News January-March 1995, Volume 26, No. 1 ISSN 1046-1663 National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped The Library of Congress NLS publishes 10,000th braille book This spring _Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: A Message from Chief Seattle_ will become the 10,000th numbered braille book to be published by NLS. The title, which is being produced in print/braille format, will roll off the production line of National Braille Press in Boston, Mass. The book is drawn from a powerful speech delivered by Chief Seattle, leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes of the Pacific Northwest in the 1850s. During a treaty signing with the U.S. government, Chief Seattle beseeched new Americans to love and respect the land as the Native Americans had, and warned of consequences of abuse. _Brother Eagle, Sister Sky_ was drawn from his speech. Although considered a children's book, it has appeal for readers of all ages for its environmental message. The book was illustrated by Susan Jeffers of Croton-on-Hudson, New York. The milestone braille book is particularly appropriate because of the continuing emphasis on the provision of library service to blind and physically handicapped Native Americans. The print/braille format used for _Brother Eagle, Sister Sky_ combines braille overlays with print text and is a popular part of the NLS children's collection. Using print/braille, blind parents and grandparents can read to sighted children, and blind children can share books with sighted friends and family members. BR 10000 represents a significant point in NLS's continuing work toward providing blind and physically handicapped readers a wide-ranging collection of recreational reading materials in braille. Books in the braille collection are selected to provide readers access to the same type of information available to the general public through public libraries. Braille has been an essential part of the NLS program since the inception of the Library of Congress Project, Books for the Adult Blind in 1931. That first year, 157 books were selected to be embossed in raised type (braille or Moon type). The first book ordered was _George Washington_ by Woodrow Wilson, selected in honor of the 1932 bicentennial anniversary of Washington's birth. During the past year, braille-lending libraries throughout the country circulated nearly 650,000 braille books and magazines to a readership of more than 28,000 blind and physically handicapped persons. Five firms are under contract to produce braille books and magazines for NLS: Associated Services for the Blind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky; Braille International, Inc., in Stuart, Florida; Clovernook Center Opportunities for the Blind in Cincinnati, Ohio; and National Braille Press in Boston, Massachusetts. The 10,000 books in the BR collection are only a part of the worldwide collection of braille available to readers. By accessing the NLS _Union Catalog_, readers can learn about more than 62,000 books in press braille or handcopied braille, braille music scores, foreign-language braille books, braille books produced by network libraries and other agencies, and books available through international interlibrary loan from other countries. Increased access to the _Union Catalog_ through the Internet and the upcoming CD-ROM catalog widens the scope of materials circulated to readers. (photo--book cover) ### Committee tests data reduction in audio recording This year the National Audio Equipment Advisory Committee not only offered recommendations on talking-book equipment, but they also helped test a technology currently being evaluated by NLS engineers. At their fall annual meeting, committee members participated in a study of the effects of data reduction in audio recording. The consumers, Telephone Pioneers, and librarians who comprise the committee listened to samples of talking books recorded at the data rate used on music CDs and then at reduced rates from which some of the data had been electronically removed. The test was to determine how much data could be removed before the listeners would be able to detect the difference. NLS has proposed a transition to digital talking books that begins with digital original mastering and includes a Digital Collection Access System to store the developing digital collection and allow for its manipulation as needed. Reducing the amount of data to be stored will make this plan more economically feasible. Digital testing Members heard two seventeen-second samples taken from talking books, one with a male narrator and one with a female narrator. Each sample was tested at four different data-rate levels. In each test, the segment was played first at the usual data rate (A), then at the reduced data rate (B), then at a randomly selected repetion of either A or B (X). Committee members marked response forms to indicate whether X was a repetition of A or of B. This test was repeated sixteen times for each of the four levels in order to develop statistical reliability that members were actually distinguishing the segments. The tests were conducted in two one-hour sessions, with only the consumers' subcommittee participating in the second session. In addition