Library Users of America, Inc. Winter, 2003 Newsletter Acting President: Sharon Strzalkowski 127 June Street Apt. 3 Worcester, MA 01602 Tel: 508-363-3866 E-Mail: strzal@charter.net Editor: Judy Wilkinson 528 W. 111th St. #7 New York, NY 10025 Tel: 212 662-9593 E-Mail: jwilkins@panix.com LUA Website: http://libraryusers.tripod.com TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR LETTER FROM THE ACTING PRESIDENT BOOKSHARE.ORG: A NEW SOURCE OF READING MATERIAL by Winifred Downing HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ACB CONVENTION LUA AND JOINT LUA/BRL PROGRAMS by Sharon Strzalkowski HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LUA BUSINESS MEETING, 2002 by Sharon Strzalkowski (Acting Secretary) GREAT PRIZES IN PITTSBURG COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING by Jill OConnell BRAILLE BOOKS QUARANTINED BECAUSE OF MOLD the Minneapolis Star Tribune KIM CHARLSON APPOINTED FIRST BLIND REGIONAL LIBRARIAN IN THE NLS NETWORK Submitted by Winifred Downing PATRONS CAN REQUEST BOOKS FROM NLS RFB&D GOES DIGITAL By Judy Wilkinson ONLINE AND TELEPHONE LIBRARY REFERENCE SERVICES FREE YELLOW PAGE INFORMATION The Soundproof Book: Exploration of Rights Conflict and Access to Commercial EBooks for People with Disabilities by George Kerscher and Jim Fruchterman FROM THE EDITOR On first looking into Chapman's Homer By John Keats Much have I travelld in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told 5 That deep-browd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; 10 Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stard at the Pacificand all his men Lookd at each other with a wild surmise Silent, upon a peak in Darien. In this sonnet, the excited young Keats writes about the joy of discovery he felt when first hearing Chapmans rendering of Homer. He likens that experience to an astronomer finding a new planet or to Balboas first view of the Pacific ocean. (One of the most famous mistakes in all literature is Keatss mistaking Cortez for Balboa.) How wonderful that discovery, when a book has such a memorable impact on us that we want to buttonhole everyone we meet in order to spread the good news. And for many of us the pleasure is compounded when the book is rendered by a great narrator. Over the past months, many of you have written on LUAs listserve about your favorite narrators, the joys they have given, the books that stay in your memory because so beautifully read. In recent Talkingbook Topics I noted the reissue of Alexander Scourbys recordings of Robert Fitzgeralds grand translations of Homers Iliad RC 51266 and The Odyssey RC 43541. As my husband Steven Mendelsohn said when I excitedly told him this news, Only a few things are better than braille, and Alexander Scourby is one of them. Thanks for all your postings about your favorite narrators. And dont miss these wonderful reissues, one of the greatest authors read by one of our greatest narrators. A word about why this newsletter is regrettably so extremely late. We had a number of problems getting out the spring 2002 issue. I became the editor last summer, and that already-late issue was my first. In addition, a number of production problems had to be overcome. Many of you received poorly-formatted braille copies, and the taped issue wasnt sent until weeks after the braille and large print versions. That put what should have been the fall issue (this issue) behind schedule. Then, (ah how a teacher hates to use the computer equivalent of The dog ate my homework,) but indeed yes, in late January the newsletter vanished into cyberspace, a problem I didnt discover until the middle of February when I was on vacationand alas, the newsletter was on my home computer and not on the laptop traveling with me. Because this newsletter links us together, and because many of you cant attend the ACB convention, it is important that this publication be a record of the activities of the affiliate. Thus we have kept a number of articles which are now not as timely as they once were: especially articles concerning last summers convention. Repeatedly in this issue we mention almost simultaneously, last summers activities and this summers upcoming program in Pittsburgh. The program committee is hard at work preparing for our traditional Monday (June 30) and Wednesday (July 2) activities including the wine-and-cheese extravaganza, the raffle and our afternoon programs. News about these events will be in your hands well before July. Increasingly, because computers have become so intertwined with all aspects of interest to library users, our articles deal with issues focusing on computer-related matters, but we have tried to include lots of interesting material for members who dont have such access. And now, while it may not be up there with Chapmans Homer, we hope you enjoy this issue of your newsletter. LETTER FROM THE ACTING PRESIDENT I am writing to everyone as acting pres ident of Library Users of America to express regret and some chagrin at the lateness of our Newsletter. We, the board of LUA,, have been plagued with personnel and computer issues this year, and our newsletter is fitting right into that pattern. My estimate is that it will be out by mid March at latest. I understand well that for many of you members the newsletter is Rightly Considered the vital link with the affiliate, and indeed it is so. I can only hope that your enduring interest in library and information services for blind and visually impaired people will help to keep your interest in our organization strong. As a volunteer affiliate, we certainly have had our ups and downs, and can now only strive to do better. Please feel free to contact me (see details at the top of this newsletter) with questions and concerns. We have, I believe, an excellent convention planned for those able to attend, and will convey that spirit and information in the post-convention newsletter. In the meantime, thank you again for your patience concerning the pending newsletter! Sincerely, Sharon Strzalkowski, Acting President BOOKSHARE.ORG: A NEW SOURCE OF READING MATERIALL by Winifred Downing (Editors Note: Since this article was written, BookShare.org has made a number of exciting announcements. Now you can automatically download books to the BrailleNote or VoiceNote, and OReilly Publishing which publishes a number of computer manuals and has for a long time made their texts available for free to blind persons has now entered an agreement with BookShare.org to make downloading their texts all the easier. The number of scanned books available from this exciting website increases daily.) At the joint meeting of the Braille Revival League and the Library Users of America at the ACB convention in Houston, Texas in 2001, Jim Fruchterman described an exciting new source for accessing books, Bookshare. Fruchterman is well known in the blindness community for his long identification with Arkenstone and Open Book. Several years ago, Freedom Scientific bought the Arkenstone name, leaving Fruchterman with time and energy to devote to a new project, He realized that many people around the country were scanning books that were not otherwise available to blind and visually impaired persons and reasoned that some method should be found for sharing these materials so that duplication of effort could be avoided and more books could be supplied. His first task was to convince publishers that scanned books could be supplied via the Internet without compromising copyright law. He was able to demonstrate that these materials could be made available in electronic form for people who cannot read ordinary print by making the files translatable into accessible formats only with a braille format