his Box-O-Books area and clicks the Pending Boxes tab
• He clicks the X beside Digital Fortress in his Box to remove it
  doing this sends an email to Jill telling her the Box has been UPDATED
  • If he was feeling generous (and if he had more books!) he could put some more books in Jill's box, offering them to her, by clicking under her Box ("Books Jill Wants")
  • He could also remove a book from Jill's Box by clicking the X next to it
    this would also send an UPDATE email to Jill
    • He might do this if he had gotten a for-credit request for one of the books she had chosen and wanted to send it out for credit this would be perfectly okay--until a Box swapis accepted on both sides, it is each Boxer's choice how to swap a particular book (for credit or in a Box swap), or
  • • He might do this if he had found out that his copy of one of the books she had requested was damaged (all books in Box-O-Books swaps come from regular PBS bookshelves, and have to meet PBS criteria for swappability)

• This is what Jack sees when he is done:

 

•  Jill gets the UPDATE email and Jack's PM

  • She goes to her Box-O-Books area and clicks the Pending Boxes tab
  • She clicks Jack's name to go to the swap details
  • She clicks the X beside the book "A Painted House" to remove it from her Box this sends an UPDATE email to Jack

• Jill waits for Jack's response

 

Step 4: Jack and Jill agree on a swap.

• Jack gets the UPDATE email, and goes to the Box-O-Books area
  • He goes to the details of the swap with Jill
  • He clicks
    • this sends an OFFER ACCEPTED email to Jill
    • If he had clicked Decline, this would have canceled the Box swap completely
  • He waits for Jill's response

 

• Jill gets the ACCEPTED email
  • She goes to the details of the swap with Jack
  • This is what she sees:

 

 

• Jill clicks 
  • this sends an ACCEPTED email to Jack
  • it also removes all the books from both Boxers' bookshelves
  • it also removes the option to remove or add books to the Boxes
• Jack gets the ACCEPTED email
  • He goes to the Box-O-Books swap with Jill
  • This is what he sees: 

 

 

 

• The Print Address button has appeared, and the Boxer Feedback has been enabled.
• Now both Boxers can print the address and mail their Boxes
  • there is no deadline to do this, although it is customary to mail Box swaps within a week of both sides having accepted.

 Step 5: Printing and Mailing

 

• Jack, who initiated the swap, clicks this sends a UPDATE: PRINTED email to Jill
  • The Box Label Settings page comes up
  • He chooses not to use PBS Printable Postage
    • He scrolls down and clicks Print wrapper Now
    • This downloads a .pdf file with Jill's address to his hard drive, which he can print
    • this also removes the Decline Offer button from Jill's view; Jill can no longer cancel the swap

• This is what Jack sees now on the pending swap:

•  Note that Jack can still click

• • He might do this if he spills water or otherwise damages the books while packaging them
    • there is no way to remove books from the boxes now that the swap has been accepted on both sides
    • If only one book is damaged, he can cancel the whole swap (and start again) or tell Jill in a PM that this happened, and she can send one fewer book in the Box he has asked for

• • He might do this if Jill tells him she can't send the Box he wants after all (if her ferrets chew up her books before she packages them, for example)
  • He might do this if he decides he doesn't want this swap after all
    • Jill has not even printed Jack's address yet, and cannot have mailed the box to him, so he can cancel now, and this would be okay
• Jill cannot click anymore
  • this is because Jack has printed Jill's address, and now can mail the books
  • When an address has been printed by one Boxer, the other cannot cancel the swap.

•  Jack is on his way out to the Post Office, so he clicks
  • he wraps his Box and takes it to the PO
  • multiple-book shipments will usually need to be mailed from the PO due to USPS regulations regarding stamped packages weighing more than thirteen ounces.

• Now this is what Jack sees: