PerKIDS Newsletter 2009 Fall
Volume 4, Number 1
Starship Adventure @ the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library
BTBL patrons had a great time with the Starship Adventure Summer Reading Program this year! Readers enjoyed books about outer space and completed lots of fun accessible activities.
57 readers participated and reported on a total of 667 books. That's more than a book a week over the course of the summer! Prize winners were:
Preschool
Hayden Laplante (Newburyport) - 40 books read
Alan Quan (Westford) - 42
Kayla Biagiotti (Franklin) - 45
Grades Kindergarten-2
Jake Levine (Wakefield) - 23
Yikai Gong (Revere) - 29
Grades 3-6
Leonida Besson (Dorchester) - 17 braille books read
Amanda Mackenzie (Peabody) - 23
Sam Balcanoff (Greenfield) - 30
Grades 4-8
James Cassidy (Westwood) - 15
Gabrielle Svoboda (Mansfield) - 17
Mikaella Besson (Dorchester) - 18 braille
Young Adult
Daniel Dintzner (Feeding Hills) - 20 braille
Kayla Bentas (Peabody) - 21 braille
Scott Varga (Holliston) - 63
Grand prize winners received a variety of prizes, including gift certificates and merchandise from Adaptive Technology, a Division of Perkins Products. Please join in the fun next year!
Victor Stream Loan Program with Cartridge Adapter Now Available
Over 100 patrons have borrowed the Victor Reader Stream to listen to digital books through our Victor Stream loan program. Some have used the Stream in conjunction with the BARD (Braille and Recorded Download) Program before deciding to purchase their own.
A new Stream accessory allows it to play the new digital talking book cartridges. Now you can try a Stream and cartridge adapter for 30 days on loan and experience the small, portable and easy-to-use option for listening to digital talking books.
To place your name on the list to borrow a Victor Reader Stream, contact the Library. Library staff will pre-load the flash card in the machine with several digital talking books, and will also send you a few digital talking book cartridges.
Adaptive Technology, a division of Perkins Products, is offering the Victor Reader Stream with cartridge adapter (Library Edition) to Library borrowers for a special price of $350 (normally $399). Contact Adaptive Technology at 978-462-3817 to buy your Stream and cartridge adapter at the reduced price.
Sending Braille from Perkins to Iraq
Once again, Perkins has been moved by the plight of the teachers and students of Al Noor School for the Blind in Baghdad. Perkins made contact with a military chaplain in Baghdad and arranged to provide braille equipment to the school.
Also helping the cause are the Sabre Foundation, a non-profit distributor of new books whose warehouse is in Lawrence, and International Relief & Development, an organization that helps send humanitarian aid across the globe.
The Perkins School donated 20 braillewriters and a computerized braille printer with software. The BTBL donated 12 boxes of braille paper and dozens of back copies of Dialogue, an international news magazine for people who are blind.
The equipment was prepared for shipping in Lawrence, then loaded into ocean freight containers shipped to Jordan, and ultimately transported by land to Baghdad.
Perkins has sent braille equipment to 175 countries around the world since it launched its international program in 1987.
Tactile Astronomy Exhibit
As part of the "From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) project, a new NASA-funded tactile exhibit for the visually impaired community is being brought to Perkins.
This exhibit on astronomy adapted for students who are blind or visually impaired is on display here at Perkins from October through mid-December. It is exciting that an exhibit of this type was designed to be accessible from the start, and that this one has braille, large print and tactile images for students and other visitors to examine.
Contact the Library for more information on the exact location and hours.
Tactile Astronomy Books
Contact the Library to borrow these cool print/braille books with tactile illustrations by Noreen Grice:
Touch the Invisible Sky (BR 18011)
Touch the Stars II (BRM 1271)
Touch the Stars III (BRM 1347)
Touch the Sun (BR 17022)
Touch the Universe (BR 17021)
Digital Talking Book Player Update
The digital talking book launch has begun! Equipment and digital books are now being distributed.
Try ordering any of the following collections to start enjoying your digital talking book player:
DBM0001 – Preschool to Grade 2 Collection: contains 33 short titles including Corduroy and Company, The Great Pumpkin Switch, and Amelia Bedelia.
DBM0002 – Elementary School Readers Collection: contains 44 titles including Bunnicula, The Cricket in Times Square, and The Ultimate Indoor Games Book.
DBM0003 – Middle School Readers Collection: contains 49 titles including The House with a Clock in Its Walls, Monsterology, and Science Experiments You Can Eat.
More titles will be added monthly as the digital rollout moves forward. New digital books will be listed in future issues of Talking Book Topics to help you make future selections.
Contact the Library to be added to the digital machine list.
Braille Essay Contest Winners
The Perkins Library sponsored a writing contest to recognize the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth. Braille readers 8 to 88 submitted dozens of entries.
The three winners exemplify what braille literacy can provide to people who are blind: knowledge, self-esteem, independence and empowerment.
Kayla Bentas is now a freshman at Emerson College. Kayla described how she embraced braille when, at the age of nine, she became blind following surgery to remove a brain tumor.
She soon began teaching braille to her family members and friends, assisted her braille teacher, and formed Kayla's Vision, a non-profit foundation dedicated to helping visually impaired people, which now has a $40,000 endowment.