or an audible Daisy download, and thus the project was launched with the aid of Benetech. Twenty thousand books are now in the collection classified in twenty categories, and more are added all the time with three high-speed scanners in operation at Benetech's offices. The collection grows also from contributions made by hundreds of volunteers who are signed up from all over the country. Anybody in the U.S. who scans books and is willing to share them can be provided with instructions about submitting them, and can receive a reduction in the yearly fee for service. Scanning is not an exact science and the books are not scrupulously proofread, but the material is there and readily available. People who become accustomed to reading scanned material soon become aware of the kinds of errors that most frequently occur and adjust to them, and we can always hope for more improvements in the scanning process. Each book introduced on the Bookshare.org Web site is evaluated with regard to the success of the scan and rated for quality. Becoming a Bookshare.org member requires a set-up fee of $25 and $50 a year for accessing the books. One's disability must be established but can be done by reference to a doctor or a Rehabilitation counselor or through verification of ones NLS eligibility, and the subscriber is required to carefully read the Bookshare agreement and promise to adhere to it in order to ensure copyright protection. Anyone wishing to learn more about the program can do so by going to the Bookshare.org site: www.bookshare.org. He/she can employ a search word and can, without joining Bookshare, download in ordinary format one of the 3,000 books in the collection which are in the public domain and not, therefore, subject to copyright law. In general, the collection emphasizes recent books and best-sellers; but old favorites and the classics may be increasingly represented since Bookshare.org materials can be readily accessed without the delay often experienced in ordering from established libraries. Through a recently-concluded arrangement, the Braille Institute in Los Angeles will render in braille any Bookshare.org book that a patron wishes. The cost per page for transcription is only 8 cents; Formatted braille is 36 cents, and proofread braille must be discussed with Braille Institute to arrive at the price charged. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ACB CONVENTION LUA AND JOINT LUA/BRL PROGRAMS by Sharon Strzalkowski The Monday afternoon LUA session featured a panel on accessible public libraries, a topic that has drawn interest among members for a few years. Pat Shreck, LUA president, and Barry Levine of Illinois made presentations; unfortunately Joel Pinkas of Florida could not be present because of illness. Barry spoke first from his experience as Illinois Library Trustee of the Year. He stressed the importance of becoming active in the local public library, whether or not it was affiliated with the closest regional or subregional NLS facility. He explained that the library is the extension of our public education, and that as blind people we have been denied access for so long that we do not know how to avail ourselves of the information that the library has to offer. This information goes well beyond books, and includes references, music, audio books and the help of the paid librarian. Barry suggested that the local ACB chapters have a virtualtour of the library to learn what it has to offer and to form relationships with the staff people there. Barry acknowledged that the library has been a forbidding place for most blind people, but that in fact librarians are in general very willing to be helpful and need only to be trained to understand our needs and the adaptive equipment that we must use. He said that while technology continues to improve, more and more people visit the library in person, and blind people should become regular partners in the library, even trying to get positions on local boards. They are excellent places to learn about the community and to make input on library policy. Pat Shreck then spoke about some practical aspects of the library. She said that it is often possible to find readers through the library, as people need to do community service for a variety of programs and come there for that purpose. She pointed out that we represent for the library a part of the diverse population that they are trying to serve. We can help the library make a case for more funding and we should therefore take advantage of that fact and remember that we have something to offer. Editor's Note: See the highlights of the business meeting in the following article. The Wednesday afternoon joint session of LUA and BRL featured a panel on radio reading services, a program that has enriched the lives particularly of people who do not have access to the computer. Jay Doudna of Pennsylvania, a former radio reading services director, moderated the discussion, which included Jonathan Mosen of ACB Radio, Mike Duke of Mississippi Radio Reading and Jim Martines from Texas. Radio Reading Service is at a crossroads because of emerging technologies and different consumer demands. In Australia, for instance, it is heard on the regular radio, and people with no print disabilities at all listen while on their way to work and then pick up the newspaper to get more details on the topic they have just heard about. Right now the subcarrier and receiver are still the primary method of delivering the service, but digital radio is being developed, as well as the possibility of phone news services and radio reading services on the Internet. The need for the human voice has not diminished and hence the market for this service continues to be strong. Jonathan and other panel members emphasized the need for consumers to take charge of this service and to watch its content carefully. More attention to blind-related material should be included, and it is hoped that ACB Radio will appear on many of the radio reading stations. Engendering a sense of community particularly for those newly blind people over age 60 should be a target of this service. A final comment by panel members concerned a needed convention that countries with copyright laws should allow information sharing for blind people around the world. The technologies being developed would be wasted without such international cooperation. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LUA Business Meeting, 2002 By Sharon Strzalkowski (Acting Secretary) Bylaw Amendments: To reflect increased dues paid to ACB, Article 3, Paragraph C, Was changed to raise LUA dues from $9 to $12 per member, due no later than March 1 of each year. In addition, the wording was changed from nationaltreasurer to LUAtreasurer to clarify that dues go to our affiliate treasurer rather than to ACBs treasurer. The other major amendment drops a clause which allows for an official delegate vote from each LUA affiliate. The membership agreed to a one-member/one-vote system. Treasurers Report: Our beginning balance was $2100, and our current balance is $3320. We will nonetheless need to do fundraising this year to enable us to move forward with various projects. In Memoriam: Winifred Downing mentioned that three LUA members passed away this year: Juliet Esterly, Alan Jenkins, and Anna Cain. Elections: Winifred Downing chaired the nominating committee, along with members Carol McCarl and Bob Langford. Secretary TerriLynn Pomeroy resigned at the beginning of the convention, and Paul Edwards was elected to fill out her term. Terms were up for Board members Vernon Daigle and Joan Cox and thanks for their hard work was offered. Rachael Ames and Barry Levine were nominated for these slots. John