[real-eyes] Fw: talkingbooks threatened?
- From: "Reginald George" <sgeorge@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 15:54:01 -0500
This is the first I've heard of this but, it's vital the word gets out.
Please pass this on where appropriate.
Reg
We need to write to our congressman and senators. They have their figures
wrong. It isn't a half million readers, it is 2.6 million. That figure
came today from librarian in Daytona, Florida's main library.
> 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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