Kim Charlson

Braille & Talking Book Library

Kim Charlson was appointed as director of the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library in 2001, following 16 years as the Service Management Librarian and Assistant Director. She is recognized internationally as an expert on braille literacy, adaptive technology in libraries and library and information services for people with disabilities.

Kim has published Establishing a Braille Literacy Program in Your Community: A Handbook for Libraries and Other Community Organizations. She has contributed to numerous other publications including a chapter on braille library services in the book, Braille: Into the Next Millennium. She is a contributing author to the book, Making Theatre Accessible: A Guide to Audio Description in the Performing Arts, and she co-authored a chapter on audio description in the book Video Collection Management and Development: Perspectives for Multiple Types of Libraries, 2nd edition.

Kim has served on several committees for the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, the American Library Association and is a member of the State Advisory Council on Libraries of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. She is the past president of both the Keystone Library Automation Systems users' group and the Braille Authority of North America, the standard-setting body for braille in the United States and Canada. She is chair of the Massachusetts Braille Literacy Advisory Council, and is the past treasurer of the international Council on English Braille.

Kim is also active in a wide range of consumer advocacy arenas including arts access and audio description, adaptive technology, civil rights, guide dog access issues and special education.

Kim holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and earned a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas in 1984.

In 2004, she was inducted into the Massachusetts Library Association Hall of Fame. In 2005, she was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and was honored as the 2006 Outstanding Alumna by the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences Alumni Society.