Taylor was also nominated, and Jill O'Connell and Michael Garrett were eligible to serve another two-year term. A unanimous vote was given for the secretary to cast one vote for this slate. Resolutions: The membership supported the following resolutions. Winifred Downing drafted a resolution concerning RFB&Ds current practice of not having braille labels on the carton or the tapes, and of having the track descriptions done in print rather than in braille as before. Paul Edwards drafted another resolution encouraging publishers to make books available in suitable file formats for BookShare.org. Editor's Note: Thanks to all who contributed various amounts to LUA fundraising efforts. Here are the names of the lucky recipients of the goodies. Donna Smith of Arlington, VA - C. Crane Plus Radio/TV, Sandy Sanderson of Anchorage, AK - LUA's $100 Check, Berl Colley of Washington State - $75 membership in Bookshare.org, Bernice Kandarian of Mountain View, California - ACB History on cassette. GREAT PRIZES IN PITTSBURGH As always a highlight of LUA convention festivities is our raffle. Tickets are a bargain at a dollar apiece or six for five dollars. If you'd like to sell tickets, contact LUA Board member Rachel Ames (see contact information at the end of the newsletter.). If you wish to purchase tickets contact any Board member (contact info at the end of the newsletter). Because of mail costs we can only mail tickets if you purchase a minimum of five dollars' worth. And of course, if you're coming to the convention, you can purchase them there from any Board member. And just look at the prizes! 1. A year's subscription to audible.com, along with an Otis digital player to play the downloads. (this prize is worth at least $200). 2. A recorded cassette book from Recorded Books, Inc. 3. A recorded book from Books on Tape, Inc. (For these two prizes, worth anywhere from $60-$90, a title will be selected nearer to the drawing time to insure a great recent release.) 4. The usual cash prize of $100. COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING by Jill OConnell The collection development advisory group (CDAG) meeting was held at the National Library Services center in Washington, D.C. from May 22 to May 24, 2002. The following recommendations were adopted by the group which consisted of six members returning for the second year and six new members. The recommendations are listed in the order of their importance as determined by the vote of the group. The Committee recommends that: 1. NLS expand its print/braille collection from 30 to 40 titles. 2. NLS post and maintain a list of narrators for the use of network librarians, and that the gender of the narrators be indicated on that list. 3. NLS provide author and title indexes in the braille version of Braille Book Review and the cassette version of Talkingbook Topics. 4. NLS select more popular books (such as best sellers) for braille production and that NLS increase the number of popular titles produced in both braille and audio. 5. NLS continue to provide background and statistical information to committee members prior to the annual meetings. 6. NLS select high-interest, short (one volume) books for grade 2 braille production that are suitable for adults learning to read braille. 7. NLS continue to monitor the mechanisms and seek to improve the management of magazine subscriptions by librarians and patrons. 8. NLS continue to select clean, religious, spiritual, and inspirational fiction titles and that the annotations of these titles reflect their clean, religious, spiritual and inspirational nature. 9. NLS continue developing the middleschool-age collection, grades 6-9. 10. NLS produce grade 1 braille titles for young adults and teenagers similar to those that have been done for adults. 11. NLS continue updating its nonfiction collection of books on science, countries, medicine, and movie stars. 12. NLS produce books for young adults with themes of self-esteem and disability coping skills that do not promote the philosophy of a specific organization. 13. NLS continue producing books on the military and veterans. 14. NLS produce more home repair books in braille that are written with good verbal descriptions, not relying on pictures or diagrams. 15. NLS provide lists of reissued braille and audio titles. 16. NLS update its minibibliographies of titles on self-help, mental health, disabilities and self-employment. 17. NLS provide members with the annual listings of the analog titles selected for digital conversion. 18. In view of the shortcomings in using the NLS union catalog via web-blnd, the committee urges NLS and the Library of Congress to implement the new Voyager OPAC for access to the Union Catalog as soon as it can be assured that the interface is accessible and usable by those using screen readers, and that everyone will have a reasonable chance of reaching the system in a timely manner. 19. NLS produce more titles on dog behavior by such authors as Mordecai Siegel. 20. NLS produce more biographies of "unsung" heroes that contribute to community development and welfare. 21. The committee requests that NLS review the technical specifications with a view to describing schematics in magazines such as QST. COMMENDATIONS The Committee commends NLS for: 1. continuing to provide well-written annotations of titles in the NLS collection. 2. including the spelling of the authors' names at the end of audio books. 3. extending the print/braille collection to include titles for older juvenile braille readers. 4. Providing the basic facts and statistics to the members in preparation for this meeting. 5. The committee thanks the NLS Collection Development SectionJim Herndon and staff--for the outstanding facilitation of this meeting. 6. The committee commends the NLS director, Frank Kurt Cylke, for furthering the NLS mission by promoting interest in and financial support for the NLS program. 7. The committee thanks chairman Randy French and secretary Renee Snowten for their excellent work on the committee. I have taken the liberty of doing a little bit of editing of these recommendations for the sake of clarity and brevity. I want to thank all of you who contacted me with suggestions and for all who responded to the five question survey. If NLS adopts recommendation 3, this will solve the problem of knowing whether a favorite author has a book in the current BBR or TBT. It is the committee's understanding that a new mechanism is in place for handling magazine subscriptions as indicated in recommendation 7. NLS is very receptive to updating the tactile map collection but is presently unable to find a good source of such material and welcomes input from tactile map enthusiasts. A magazine for blind gardeners is not in the foreseeable future unless one can be found which is not so picture oriented. Dialogue magazine cannot be circulated by NLS as it is already being produced in accessible formats. However, at least two librarians on the committee stated that their libraries subscribe to Dialogue and make it available to their readers. I would urge all of you to contact your library and urge them to do likewise if they are not currently doing so. I hope these brief comments on the five question survey have been helpful. If you would like to comment on any of the recommendations either negatively or positively, I urge you to contact next year's representative Pat Shreck and let her know your views. I want to take this opportunity to thank the American Council of the Blind and LUA in particular for allowing me to represent them on the Collection Development Advisory Group. It was a most informative experience and furnished real insight into the workings of our National