[bksvol-discuss] Keep the Books Talking

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 1 Jun 2007 19:48:30 -0400

Washington Post, USA
Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Keep the Books Talking

Congress should fund the digitization of a vital audio library for the 
blind.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007; Page A12

AHALF-MILLION Americans stand in danger of losing their public library. They 
are the nation's blind, and their library is Talking Books, through which 
the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the 
Library of Congress (NLS) provides 500,000 Americans with free audio 
recordings of about as many books. Unlike the "books on tape" that are sold 
at retail bookstores, these recordings are unabridged, extensive and 
diverse -- and are designed for people who have no other way of reading 
print.

Unfortunately, today's Talking Books technology is ready to meet its maker. 
The program currently uses half-speed audiotapes that patrons listen to on 
special devices. These tape players, like the Talking Books record players 
that preceded them, are obsolete, and are no longer even being manufactured. 
To bring the program into the 21st century, the NLS hopes to digitize its 
entire library and create new players. It has spent 17 years researching, 
building and testing new products, and it is ready to manufacture a fully 
accessible flash-drive player. The Library of Congress has asked Congress to 
appropriate about $76.4 million to produce the players and digitize 
thousands more books.

A forthcoming Government Accountability Office report, however, may derail 
the NLS's plans. In a draft version of the report completed several weeks 
ago, the GAO faulted the NLS for not considering existing commercial 
products such as CD players and iPods instead of creating a new device. This 
sounds like a reasonable concern, given tales of exorbitant government 
spending on $792 doormats and $400 hammers. But creating special, 
noncommercial players is crucial to the continued existence of Talking 
Books. Commercially available products, which often use visual screens and 
are not labeled in Braille, are not accessible to the visually impaired. 
More important, to comply with U.S. copyright law, Talking Books can record 
and distribute only audio books that cannot be played by commercial devices.

Should the GAO keep this misguided criticism in its final report, lawmakers 
should not be swayed by it. Instead, Congress should fully fund Talking 
Books' digital upgrade, a project that will grant many disabled Americans 
the same literary access afforded to the sighted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR2007052901736.html

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