to testing the feasibility of data reduction, the experiment enabled NLS engineers to evaluate their study procedures. They will determine the usefulness and efficiency of the braille data sheets they designed for this test with a view to using them as models for future evaluations. The results of the tests will be shared after they are analyzed. Recommendations All three subcommittees supported the move toward digital methods in their recommendations, and the consumers' subcommittee also voiced support for "the concept of acoustic testing as part of the committee's meeting." The consumers also asked NLS to explore electronic means of producing and distributing time-critical materials, a consideration that NLS promised to include in its designing and modeling of digital products. Other recommendations from the subcommittees addressed more routine concerns, including clarification of instructions and more timely dissemination of informational materials. In addition to recommendations already mentioned, the consumers' subcommittee encouraged NLS to include in the C-1 machine a battery management function similar to that of the C- 2. NLS responded with the hope that care-free battery packs expected to become commercially available soon may prove a feasible alternative. Consumers also supported the transition of magazines from flexible-disc to cassette format. The Telephone Pioneers' subcommittee addressed the need to provide effective methods for training repair personnel as new quality assurance standards are implemented. NLS cited a plan to implement the standards in a few locations this spring and to provide the necessary training. Along with the librarians, the Pioneers called for re-design of cases and keyboard surfaces to facilitate easier cleaning and less accumulation of dirt. The librarians' subcommittee, in addition to recommendations mentioned above, called for a "nontechnical summary of the Technology Assessment and Research Program reports," for the production of more E-1s, and for the Elfuns to be represented on the National Audio Equipment Committee, all of which NLS promised to consider. They commended the Pioneers and Elfuns for their efforts in initiating and supporting the development of the new volunteer repair standards. A complete list of recommendations and NLS responses and a report on the analysis of the data-reduction testing will be mailed to network libraries and to members of the Committee. Members of the 1994 National Audio Equipment Advisory Committee: Consumer representatives: Ruth Ann Acosta, American Council of the Blind; Gerard McDonnell, Blinded Veterans Association; C.E. Ed McDonald, National Federation of the Blind; Ron Whaley, Midlands Region; Douglass Hall, Southern Region Telephone Pioneers representatives: Jerry Adamson, Midlands Region; Carl Gingrich, Northern Region; J. Walter Alfred, Southern Region; Richard Iverson, Western Region Network library representatives: Judy Bow, Midlands Region; Patricia Kirk, Northern Region; Rebecca Sherrill, Southern Region; Alberta Blanton, Western Region (Photo caption: Telephone Pioneers representatives discuss their new quality assurance standards for machine repair with Kevin Watson, assistant equipment materials maintenance coordinator, NLS.) (Photo caption: Network librarian representatives confer with Devon Skeele, NLS network consultant, and Steve Prine, head, Network Services Section.) (Photo caption: Consumer representatives evaluate data reduction on audio recordings played by John Cookson, head, NLS Engineering Section. Also participating is Tom Bickford, NLS quality assurance specialist.) ### Virginia regional moves into new building The Virginia regional library in Richmond has been waiting since 1987, when funds were appropriated, for its new facilities, and now both the brand-new building and the transition are complete. It took eleven days to move, but on July 18 the Virginia State Library for the Visually and Physically Handicapped had a new home with twice the space as the old one. In late May, construction was completed on the structure that now houses two divisions of Virginia's Department for the Visually Impaired: the Virginia State Library for the Visually and Physically Handicapped and the Instructional Materials Resource Center, which provides large-print and braille texts for students. The library occupies 55 percent of the building's 51,000 square feet. According to regional librarian Mary Ruth Halapatz, the library has a lot more work room, giving the staff the opportunity to revamp procedures and reorganize personnel to accommodate the new layout and expedite services. As with a small public library, the public reading room is the focus of new library. The reading room, 48-feet square, is being furnished this year and will contain a browsing collection the size of a subregional library collection, a Kurzweil machine, closed circuit television, adaptive computer equipment capable of producing braille output, a large-print copier, and electronic reference tools. Other features are a meeting room, a new phone system, a warehouse, adequate parking, and a location that is convenient for increased numbers of walk-in patrons. Sharing a building with the resource center facilitates use of