Library Service. Editor's Note: In connection with the above report, Pat Price raises the following concern. NLS is responding to the suggestion that 10 new titles be added to the Childrens Braille collection by reducing the new Braille titles for the Adults collection by 10. Some of the librarians Ive been in contact with believe this is an unnecessary action and the end result could be achieved by a different method than cutting the braille offerings to adults. Some of you might want to pursue this further with your librarians. BRAILLE BOOKS QUARANTINED BECAUSE OF MOLD the Minneapolis Star Tribune FARIBAULT, MINN. One of the states largest collections of Braille books is under quarantine after mold spread in and around some books. Workers discovered the nontoxic mold two weeks ago in the basement of the Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, where about 25,000 Braille books are housed. Catherine Durivage, the librarys program director, said the books make up more than 90 percent of the librarys collection, located on the campus of the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind. Right now we have dehumidifiers in place in order to stop the growth,Durivag said. First we're trying to stop the growth of the mold, then well figure out what to do. After discovering the mold, scientific officials and archival experts advised closing the collection. Preliminary tests indicate that humidity problems involving the heating and cooling systems in the library building, originally constructed in 1959, led to the mold growth. The library has stopped issuing the affected books to its approximately 11,000 patrons but is filling requests through the federal governments National Library Service. Durivage said efforts will be made to clean and save the $1.2 million collection, although many of the books may need to be replaced. -- Associated Press KIM CHARLSON APPOINTED FIRST BLIND REGIONAL LIBRARIAN IN THE NLS NETWORK Submitted by Winifred Downing Kim Charlson has been named the new Director of the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library in Watertown, Massachusetts. Charlson is a recognized national and international expert on library and information services for people with disabilities, braille literacy, adaptive technology in libraries and information access. She had been serving as Acting Director since July 2001 and as Service Management Librarian/Assistant Director since 1985. "After an extensive search, it became clear that Kim Charlson was the obvious choice in leadership for the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library as it expands in resources, technology, and people served," said Kevin Lessard, Director of Perkins School for the Blind. "Her many years of experience and involvement at both the state and national levels in library services for the blind and visually impaired, as well as her advocacy in areas such as braille literacy, access issues, adaptive technology and education, make her an invaluable asset in taking our library forward." Charlson serves on a number of committees for the Library of Congress/National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and as a national member of 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, treasurer of the International Council on English Braille, and is an appointed member of the Governor's Advisory Council on Disability Policy. She is also active in a wide range of consumer advocacy arenas including arts access and audio description, braille literacy, adaptive technology, civil rights, guide dog access issues and special education. Charlson has published Establishing a Braille Literacy Program in your Community: A Handbook for Libraries and Other Community Organizations and has contributed to numerous other publications Including a chapter on braille library services in the book Braille: Into the Next Millennium, which was published by the Library of Congress. She is a contributing author to the book, Making Theatre Accessible: A Guide to Audio Description in the Performing Arts, recently published by Northeastern University Press. In an interview conducted by Laura Oftedahl in ACB Reports (heard on radio reading services throughout the country), Charlson explained that there are 56 regional libraries, usually serving whole states, and about 100 subregional libraries, many of which are associated with local public libraries. Though blind persons have worked in regional libraries since the 1960's, she is the first with a Masters Degree in Library Science, the professional preparation required for librarians, to occupy the position of director. Karen Keninger in Iowa also directs that regional library; her educational background is in English and management. In her position, Charlson serves the people of Massachusetts with recorded and braille material and residents of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island with braille books. Besides the circulation of books, she is responsible for the machines made available by the libraries and for supervision of 30 staff members and a budget of $1 million. Currently she is working on grants to secure digital equipment for talking books and duplicating machines for the recording studio at the Perkins library. PATRONS CAN REQUEST BOOKS FROM NLS Editor's Note: As you can see by the two emails reprinted below, individual patrons can indeed request that NLS produce specific titles. Nona Haroyan makes the point and Judy Dixon gives some further guidelines. Subject: patron request Message-ID: <0.800029215.207832885-1463792382-1027091316@topica.com> Errors-To: Reply-To: librarytalk@topica.com X-Topica-Id: <1027091100.inmta006.14831.1017616> List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: Received: (qmail 10694 invoked by alias); 19 Jul 2002 15:04:59 -0000 Received: (qmail 10689 invoked by uid 0); 19 Jul 2002 15:04:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mx10.cluster1.charter.net) (66.180.247.10) by with SMTP; 19 Jul 2002 15:04:59 -0000 Received: from [66.189.37.141] (HELO LocalHost) by mx10.cluster1.charter.net (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 3.5.9) with SMTP id 41068278 for librarytalk@topica.com; Fri, 19 Jul 2002 11:04:15 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_001C_01C22F14.6B956740" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Hello, As I was reading the e mails posted on the list service on Old English, the subject of patron request, sparked my interest. I don't know if everyone is aware that NLS takes patron requests as well. I have personally recommended several titles to be recorded, as well as recommendations of new authors. NLS has been extremely accommodating. So if anyone has a title they have been dying to read and they can't find it either with Talking Book, or through a rental program with an audio company, then log onto the NLS web site and make a request. It also works for audio companies too. Both Talking Books and audio companies, such as Brilliance, Books on Tape and Recorded Books, value patron input. Nona Haroyan From: "Judith M. Dixon" To: "Judy Wilkinson" References: <5.1.1.6.0.20020722163105.00a4d0e0@pop.panix.com> Subject: Re: patron request MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Hi, Yes, it is true that NLS welcomes recommendations from individuals for titles and authors for talking and braille books. The Collection Development committee doesn't recommend specific titles, they only advise on areas of the collection that need strengthening or some kind of attention. When people make recommendations, if the book is of some kind of broad appeal and of national interest, it has a reasonable chance of getting selected. If it is fairly