Braille & Talking Book Library
Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library is about so much more than its massive collection of braille and audio reading materials. The library’s services are not just for people who are blind. Those with physical and learning disabilities are often surprised to find out the library can make their lives easier and open up their worlds.
BTBL services continue to grow. Newsline, a service which allows patrons to listen to magazines and newspapers over the phone, just added a sophisticated job search function. And in an exciting collaboration with the Internet Archive the library can now get any reading material that does not currently exist in accessible format and have it scanned with an audio version ready for digital upload in just a few days.
Continued from Perkins Insight eNews ...
Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library Director Kim Charlson likes to surprise people.
"Every time you talk about the library to someone it’s like a light goes on and they realize they’re eligible and can benefit from services or they know someone who is eligible. But they didn’t know they were until they heard us tell the story," Charlson explained.
Charlson, who is blind, knows first hand the value of braille and audio books and the accessibility they provide. She also understands the urgent need to expand those services as the populations of elders and children who are visually impaired grows rapidly in the United States and abroad.
Reaching Patrons with Physical and Learning Disabilities
Charlson wants potential patrons to know the library is not just for individuals who are visually impaired. People with physical disabilities such as Multiple Sclerosis, arthritis, stroke, or Parkinson’s disease as well as individuals with learning disabilities such as dyslexia may also be unable to access traditional print. Audio books can help these individuals enjoy reading again.
The BTBL currently serves over 24,000 people with print disabilities throughout Massachusetts. There are 150,000 additional individuals and agencies eligible for library services, but they don't know about the program or they don't understand they are eligible.
Charlson recently gave a talk about the library in front of a group of people with Parkinson’s disease. People with Parkinson’s, she said, struggle with involuntary shaking and difficulty focusing their vision. Holding and reading something in print can be difficult if not impossible. Many in the audience didn’t realize their physical disability entitled them to have audio reading materials delivered free of charge from the BTBL.
“After I was done talking people came swooping up saying how excited they were to start reading again after years of not being able to,” Charlson recalled.
Introducing Patrons to a Bigger, Digital World
Enjoying audio books has never been easier. Rather than flipping cassette tapes over and losing your place, patrons can now take advantage of the library’s growing collection of more than 4,000 titles in digital format. The library will mail the new digital player to any eligible borrower free of charge.
Now an entire book fits on one cartridge instead of two or three cassette tapes with four sides each. If you hit “stop” the machine remembers where you left off and if you start to doze off simply set the “sleep” timer and the voice will gradually soften and power off in 15 minutes.
“Patrons love it,” says Charlson. “The digital player is so much easier.”
For patrons who wish to download books from the NLS (National Library Service) BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) program, blank cartridges for the new digital player can be purchased online from Perkins Products.
Other Technology Services
To offer an even wider range of digital material, the BTBL is collaborating with the Boston Public Library. Through an expanded program beyond the BARD service, thousands of additional current fiction and nonfiction audio books in the Boston Public Library's collection can be downloaded with a Perkins ecard number and then played on a person’s accessible MP3 player. Patrons can also access the Boston Public Library’s database resources to search for articles using their own personal computer.
“This is a way we’re collaborating with mainstream libraries to have more resources available to our patrons,” Charlson explained.
Do you want to read a particular book that’s only available in print? The library can help with that too.
The BTBL is working with the Internet Archive, a non-profit that uses scanning labs in six different libraries around the country – including the Boston Public Library – to scan print materials and create accessible ebooks that can be downloaded from a website and listened to on a player equipped with text to speech output.
Charlson explained how the process works: “Let’s say a patron wanted a book that doesn’t exist in an accessible format. I can contact the Boston Public Library and say we need this book scanned and made available. It goes into the lab, they scan it and within 24-36 hours that book comes out and there’s a link created on the Internet Archive website for the synthesized speech audio version.”
In the past if a patron wanted a book that was only available in print, Charlson would contact the Library of Congress and request it to be considered for recording by a human narrator. The process could take up to six months .
“You don’t have that kind of time when it’s for a class or your job. You can’t wait six months or more to get yourself up to speed and read the same thing everyone else is accessing,” Charlson said.
In addition to offering patrons a wider range of reading materials, the BTBL makes it easier for patrons to access assistive devices for enhanced literacy. The BTBL has a long-term CCTV loan program and a short-term Perkins Brailler loan program. If you live in Massachusetts and own a Perkins Brailler in need of repair, the library will send it to Perkins Products for free servicing.
Connecting People to Information and to Each Other
The BTBL offers much more than braille and audio books. Newsline, the library’s on-demand or online audio news service, allows individuals to listen to 12 national magazines and over 300 newspapers via a touch-tone telephone. The popular service now includes a new job listings feature.
With content from Career Builder, a national job classifieds provider, patrons can independently search hundreds of thousands of job listings that match their education, skills, and interests. Listings can be searched by category or keyword, saved for later reference, or sent to your own email account. The email will contain the listing and an application form.
“This is a wonderful tool for a population that has a lot of trouble finding out about jobs,” Charlson said.
The library also helps patrons who speak different languages to stay connected. The BTBL offers audio books in 60 different languages and has several foreign language magazines on cassette. Spanish language newspapers are available through Newsline.
The library also offers audio described DVDs which include a second audio track with a narrator’s voice describing the action on the screen during breaks in the dialog and sound effects. Charlson said it’s important for people who are visually impaired to have access to the same movies everyone else is watching. To that end, Charlson commended Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley for increasing the number of movie screens with audio description in theatres throughout the state.
“Movies are one of the ways people share and do things together. Having the chance to watch movies that are accessible offers more opportunities for our patrons to connect with their family and friends in an equal way,” Charlson said.
Charlson often uses her role to advocate for expanded services and rights for individuals with disabilities. She was a guest at the White House when President Obama signed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The legislation requires smart phones, television programs and other communications technologies to be accessible to people with vision or hearing loss.
From books to newspapers, from movies to technology – everything the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library does is about helping people who cannot access traditional print for whatever reason to stay connected to the world around them.
Charlson sums it up perfectly: “I’m always looking for where we are going to go next. Yes, we are a library and, yes, it is all about books. However, there’s so much more we do to connect people to information. We want people to know about all we do, to know how they can benefit, and to take advantage of what the library has to offer.”
Return to Perkins Insight on the Braille & Talking Book Library.
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