the library by students. Also, the library is situated adjacent to a residential rehabilitation and training center for the blind, and many of the residents are patrons (as well as volunteers!) at the library. The new address is 395 Azalea Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23227. (photo caption: The Virginia regional library shares this new building with the state resource center for the blind, a real convenience for patrons.) ### Northern California regional moves to capitol complex After twenty years of living on the industrial fringe of downtown Sacramento, the California State Library's Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL) has come back to beautiful new quarters in the just completed Library & Courts Building II, across from the state capitol and the existing state library. The entire first floor of the artistic five-floor structure is dedicated to the regional library and has many features designed to improve services to patrons. The highlight of the new facility is a graceful and well-appointed reading room dedicated to reader services. It holds a browsing collection of recent cassette and flexible-disc books, as well a nearly complete braille collection. Machines are available so that patrons may sample or just sit and listen to recorded materials. The full state library public access catalog is also available there. Oak and teal-colored tables and leather chairs were provided by special donations to the California State Library Foundation. A fragrance garden lies just outside the tall windows of the reading room, inside a decorative fence. In the future, the reading room will also house a section for adaptive technology, to include a reading machine; computers with speech, large-print, and braille output; magnification devices, such as closed circuit television; and Internet access to the NLS _Union Catalog_. Behind the scenes, the old BTBL stand-alone minicomputer was abandoned and BTBL data and programs were merged with the state library's system for faster processing. To accomplish the move, library service was discontinued for five weeks, but readers were supplied with more than 20,000 extra books to carry them through the interruption in service. The collection of some 470,000 braille and recorded books was moved in seven days and settled easily onto 17,000 new compact shelves with growth space to spare. At the grand opening on October 19, NLS director Frank Kurt Cylke shared the podium with former State Librarian Gary E. Strong, whose efforts over many years made the new building a reality. California's new state librarian, Dr. Kevin Starr, praised all those who supported the endeavor. According to regional librarian Donine Hedrick, walk-in traffic has doubled in the new reading room. Light rail and bus transportation are more convenient at the new location, and readers are excited about the browsing collection and counter check-out system. A remark often heard is, "It's wonderful to have a _real_ library now!" (photo caption: Kevin Starr, California state librarian; Donine Hedrick, Sacramento regional librarian; and Frank Kurt Cylke, NLS director, in the fragrance garden of the new building.) (sketch: Exterior of Library & Courts Building II, 900 N Street, Sacramento. The fragrance garden is on the left side of the building, outside the BTBL reading room.) ### Friends of Libraries for Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals in North America Meet Don Wardlow: blind baseball announcer "People don't believe that I'm a baseball announcer," says thirty-one-year-old Donald Wardlow, whose dream is to one day be an announcer for the New York Yankees. Today, Don broadcasts in the minor leagues with sighted partner Jim Lucas, a former college classmate. The 300th new member of the Friends of the Library for the Blind, Wardlow is the color commentator, and Lucas does the play-by-play. Blind since birth and never having seen a play, Wardlow has always been a big baseball fan. He remembers listening to his favorite Yankees on the radio at his home in Metuchen, New Jersey--near Iselin--where he grew up. Using his braille typewriter, Wardlow keeps up his scorecard every inning during Lucas's play-by-play, concentrating totally on what is happening on the field. Scanning extensive braille notes on each player, Wardlow comments on individual statistics and where the players grew up, tells short stories about the team, or gives anecdotes about players. "I weave in all of the details that make people out of athletes," Wardlow explains. "Very early on game day I read onto tape all the team statistics available. Then I braille them and proofread them. This gives me a braille sheet for reference during the game. I have about seventy braille sheets available for use during every game," Wardlow says. How Wardlow and Lucas became baseball's most inspiring broadcast team begins soon after Wardlow graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in 1981. Wardlow went to Glassboro State College (New Jersey) but had trouble traveling around campus his first semester. "When I acquired my seeing-eye dog, Duffer, my mobility improved, and I finished my college degree in December 1986. As communications majors at Glassboro, Wardlow and Lucas first