academic or sort of obscure, then probably not. NLS's guideline is that a book have two good reviews to be selected. There are exceptions to this but not a lot. RFB&D GOES DIGITAL By Judy Wilkinson I first began receiving RFB&d books as a college student in the mid 60s. The little sound scriber disks played about 20 minutes; they were scratchy; they skipped; they wore out quickly. In my early teaching years, I was delighted the books were arriving on the 4-track cassette format familiar to us all today. But RFB&D is undergoing yet another recorded media revolution. Todays books could arrive on CD, contain hundreds of pages per disk, and each disk plays for up to 40 hours. Most books come on a single CD (books that used to average 8-12 4-track cassettes.) Equally revolutionary are the devices for playing these books. I recently got my hands on a Victor Pro (about the size of a traditional answering machine) and put it through its paces. On September 21, 2002, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind named VisuAide, the Victor Pros manufacturer the winner of its prestigious Winston Gordon Award for developing this digital talking book player. The keys were easy to learn thanks to a key describer which allows the user to have each key announceits function. According to Annemarie Cooke senior external relations officer with RFB&D, young school children can learn to use the machine in about a minute. (That means it took me about 20 minutes!) The familiar telephone keypad is supplemented by several keys which allow one to navigate through a book: you can go directly to a specific page number; set any number of bookmarks; set reading speed; and depending on how the book was recorded, you can also advance by chapters or subheadings. In RFB&Ds catalog each book has a number: all books have the prefix AB(audio book). If the book has been digitally recorded, the prefix is DT; for these books you can search for chapters, headings, even subheadings as well as going directly to any page number. Other books with the prefix ADhave been remastered. For these books, one can only use the go-to pagefeature, since that is the only markwhich was set through tone index in the original. As of September, 2002, six thousand titles were available; by this September, RFB&D plans to have a core 15,000 titles available in this CD format. All 91,000 books will still be available on cassette. Anyone wishing to borrow cds must sign an agreement not to copy the compact disks. You can get an application by calling the tollfree number 1-800221-4792. By the way, if youre a braille user, make sure to check your member profile to insure that the braille user box is checked. That way all your book information will be sent to you in braille. (See the resolution passed at LUAs business meeting discussed above.) Did you know that if you received RFB&D services prior to 1995, you can reactivate your membership without any further costs? Now how do we play these new CDs? There are several options in addition to the Victor Pro (which costs about $500). A software package, Victorsoft emulates the Victor Pro on a computer and costs $109. Plextor offers a high-quality digital player and recorder and costs about a thousand dollars. It was thoroughly reviewed last fall on a Main Menuprogram on ACB Radio. In April the Telex Scholar at $250, a diskman size alternative will come onto the market. All of these machines play traditional CDs as well as mp3 files. But if you just want to experiment with this format, the best bet is probably the $25 alternative: you can try the TPB software from the Swedish Library for the blind. This software is cleansimpleand easy to use according to Cooke. But of course, you must have a computer to access the software. Contact: RFB&D by phone - 866-RFBD-585 (732-3585) or visit their website ­ www.rfbd.org. ONLINE AND TELEPHONE LIBRARY REFERENCE SERVICES Editor's Note: Our visually-impaired students are obviously hard at work on those late-night projects, as the following information attests. thanks to the NABS listserve for passing this along. And of course, you can still get most of your reference questions answered using the good old telephone. Most larger library systems have good telephone reference services, and of course, my bias being a part-time New Yorker, I can highly recommend the great New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service which fields questions from all over the world, open MondaySaturday 9:00 AM6:00PM Eastern Time: phone 212 340-0849. HAVE A LATE-NIGHT QUESTION ON NUCLEAR FUSION? When you need some information on an obscure question, a search engine is the obvious answer. But that doesn't always work out well. In that case, a research librarian is mighty handy. Believe it or not, they're available, even in the wee hours. Librarians are concerned that in the age of search engines, people will forget them. So, if you have a paper due at 9 a.m., all is not lost. Help is available nationwide at http://www.asknow.org. This site is served primarily by California librarians, with help from others elsewhere. There also is help for New Jersey residents at http://www.qandanj.org, those in the Cleveland area at http://www.knowitnow24x7.net, and people around Los Angeles at http://www.247ref.org. We love librarians! FREE YELLOW PAGE INFORMATION Editor's Note: I tested this system by searching for cleanersin my local area; after rejecting carpetsand clambersI finally got a list of 45 cleaners. Going through this kind of listing was somewhat tedious, but by golly, I found a local cleanersin the end. If after listening to the demonstration you can obtain an access code by calling 1888-571-5857. Chatting with their customer service representative, I learned that this business makes its money by selling space to advertisers whose numbers come up first on the list. Free Yellow Page information available anywhere in the United States for local business phone number and address. Voice Access Communications introduces the Audio yellow Pages; a free voice activated service for the blind and visually impaired. Now you can gain access to over 10 million businesses in the United States by dialing this toll-free number, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Just dial: 1-888-654-1236 for a demonstration. Follow the easy audio instructions to locate virtually any business in any zip code. Voice Access uses the newest voice recognition technology to create the Audio Yellow Pages. Never again will you have to pay a telephone directory services to find a business phone number. Unlike other directories, the Audio Yellow Pages locate businesses in your specified zip code, then expand the search to include listings up to 15 miles away to ensure you get a lot of choices. THE XAVIER SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND by Winifred Downing At one of its meetings last year, the Board of Directors of the Library Users of America decided to feature in each semi-annual newsletter a major private library serving the blind. The first such article, "Jewish Braille Institute Expands Its Outreach," appeared in the Spring, 2002, issue. Please send me the name of a private library you would recommend for inclusion in this series. My identifying information is given at the end of each newsletter. Many of the private libraries began their service prior to the establishment of the National Library Service. Some individual states and cities had libraries that served the blind, particularly if there was a nearby residential school for blind children; but private libraries (most of which were church-related) were often major contributors to braille reading materials nationwide. My personal connection