Samantha Lylis, 19, is a Perkins student from Merrimack, NH. In her essay, Samantha described how she uses braille to learn about the world. That exploration began with reading her first nighttime story by herself. In addition to mastering English braille, Samantha has also learned French and Spanish braille.
Timothy Vernon, 25, of Mansfield, MA, says learning braille allowed him to "be on an equal playing field" in the Mansfield public schools. At NSTAR Electric and Gas in Westwood where he works as a customer service representative, he uses braille to take notes. Tim embraces innovations in assistive audio technology, but it is braille that has enabled him to succeed.
The three winners received their prize as part of a special State House celebration. Each winner was presented with a special braille certificate and a cash prize of $100.
Adaptive Tech Offer
Perkins Products is able to give a limited number of high tech devices, including Victor Streams, GPS devices, and magnifiers, to blind or visually impaired students in New England.
Contact the Library for an application and for more information.
Harry Potter @ Museum of Science
Step inside the boy-wizard's magical world through Harry Potter: The Exhibition. Experience more than 200 costumes, props, Harry's wand and eyeglasses and more at this accessible exhibit.
There is a special discounted rate for the ticket to the exhibition if you come with a library pass. You will save $10 per ticket!
Contact the library to get your discount pass to the Museum of Science. We also have passes to the New England Aquarium, Mystic Seaport, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
If You Like Harry Potter!
If you enjoyed reading about the boy wizard, you may enjoy these magical books as well. Contact the library to order these books, or any other books!
Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
BR 13420, RC/DB 50256, JL 110
Early on the morning of his eleventh birthday, Will Dawson, seventh son of a seventh son, wakes to discover that he is one of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to controlling the evil forces of the Dark. For grades 6-9.
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
BR 15992, RC 46186, JL 98
Ella was cursed at birth by a fairy - who thought she was bestowing a gift - to always be obedient. After her mother dies, Ella is at the mercy of two bossy girls and their mother. The enchantment even puts her love for Prince Charmont at risk, and Ella is determined to get rid of it. For grades 3-6.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
BR 13276, RC/DB 44343, LT 7377
Set in Victorian England on an alternate Earth. Young Lyra Belacqua and her daemon enjoy an idyllic life among the scholars at Jordan College. Then her friend Roger and other children are abducted by the Gobblers. Venturing north in pursuit, Lyra encounters an alien and sinister world. For junior and senior high readers.
BARD: Braille and Audio Reading Download
The Library of Congress' downloadable audiobook and magazine service has a permanent home at nlsbard.loc.gov.
Sign up for BARD to download books to the Library's new digital talking book player and to Victor Reader Stream players.
You can download an unlimited number of books, visit the "most popular" and "recently added" book lists, and enjoy the redesigned magazine section.
Access the BARD online application at http://nlsbard.loc.gov.
Drawing with Your Perkins Brailler!
Have you seen the new book Drawing With Your Perkins Brailler written by Library Director Kim Charlson?
Available in large print and in braille, the book gives step-by-step directions on how to use a braillewriter to create 28 different pieces of art. Pictures range from a kitten to a UFO to a christmas tree!
Experience braille in a whole new way! Contact Perkins Products at www.perkinsstore.org or 617-972-7308 to order your copy.
Broadmoor All Persons Trail Universal Access
Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary's "All Person's Trail" is a free, one-quarter mile loop trail that offers a sampling of the sanctuary's field, forest, and wetland habitats to everyone. The interpretive tour in Natick encourages everyone to make an in-depth, sensory exploration of the nature of Broadmoor.
Broadmoor's cell phone tour of the "All Person's Trail" provides a self-guided, audio interpretation of the trail. The Library worked with Broadmoor to create tactile maps and a braille trail script guide.
To listen to the tour by cell phone call 508-530-0002. For more information, visit their website at www.massaudubon.org. Be sure to check it out!
November is Family Literacy Month
Family Literacy Month will be celebrated nationally in November to recognize the important role that family support plays in the success of reading. In Massachusetts, Governor Patrick will sign a declaration promoting the importance of family literacy.
Contact the Library to order a book to share with your family. Some popular family favorites include:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
BR 10098, RC/DB 56114, JL 186
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
BR 16482, RC/DB 61553, JL 407
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Hovarth
BR 17295, RC/DB 53669, JL 431
BTBL Named Network Library of the Year
The BTBL was named the 2008 Network Library of the Year recently in a special ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Presented annually by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), this award recognized our library for demonstrating innovation in providing service and sustaining a record of patron satisfaction. We were selected for this honor by a committee that includes representatives of patron organizations, librarians, and leaders of other talking book libraries across the country.
Serving reading needs since 1835, the BTBL is one of the oldest accessible library programs in the country. For many, the Library is the sole source of accessible reading materials for study, work, or pleasure reading.
During 2008, the BTBL circulated 442,935 books and magazines and loaned 5,027 playback machines and accessories to 22,814 patrons.
The Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library was represented at the award ceremony by Kim Charlson, BTBL Director; Steven M. Rothstein, President of Perkins School for the Blind; and Irving Zangwill, Commissioner, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library
175 North Beacon Street
Watertown, MA 02472
Hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 - 5:00
Phone: 800-852-3133 or 617-972-7240
Fax: 617-972-7363
TTY: 617-972-7690
Web: www.perkinslibrary.org
Email: library@perkins.org
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