met in 1983 and became instant friends. "We started broadcasting on the college radio station, first basketball games and then baseball. We got together every chance we could to practice announcing games--right through to 1990," Wardlow explains. He says they would take a microphone and tape recorder to major league games in New York and Philadelphia, sit in the bleachers and do play-by-play. "In 1990 we decided we had got as far as we could just by practicing and decided to make our move. That move was to send letters and tapes to every baseball team in existence, a total of 176 teams," Wardlow says. "We received one positive response from a man named Michael Veeck, whose father was Bill Veeck, a famous baseball promoter. He invited us to come down to Pompano Beach, Florida, to announce eight innings of a Class A minor league professional team called "The Miracle." "We did our eight innings and went home. We were as successful as we could be at that time and were told to go to the winter baseball meetings in December 1990 in Los Angeles, California. The meetings are a massive job fair where you can meet team owners and presidents. We found there were only three broadcast jobs available, and there were three hundred or more qualified people there looking for the jobs. Well, guess what? We received three firm job offers! The ones in Boise and Pocatello, Idaho, were for more money than the offer from "The Miracle" in Florida, but we took the Florida broadcast positions because of loyalty to Michael Veeck." In February 1991, Wardlow and Lucas began their first full season as baseball broadcasters, but not without growing pains. "You don't just broadcast in the minor leagues, you also need to sell airtime to advertisers," Wardlow says. "We were terrible at it, but somehow Michael Veeck helped and bailed us out. We broadcast fifty-two games in 1991." "The Miracle moved from Pompano Beach to Fort Myers, Florida, and we went with the team. In 1992 we did the entire 140 game schedule, because we had learned a little about selling airtime. We moved up to Class AA in 1993 and announced for the New Britian, Connecticut, Red Sox and did another full season of 140 games. We did the same schedule in 1994 and have agreed to the 1995 season. Our goal is to get to Class AAA and then to the major leagues," Wardlow says. After college, Wardlow became an employment counselor and worked for the Bryant Bureau, a subsidiary of Snelling & Snelling. When the stock market dived in 1988, I lost my job." Wardlow soon went to work with Recording for the Blind in Princeton, New Jersey, in February 1988 and worked there the next three years as a quality-control checker until his announcing career took off. A lifelong user of braille and talking books and magazines, Wardlow describes himself as "a heavy braille user." He admits he likes Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and other adventure fiction, but also appreciates good humor books and "of course, anything about baseball." He remembers beginning to use talking books "in the late sixties--when I was four years old--and with the old record players. The cassettes were just coming in when I was a child," he recalls. Wardlow has received a substantial amount of national publicity, with newspaper articles appearing in the _Miami Herald_, the _Hartford (Connecticut) Courant_, and the _Associated Press_. What does Wardlow tell people about gaining a life goal? "I tell them to face all the rejection in life head on...and remember to always keep humor." (photo caption: Don Wardlow and partner Jim Lucas in the broadcast booth.) sidebar: Individuals, institutions, and corporations may join Friends. For more information contact Friends of Libraries for Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals in North America, Inc., 1555 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036 USA; phone (202) 462-9600; fax (202) 462-9043. ### Pass on the smiles, please! "Happiness is like a kiss," the folksy voice intones. "You can't have it yourself without giving it to somebody else." A piano tinkles in the background, and you know this isn't your typical talking book. Then the reader goes on to describe the author as "a lanky fellow in threadbare clothes and barefoot" and announces that anything original in the publication is "purely accidental," and you relax into a half-hour or so of nostalgia as he interprets a potpourri of World War II jokes and humor. To fully appreciate some of the references, you had to have been there: "It isn't so much the rationing or taxes or talk of inflation/The problem that is worrying us the most is this thing that they call the duration." But most tidbits will strike a chord with servicepersons of all times: "Military expert: One who tells you today what will happen tomorrow, and tells you tomorrow why it didn't happen." Yes, there's also what is now understood to be sexist humor, though the recording has entertained female as well as male military personnel, and nothing is too "explicit." If you think this sounds like something that would bring a smile to your older patrons or to military personnel you know, you are invited to join a project that has been amusing people off and on for some fifty years. "Just giving a