with the Xavier Society began when my father traveled on business from Chicago to New York in 1930 and visited Xavier in search of a prayer book for me to initiate my religious education. The building then, far from imposing in appearance, was on 99th Street, and one elderly priest, perhaps Father Stadelman, was the only person in attendance. The Society had been initiated in 1900 when a blind woman, Margaret Coffey, brought to the attention of Jesuit priest Father Joseph Stadelman the need for materials for blind persons to read. There were at that time just two large-print books for visually impaired Catholics, a small catechism and Cardinal Gibbons Faith of Our Fathers, and the price was prohibitive for most would-be readers. The joint efforts of Coffy and Stadelman led to assembling a group of women who produced books in New York point which were circulated among blind persons who requested them. Ms. Coffey contributed her entire life savings of $350 for the purchase of a press to assist in book production and worked tirelessly toward that end. In 1918 when the braille code was accepted nationally, Xavier had to scrap its entire collection and begin all over at gathering appropriate reading materials. It continued to operate through two world wars and a depression, adding to its library services as the years passed large-print books and books on records. In 1967, Father Anthony LaBau, the XSB director, learned of cassette recorders and was given a group of the machines by the Norelco Corporation for an experimental project in furnishing materials to patrons. Immediately realizing the importance of this advance, Father LaBau brought his discovery to the attention of the Library of Congress, thus initiating cassette use by the National Library Service, a development recognized by a subsequent letter of thanks and appreciation to XSB. For some years in the 1980's, the Society sponsored a book-of- the-month club to furnish patrons with a book they could keep permanently, thus providing for the first time a personal collection of materials to read and reread at will. Services were extended to provide learning materials for encouraging braille with children, and a weekly newspaper was developed for the deaf blind. With a paid staff of 1 4 workers and 80 devoted volunteers, it now distributes 10 weekly periodicals and has 1,500 books in various formats to circulate. Its 7-story building on 23rd Street in Manhattan, which is actually older than the Xavier Society itself, has been refurbished and repaired so that it can continue to serve the needs of the 11,000 readers in the United States and Canada and the 1,000 braille readers overseas. Technologically it has progressed in recording practices and has advanced in braille production from individually transcribed books to thermoformed materials, and to computer-driven printers fed by braille translation programs. The materials XFB distributes free of charge are, of course, mainly of interest to Catholics: developments in the Church past and present, Catholic culture, and spiritual growth. The weekly periodicals convey information that is usually not readily available in the national press; and one publication, the Scriptural readings for each Sunday and holy day, is used by many blind persons to read from the altar in their parishes. XSB's present emphasis is the development of an accessible Web site to continue to nourish the reading interests of its patrons. To learn more about the Xavier Society or request services, call 1-212-473-7800 or 1-800-637-9193. The Soundproof Book: Exploration of Rights Conflict and Access to Commercial EBooks for People with Disabilities by George Kerscher and Jim Fruchterman Editor's Note: In early August I received the following note from Pat Price: E-Book Finder: A free web-based search tool to help find details of book titles published in e-book format went live this week. The archive is said to contain information on tens of thousands of e-books issued by over 400 publishers: Check it out at www.ebooklocator.com The exponentially-increasing number of e-books makes this article all the more relevant. Thanks to George Kerscher for allowing us to excerpt parts of this copyrighted article. Though somewhat complex, it clearly sets out the key issues which will become increasingly important as more and more publishers create electronic versions of their books. The complete text of this article also appears on the LUA website. The electronic book should be a boon to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the nascent eBook industry has often soundproofed its books, preventing access by people with visual and learning disabilities using adaptive technology. Persons using synthetic text-to-speech technology or electronic braille systems are not allowed access to the underlying text of the eBooks, and thus are cut off from the content. The leading eBook technology providers, Adobe and Microsoft, have provided the option to disable disability access in their publishing systems, at the request of publishers. This is not because of an explicit effort to deny access to the disabled community, but rather is due to concerns over audio book rights and enabling piracy of book content. We explore these conflicting visions of accessible eBooks and set forth the essential background for the search foray solution that meets the needs of both publishers and people with disabilities. . . . Introduction The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) provides the ideal "forum" for the exploration of issues related to ePublishing. In addition to standards and growing the industry, there are often issues, sometimes controversial, relating to various rights holders that come before the OeBF. This document will lay out the heated rights controversy concerning the use of synthetic speech - Text-to-Speech (TTS) as it relates to the use of eBook publications by persons with disabilities. Books are increasingly appearing in formats other than the traditional printed book. These formats appeal both to members of the general population as well as to those with disabilities who cannot read a printed book. Audio and eBook formats provide both new opportunities and new challenges,. . . Whether the listener has a long commute, or has a visual impairment, [the] audio form of the book delivers great value. Imagine the digital form of this same text, the eBook form. This same book is available in many different digital formats, delivering the text of the book rather than a recording. The form of the text is analogous to the text in a word processing file or a Web page. Dedicated eBook reading systems will provide a way to download this eBook and read it on the device's display, and PC-based reading systems will present this text on the computer's screen. Thanks to access technology, individuals who are blind and other persons with print disabilities will be able to read this text independently. Depending on the needs of the individual, the text may be presented as braille or enlarged text, but the most common access method is synthetic Text-to-Speech (TTS). TTS has improved over the past twenty years, but still sounds distinctly mechanical. While most words can be pronounced clearly, there is much room for improvement with phrasing and expression. However, its ability to make digital text accessible has made it an incredible instrument of equality to many people with disabilities. Now imagine a person who is blind sitting at a PC, listening to that Shakespeare passage with an eBook reader using TTS. The mechanical tones are far less evocative than those of the professional narrator, but the listener who is blind can see past the quirks of the robotic voice. Long experience has made the TTS familiar and the user can focus on the content. Next, the user goes to the Web, makes a purchase and downloads the latest best-selling novel, just out in eBook format. With the same eBook reader, the user opens the eBook and hits the start speaking button. And, nothing happens. No sound comes out of the PC's speaker. The eBook has been soundproofed. If the person is lucky, it may be possible to get a refund for this eBook purchase. But, the person won't get access. This paper will describe the technical and legal issues behind the soundproofing of this book. The differing rights of publishers and individuals with print disabilities, under contract and under law, have led to choices in the structure and delivery of eBooks that sometimes deliver access and sometimes do not. . . . The Challenge of Book Access That wonderful vehicle for presenting ideas, thoughts, and experiences - the book - is usually inaccessible to persons who are blind and to others who have disabilities that prevent them from reading standard print. Blindness, obviously, prevents one from getting information visually and the challenge of laying one's hands on published materials in accessible formats has always been a lifetime challenge. In the U.S., for example, fewer than 7,000 of the 70,000+ books published each year are ever made accessible in a recorded or braille format. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), the largest provider in the world, adds 4,000 titles per year to their collection by taking advantage of over 5,000 volunteers in 32 recording studios around the country (see http://www.rfbd.org for more information). The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a division of the Library of Congress, records approximately 2,500 each year, and other smaller organizations contribute additional titles in braille or audio, but collectively less than 10 percent of published books ever make it into an accessible format. To say "the plight of the student with a print disability is extremely difficult" would be a gross understatement. It is common for students to be without their accessible version of a textbook at the beginning of the school year. It takes many months for volunteers to produce the recorded version at RFB&D. For the college student, the situation is even worse. As a student progresses in his or her education, the likelihood of textbooks being accessible decreases due to the specialized nature of the material being studied. At the colleges, Services for Students with Disabilities have the responsibility to make courseware accessible. The use of scanners and OCR software is common, but there is no consistent and effective way to create a high quality accessible textbook within the time demands and financial constraints facing the students and the Disabilities Services offices. The result is that students drop courses and change careers based on information availability in their fields. For books not available in accessible form, readers with print disabilities either rely on a human reader or on a scanning system. Reliance on a human reader is expensive and not always available when access is needed. Scanning an entire book with OCR software can take hours, and the resulting text will have recognition errors. Although a new Web-based service has been recently launched to provide shared access to scanned books, Bookshare.org (see http://www.bookshare.org for more details), scanned books are not equal in quality to electronic books. Textbooks and technical books are often unusable when scanned because of complex content beyond today's character recognition technology. Access to eBooks offers a major step forward for people with print disabilities. EBooks Provide Hope to Persons who are Blind and Print Disabled When the work on the eBook Publication Structure started, the disability community eagerly joined in the effort. The focus was to ensure that the file specification for eBooks was completely accessible. The disabled community found great support in the working group's development of the eBook Publication Structure 1.0, which became a standard in September of 1999. The XML data encoded in this file specification is completely accessible. However, it is important to point out that the XML data is compiled for distribution into a proprietary wrapper that includes a Digital Rights Management (DRM) component, which often prevents accessibility. Nevertheless the disability community continues to work within the OeBF to ensure that eBooks will evolve as accessible reading material "right off the shelf." If you have the structure and content encoded in XML with sufficiently rich semantics, there is no reason why the presentation of the information cannot be tailored to meet each person's needs. This is true for all people and at all times; this is the promise that ePublishing holds for persons who are blind and print disabled. DRM Implementations Block Access by Screen Readers The personal computer is the information access tool of choice for many persons who are blind. The computer is made accessible through a screen reader program. Screen readers use a text-to-speech synthesizer (TTS) to speak aloud the information that a sighted person would visually read on the computer screen. These screen readers intercept the text being written to the display and keep track of it, so that it can be vocalized in response to the user's control. For example, pressing certain keys will cause the screen reader to read the current word, line or paragraph. Screen readers also permit the use of dynamic braille displays instead of, or in addition to, the TTS. The screen readers are external applications to the PC-based eBook reading software. The DRM wrappers are designed to work with reading applications that present the text visually without allowing the text to be copied, to prevent the illegal distribution of the book. Unfortunately, these anti-copying provisions also prevent the screen reader from providing access with TTS or braille. The secure reading application views these external applications as security threats and blocks their access. As a result, persons who try to use their screen reader with eBook reading systems find that their screen reader is not allowed to do its job and leaves the person who is blind with no access to the ePublication, unless the reading application builds access directly into the user interface. Adobe and Microsoft Provide Access Through TTS In 2000 Adobe was the first to provide a version of an eBook reading system with speech capabilities. This product uses TTS to present the textual information. Blind people and their advocacy organizations were disappointed when Microsoft's initial eBook products came out and didn't work with the screen readers. Late in 2001, Microsoft's Reader group released a version that included an interface that used TTS to present information. With the host of eBook reading systems on the market, it is only Adobe and Microsoft that provide access to persons with print disabilities through TTS. Various federal laws mandate accessibility for persons with disabilities, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, or Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which specifies that the federal government should purchase products that are accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, the copyright law concept of fair use is often used as a justification for access. For example, an individual scanning a printed book for TTS or braille access for his or her personal use is generally considered fair use. In addition, there is a provision in the copyright law permitting nonprofit organizations