few moments of enjoyment to those who need it the most makes this labor of love well worth all of our efforts," says Morris Freedman, whose brainchild this recording is, as he urges others to join him in distributing the tape. The Bean Press, source of the tape's text, has only recently become a recording. Freedman, a dedicated letter- writer, began _The Bean Press_ during World War II, naming it for its place of publication, Boston. He compiled five or six pages of handcopied anecdotes, humor, and cartoons gleaned from here and there and mailed them to service men and women whom he knew or whose addresses he obtained from friends and acquaintances--about fifty people each time. After the war, Freedman put aside his publishing and focused on other things, including his career as a roofer. Eventually he retired, and when the Gulf War came, he resurrected _The Bean Press_ to bring smiles to men and women serving in that war and, most importantly, to hospitalized and disabled veterans. He compiled the best of the World War II issues into a booklet of some fifteen pages--no new material, just some updating, like substituting "Saddam Hussein" for "Hitler" as appropriate--and sent it to all the service people whose names he could get. Then, as during World War II, Freedman urged recipients to "pass it on to your buddies, if you aren't afraid of making enemies." The guiding idea was--and still is--that the pages would be duplicated and sent on and thus extend the "moments of enjoyment." _The Bean Press_ became a talking book when Freedman showed his publication to an acquaintance who was familiar with talking books. Edwin Meserve asked Freedman if he would mind if Meserve tried something. It turned out that Meserve was an ideal narrator for the text, and the resulting narration, complete with descriptions of drawings and musical background became a professional-quality production. The text fills a little more than one side of a 1-7/8 ips recording, and it is followed by music from the "United States Military Symphony"-- marches and other military music culminating with the "Star- Spangled Banner." So far Freedman has funded his publishing and circulation himself "little by little as I am able." But his dream is to find others who will duplicate the pages and tapes and circulate them. To that end, he has contacted veterans' service agencies and organizations serving blind people, and he is systematically writing to NLS regional and subregional libraries offering tapes to copy for their patrons. So far, he has gleaned enthusiastic endorsements, but no offers to make and circulate tapes. "I appreciate your taking the time to provide moments of levity for our men and women in Operation Desert Storm," wrote General Colin Powell. Governor Mario Cuomo commented, "Mr. Meserve deserves commendation for his superb narrative efforts, including his descriptions of the art work. I also thought that the musical background was a nice touch. You are doing wonderful work, and I'm sure many people are appreciative of your efforts and the good humor of _The Bean Press_." "I would like _The Bean Press_ talking book to reach the ears of the blind and visually impaired persons throughout the country," Freedman urges. He has discovered that the tape is popular with retired people--many of whom remember the World War II era--and hopes the tapes can be made available to nursing homes. If you are interested in this effort or need more information, Freedman says, "We just paid our rent, so you may continue to send your letters to Morris Freedman, Two Francis Drive, Apt. 201, Randolph, MA 02368. For those who may think this humorizing project is too great a task for volunteers, _The Bean Press_ has this advice: "Don't worry if your job is small, your rewards are few Remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you." (photo caption: "I would like _The Bean Press_ talking book to reach the ears of blind and visually impaired persons throughout the country," says Morris Freedman, editor.) ### Network exchange North Carolina. The November-Febuary issue of _Tar Heel Talk..._ was the 100th patron newsletter published for Carolina patrons. The first issue, called simply _Newsletter_, was published in 1965 and consisted of five one-sided pages, hand-typed on a large- print typewriter, and mimeographed. At that time, the library in Raleigh served both North and South Carolina; South Carolina received its own regional library in 1973. In the lead article, Charles Fox, regional librarian, recalled some changes and highlights over the twenty-nine years intervening years. No current staff member was at the library in 1965, but he and reader advisor Sylvia Gordon joined the staff within the next five years. They had a few books on hard disc, but braille was requested from NLS. By 1970 there were only thirty books on cassette, and the number of players issued to patrons was larger than the number of titles. Since then the library has moved three times, the staff has trippled to handle a daily circulation of more than 1,600 titles, and the library has available more than 67,000 titles in four formats. The current sixteen-page newsletter is handsomely produced with graphics and a variety of type sizes and styles. "Yet," says Fox, "in reading over a copy of the first issue of our newsletter, long buried in our files, I find that the purpose of the newsletter has not changed that much...to give you, our patrons, useful information [on] how the library service works, services available, and general news on the activities and progress of the library.... Our commitment to using the newletter to establish better communication with those we serve has remained the same...