such as RFB&D and Benetech to provide accessible books. However, the interaction of these laws with eBooks is an open question. Audio Rights Insome cases the authors and publishers have sold the rights to the audio version of their books. The intention of the audio publisher is to make a sound recording of the book available for sale commercially, usually in the form of a cassette or compact disc, but also, more recently, as a digital product available for download distribution via the Internet. When technology companies such as Adobe and the Microsoft Reader group discussed requirements with publishers, the topic of TTS came up. Both Adobe and the Microsoft Reader Group were told that in many cases the potential eBook publisher had sold the audio rights to another company. This evolved into the requirement for the technology provider to disable TTS in certain classes of eBooks. The requirement to have control over the use of TTS is being put forward by the publishers to resolve this rights issue; both Adobe and Microsoft have implemented this disabling feature. In simple terms, some people consider the TTS presentation an audio rendition, and therefore permitting the TTS presentation would be an infringement on the audio rights holder. People with disabilities do not agree with this interpretation, since the eBook is delivered as electronic text and not as recorded human speech, and since turning off access prevents them from reading the eBook. Persons with print disabilities purchase and enjoy commercial audio recordings. While productions of audio books are increasing, the availability of audio books falls well behind that of traditionally published titles. In addition, the print disabled community can benefit from the combination of textual presentation on the screen, accompanied by the synthetic speech, word spelling capabilities, and the added flexibility of specific page positioning. Protecting the Audio Rights Microsoft and Adobe, which have implemented the use of TTS in their eBook reading systems, have heard from publishers that the audio rights to their eBooks may have been sold. Therefore a feature has been added that allows the use of TTS to be turned off. This means that at the time of creation, a decision can be made by the publisher to disable the use of TTS for this particular eBook. The cost of TTS has dropped from $4,000 in 1985 to almost free, now that it is being implemented as software using the standard PC sound cards. The quality of TTS is steadily improving, and while the quality of TTS may not be considered serious competition to a professional narration today, this may change sometime in the future. In the case of Microsoft Reader, if the highest level of security is selected, TTS access will be disabled. Unfortunately for people with disabilities, the latest and most popular eBooks are almost always released at this highest level of security. So, while some eBooks formatted for Microsoft Reader now talk, the ones in greatest demand generally do not. Adobe takes a different approach that does not associate TTS with security. Adobe's eBook authoring tool provides the option to turn off TTS access. Publishers using this option sometimes turn off this access because they are not certain they have the rights to turn it on. Call for Discussion At the beginning of this document are links to sample MP3 files that represent a TTS version of a passage and the same passage being read by a professional narrator. The relevant issues and positions of the rights holders have been described. To summarize: · Persons who are blind and print disabled use screen readers to access all sorts of applications and information using TTS and refreshable braille, that is devices that are used to read text that a computer sends to the monitor; · The OeB Publication Structure is 100 percent accessible and is the recommended mechanism for producing eBooks; · Some applications block access by screen readers, because access to the content in this way is viewed as a security threat; · Adobe and Microsoft have made their applications self-voicing as an accommodation to persons who are blind and print disabled; and, · Authors and publishers have required technology companies to provide the capability to turn off TTS because of audio rights concerns. · · Providing a Forum for discussion Audio publishers feel having TTS enabled infringes on their rights; eBook publishers want maximum security for their electronic documents; and persons who are blind and print disabled believe they have a human right to read published documents and especially ePublished materials they have purchased, not to mention rights under various federal and state statutes. Clearly, the Open eBook Forum must provide for discussion of the issues surrounding this conflict. We have produced this presentation of the facts to clearly explain the issues. Now, it is up to the various rights holders to discuss ways to address this controversy. We invite thoughtful comments through the OeB Forum's Web site http://www.openebook.org. The discussion items relating to this thread will be placed on the OeBF Web site. It is our hope that a clear direction will emerge from this discussion and all rights holders, including people with disabilities, will be the winners. About the Authors George Kerscher is the Chair of the Open eBook Forum, Project Manager to the DAISY Consortium, and Senior Officer, Accessible Information, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), as well as Co-Chair of the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative's Steering Council. George's focus is on ensuring the accessibility of electronic information to people with disabilities worldwide. E-mail: kerscher@montana.com Jim Fruchterman is the President and CEO of The Benetech Initiative, a leading nonprofit technology developer in the field of disability access. He is also the creator of Bookshare.org, the Web-based library of accessible scanned books, the Arkenstone reading systems for the blind and two successful high technology companies founded in California's Silicon Valley. He focuses on socially beneficial applications of technology to meet the needs of under-served communities. Web: http://www.benetech.org/about/fruchterman.shtml E-mail: jim@benetech.org Copyright First Monday, volume 7, number 6 (June 2002), URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_6/kerscher/index.html LUA BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS, 2002 - 2003 Acting President: Sharon Strzalkowski 127 June Street Apt. 3 Worcester, MA 01602 Tel: 508-363-3866 E-Mail: strzal@charter.net Secretary: Paul Edwards 20330 NE 20th Court. Miami, FL 33179 Tel: 305-692-9206 E-Mail: edwpaul@concentric.net Treasurer: Patricia L. Price 5707 Brockton Drive - #302 Indianapolis, IN 46220-5481 Tel: 317-254-1185 Fax: 317-251-6588 E-Mail: pprice@indy.rr.com Immediate Past President: Winifred Downing 1587 38th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94122 Tel: 415-564-5798 E-Mail: wmdowning@mindspring.com DIRECTORS, 2002 - 2003 DIRECTORS Rachel Ames 898 S Hill Ave Fayetteville, AR 72701 Tel: 479-521-9676 E-Mail: silverbd1@aol.com Michael Garrett 4427 Knottynold Houston, TX 77053 Tel: 713-433-4911 E-Mail: concepts@flash.net Barry Levine Functional Therapy & Rehab, P.C. 14301 Golden Oak Drive Homer Glen, IL 60441 Tel: 708.645.7700 (W) E-Mail: barry@functionaltherapy.net Jill O'Connell 279 Church Lane Carlotta, CA 95528-9715 Tel: 707-768-3254 E-Mail: jillocon@northcoast.com John Taylor 2012 - 40th Place Des Moines, IA 50310 Tel: 515-279-2817 E-Mail: teriretir@aol.com The End (An interactive version will soon be available on the LUA Website at http://libraryusers.tripod.com.