[and] will not change." (facsimile of _Tar Heel Talk..._ front page.) Delaware. The Delaware Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has been established in state law under the Delaware Division of Libraries/State Library. House Bill 484, which was signed by Governor Thomas R. Carper in November, also charges the state library with the coordination of accessible library and information services for individuals with disabilities through public libraries. Anne Norman, regional librarian, said, "This legislation paves the way to coordinate improved access to information for persons unable to read standard print in many new ways tha are now possible through technology and the Americans with Disabilities Act." NLS director Frank Kurt Cylke used the occasion to praise the staff of the Delaware regional library for achieving the second highest talking-book circulation per patron in the nation. California (Los Angeles). Russell W. Kirbey, executive director of Braille Institute, retired in January after nearly three decades of leadership. His holiday message expressed thanks to the membership, volunteers, and donors and listed accomplishments during his tenure. Highlights for the regional library included: ---- 1966--Inaugurated a twenty-four-hour Ansa-Fone service ---- 1970--Established library depositories throughout Southern California with more than 100 in place by 1971; dedicated Phase I of a new library ---- 1972--Installed the first computerized circulation system in a library for blind individuals ---- 1976--Began campaign to obtain state funding to serve other than blind readers ---- 1981--Converted Thrift Shoppe to Library Annex ---- 1983--Continued efforts toward acquistion of property for library expansion ---- 1986--Acquired 1.7 acres for expansion; began planning ---- 1987--Developed plans ---- 1988--Began construction of 100,000-square-foot library and conference center ---- 1992--Completed $15 million capital campaign for headquarters: library, press, conference center ---- 1993--Transferred Arizona braille readers to Multistate Center West after providing service since 1934 Minnesota. The Minnesota regional library inaugerated a new large-print format for its patron newsletter with the summer 1994 issue. The newsletter is printed on a single large sheet of newsprint paper that folds vertically into four pages and folds again horizontally for mailing. The format is designed to be cost-effective and much less labor- intensive than previously. Nancy Walton, regional librarian, says, "The staff used to dread newsletter time. We would spend hours and hours collating, folding, and stapling. The new format required twenty minutes to produce 9,200 copies, at a cost of $280. And all we had to do was put on labels." The local newspaper enlarged the type to slightly more than fourteen points and did the printing and folding using paper stock they use regularly for advertising supplements. "Our patrons love it," says Walton. "It's much easier to read and to handle than stapled pages." The newsletter is also available in braille and on cassette. (facsimile of newsletter bannerhead.) ### International briefs Israel (Netanya). The Central Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired, and Handicapped produces and lends books and periodicals in braille, on cassette, and in large print. The main building is in the coastal city of Netanyah. A new branch, the Athol and Eleanor Burns Extension, has opened recently in Tel Aviv. The Library got its start when, in 1951, following the War of Independence, the Ministry of Defense faced the challenge of helping soldiers who had suffered eye injuries. A blind rehabilitation consultant invited from Rotterdam, Dr. Ludwig Cohen, recommended the establishment of a library. Volunteers began braille transcribing at this time. In 1959 the library introduced open-reel tapes for the use of blind individuals who were not braille readers. An important early project was the reading of the Bible on tape. The main building of the Central Library opened in Netanyah in 1966. In 1972 cassette book machines were introduced and cassette books put into circulation. A significant improvement in both the quantity and quality of books produced occurred in 1981 with the opening in Tel Aviv of a recording studio with three booths. Building renovation, the introduction of computerized braille output, an overall computerization of lending facilities, and the launching of a raised- graphics division highlighted the late 1980s. The Library's large-print department started up in 1990, and 1993 saw the opening of the Tel-Aviv extension. Today, readers may browse the catalog through a "Dial- a-Book" procedure developed in cooperation with the Telemessage Company. The Library serves as a resource center for dozens of blind students at all educational levels throughout Israel. Services to students include drawing up book lists, transcribing and circulating braille, and providing reference books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. Readers can choose from twenty recorded and four braille periodicals over a broad range of subjects. In addition to an assortment of publications in Hebrew, there is also a selection from the daily press in Arabic and selections from the _Jerusalem Post_ and _Time_ magazine in English. The Tel Aviv extension consists of lending facilities, study rooms, and recording studios. Books are borrowed in person rather than through the mail, and a librarian is on hand to assist readers with selection and special requests. Study rooms provide reference materials, listening posts, a Kurzweil scanner, a braille and voice-output PC, and reading posts with print-enlargement equipment. Books are produced not only in Hebrew but in Arabic, Yiddish, Russian, and English. Hebrew braille was developed by the Library with the aid of Rivka and Schwoch Rosenzweig. _The Book of Braille_ and _Mathematics in Braille_ by Rivka Rosenzweig serve as key textbooks in Hebrew braille instruction. Brazil (Sao Paulo). Brazil is a huge country of 3,286,169 square miles. Much of the population, estimated at 150,000,000, lives in poverty. Library service to visually impaired individuals is rudimentary, except in some urban centers where computer technology has offered grounds for optimism in beginning to address the immense challenges. ~ Three braille presses currently operate in Brazil. The Santa Luzia Institute is located in Rio Grande de Sul; the Benjamin Constant Institute in Rio de Janeiro produces books in braille for students at the Institute and publishes two periodicals that are nationally distributed. Most important is the Donna Nowill Foundation for Blind People in Sao Paulo, which publishes braille books in a wide range of subjects, especially science and mathematics, with some adult fiction and stories for children (see _News_, Vol. 24, No. 3, July-September 1993). The books are distributed to all schools and agencies concerned with visually impaired individuals in Brazil. There is also significant production of handcopied braille, produced by both by volunteers and by employees of specialized agencies. Computerized braille production is a recent innovation, still in an experimental or beginning stage. The Braille Library of the Sao Paulo Cultural Center was founded in 1947, originally as a specialized unit of the children's library, offering a menu of recreactional reading and social and cultural activities similar to that provided to sighted children. As the child patrons became young students and then adults, the Library expanded in character and scope to meet their changing reading needs. Instructional texts became a top priority; later adult fiction was added to the collection. In January 1992 the Braille Library moved to a new location, epecially designed to accommodate its patrons. A capacity for further expansion and development was engineered into the new facility. The Braille Library is one branch of special collections of the Libraries Division of the Sao Paulo Cultural Center, under the office of the Sao Paulo Municipal Secretary of Culture. The Library is located in the Sao Paulo Cultural Center building at Rua Vergueiro 1000, Paradiso, Sao Paulo. The facility occupies about 1,800 square meters. There are eight librarians, of whom six are blind, and more than twenty other regular employees including two specialized teachers. Among the many volunteers are thirty copyists/readers and a pottery teacher. Perkins braillers are available to patrons as well as a thermoform copy machine, a microcomputer, a braille printer, several tape recorders, and assorted computational devices (reglets, cubarithms, and sorobans). The Library has 850 registered users, of whom 100 are children between the ages of 4 and 12. The collection comprises 17,500 braille volumes representing 5,500 titles; seven braille periodicals; 2,570 audio cassettes representing 600 titles; and one recorded periodical. All materials are available for circulation; registered patrons in other regions are served by a loan service by mail. Students who require transcriptions of texts called for in the course of their studies may have them prepared through the transcription service if the text is not already available in the Library's collections. One of the Library's regularly employed specialized teachers is available to assist in educational testing of blind students by mediating between regular print and braille. Library employees are available to assist students with research in areas accessible only through regular print. The Library is strongly committed to offering its patrons social and recreational activities in addition to reading materials. Games, music and dance, dramatics, tours, and art activities are all provided or sponsored by the Library. The Braille Library owns a small regular- print collection of materials on blindness-- including books, periodicals, leaflets, and catalogs--that are of interest to teachers, researchers, and families of visually handicapped individuals. A computer division of the Library, still in an experimental stage, opened in March 1994. A computerized catalog of special-format materials is under consideration. Other computer-based initiatives are in early phases or under consideration, and will be realized as equipment, funds, and knowledge become available. Among these projects is a nationwide communication network among researchers, data banks, and educational facilities. [Information for this article was derived from a paper by Ivani Pires and Maria Helena Chenque dos Santos presented to the Section on Libraries for the Blind, IFLA, Havana, Cuba, August 1994.] ### NLS wins communication awards NLS recently received two international communications awards from the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC), the professional organization for local, state, and federal communication agencies. NAGC presented the first place International Gold Screen Award to "Physically Handicapped Reader," a new broadcast public service announcement (PSA) featuring NLS patron Bao An Tran, a student with a musculoskeletal disability. In the PSA, which is one of a six- part series of broadcast announcements designed to inform the public about the NLS program, Tran discusses how talking books help keep him informed and independent. The PSA was coordinated by Robert Fistick, head of the Publications and Media Section at NLS. According to Millie Gallahan, NAGC competitions director, the Gold Screen Award "was the most competitive category in the 1994 in the awards competition, which represents the best and brightest examples of government-produced videos." She said there were 116 Gold Screen entries in the seventeenth annual competition. _Coping Skills_, a new bibliography of selected books from the NLS collection, was presented the second place Blue pencil Award. The bibliography lists books about handling problems and life transitions. Different sections cover self development, relationships, marriage and divorce, families, child abuse, health and healing, alcohol, drug and other addictions, aging, general disabilities, visual disability issues, mobility disabilities issues, providing care for a loved one, and death and bereavement. It represents a team effort by Catherine O'Connor, bibliographer in the Network Services Section, and Publications and Media Section members Jane Caulton, writer-editor; Vicki Fitzpatrick, senior writer-editor; and Margaret Cytron, assistant head. Both awards were announced during ceremonies held December 4 and 5, 1994, in Alexandria, Virginia. The Gold Screen Award trophy was presented in the form of a large clear acrylic television set encasing a three- dimensional suspended blue and gold globe. A certificate marked the second place Blue Pencil Award. (photo caption: In NLS's award-winning television PSA, Bao An Tran uses a cassette machine with remote control.) ### standing copy in sidebar: The Program The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress publishes books and magazines in braille and in recorded form on discs and cassettes for readers who cannot hold, handle, or see well enough to read conventional print because of a temporary or permanent visual or physical handicap. Through a national network of state and local libraries, the materials are loaned free to eligible readers in the United States and to U.S. citizens living abroad. Materials are sent to readers and returned by postage-free mail. Books and Magazines Readers may borrow all types of popular-interest books including bestsellers, classics, mysteries, westerns, poetry, history, biographies, religious literature, children's books, and foreign-language materials. Readers may also subscribe to more than seventy popular magazines in braille and recorded formats. Special Equipment Special equipment needed to play the discs and cassettes, which are recorded at slower than conventional speeds, is loaned indefinitely to readers. An amplifier with headphone is available for blind and physically handicapped readers who are also certified as hearing impaired. Other devices are provided to aid readers with mobility impairments in using playback machines. Eligibility You are eligible for the Library of Congress program if: --- You are legally blind--your vision in the better eye is 20/200 or less with correcting glasses, or your widest diameter of visual field is no greater than 20 degrees; --- You cannot see well enough or focus long enough to read standard print, although you wear glasses to correct your vision. --- You are unable to handle print books or turn pages because of a physcial handicap; --- Or, you are certified by a medical doctor as having a reading disability, due to an organic dysfunction, which is of sufficient severity to prevent reading in a normal manner. How to Apply You may request an application by writing NLS or calling toll-free 1-800-424-9100, and your name will be referred to your cooperating library. News is published quarterly by: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress Washington, DC 20542 All correspondence should be addressed to the attention of Publications and Media Section. Editor: Vicki Fitzpatrick Writers: Jane Caulton, Margaret Cytron, Robert Fistick, Ruth Nieland, Ed O'Reilly, and George Thuronyi ***(4/10/95) gft***