Washington Talking Book & Braille Library

Washington Talking Book & Braille Library

Reading Matters

Summer 2008

Message from the Program Manager

At the time I’m writing this, I’ve been the Program Manager at the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) for four months. Wow, what a four months this has been! I can safely say that this time has been the most rewarding and exciting of my professional career. I am greatly inspired by the WTBBL staff, volunteers, and patrons. You are all amazing!

So what have we done the last four months? A lot! We completed the transition from administration by the Seattle Public

Library to direct administration by the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. This transition has hopefully been seamless from your standpoint, but behind the scenes we have hired nine new staff members, updated our equipment and technology, and the State is purchasing 2 floors of our building from the City of Seattle (we’re making a condominium), so we aren’t going anywhere!

We received an increase in our budget for fiscal year 2009 from the Legislature, thanks in large part to advocacy on the part of the WTBBL patrons! Our budget is now stable and we will be able to do all we need to do to run at full capacity getting you the books you need. During fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008), we had over 11,000 active readers, 950 active deposit collections, and circulated over 454,000 books!!

We are in great shape, so we can now look to the future. I think of two major things for the future of WTBBL: people and technology. The people who make up the WTBBL community are an outstanding group of individuals. WTBBL will extend services to as many eligible people in Washington as possible. We can do it. We can include the teens and the 20 and 30 somethings in our services and in our WTBBL family. The potential user population for WTBBL is well over 190,000 people; we will increase our outreach efforts to serve as much of this population as want to be served.

We will think outside the box. We can have wild imaginative and innovative ideas about how best to reach and serve people. No idea is too big, and while we can’t do everything, we can try, we can brainstorm, and we can work together as a team. We will be user-centered. We will partner with community organizations and business, resulting in mutually beneficial relationships that enhance WTBBL as a community center. We will strive to have community members actively involved and view WTBBL as relevant and necessary. We will work to be key providers of early learning and information literacy skills for our user group.

Digital Talking Books and machines on which to play them will be a great enhancement to service, as are downloadable books and innovations like the VictorReader Stream and other media devices. But there can be more, much more. I envision us partnering with technology companies and academic institutions, or similar organizations, to imagine and create technologies that will appeal to teens and adults alike, and that will enhance the daily life of the print disabled. For example, Microsoft Canada partnered with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to create the first internet portal for visually impaired children. We are in a great part of the country for collaboration—I wonder what partnerships can do for WTBBL?

We will work to enlist the best and brightest from the Information School on projects and enhancements. We will work with the Washington State Library to get our holdings in the OCLC WorldCat so that we are part of a national union catalog. We will add children’s and teen portals to our website. We will work to enhance our website and our electronic services to improve access to materials for our patrons.

We, the WTBBL, will come out as one of the strongest, most technologically advanced, most user-focused libraries in the country. I look forward to working with you all on our goals and plans. Please feel free to contact me with your ideas!

All the best,

Danielle King

or (206) 615-1588

Progress in the Switch to Digital Talking Books

by Amy Ravenholt

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has awarded the contract to get digital talking book players produced, and manufacturing has begun. WTBBL is scheduled to get two demonstration machines in January 2009, and our first year’s allotment of 1,136 machines later in the year.

Interested veterans and patrons who are members of the Ten-Squared Club (100 years old or older) will get preference to receive the new machines. After requests from those two groups are satisfied, players will be issued to interested customers in good standing as fairly as possible, probably by a lottery. One step you can take now to improve your chance in the lottery is to keep your borrowing record in good standing. WTBBL will be sending overdue notices in the fall to remind patrons what items need to be returned.

It will take several years for the library to build up its collection of digital talking books. Our librarians and reader advisors are choosing a starter collection from NLS, and they have been ordering digital copies of new titles each month. We also plan to make digital copies of the books our volunteers have recorded. While we are going through the transition and building our collection, patrons will be able to keep their cassette player and get books in both formats. They will also be able to download digital books and magazines over the Internet.

Over thirty years ago we started the transition from records to cassettes. It took a long time for all patrons to switch to cassette tapes since the record players were easier for many people to use and the flexible records were more durable than cassettes. The opposite should be true this time. A complete book will fit on one digital cartridge, so parts of the book won’t get lost or misplaced. When they are returned, we will be able to inspect them and get them out to the next customer faster. They will also be physically tougher, meaning the library will lose fewer books due to damage. Most importantly, the average patron should find it easier to plug digital cartridges into the player, to jump forward and back in the book to a specific point, and to change the speed at which they play back a book without changing the pitch of the narrator’s voice.

“Neil Bernstein of NlS calls this the ‘digital revolution’ and I don’t think he’s exaggerating,” says Alan Bentson, Readers’ Advisor. “People with computer access will no longer have to depend on the post office to get their books, and everyone will be able to hear their books better.” Getting more books to more people in less time, with better sound quality, and easy-to-use players. It’s no wonder we can hardly wait!

Making a Request List by Alan Bentson

Perhaps you are planning to make a request list to send to your talking book library. The words “send” and “list” would seem to imply writing down some numbers or titles on a piece of paper and stuffing them in an envelope addressed to WTBBL, 2021 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121-2783. However, you might want to think again! You have gone to a lot of trouble to make this list, picked out books, perhaps someone has helped you write them down or fill out a paper order form. The list will take several days to travel here; in a few more days someone else will take time to copy the list all over again into your account. If it’s a list of 22 books, but there is one book you really, really want, how would we know? A better way might be to use our online catalog (OPAC) at www.wtbbl.org, the only complete catalog of our books that there is. You will have many more books to choose from, and in the case of large print books, it’s the only catalog we have.

Too much trouble to look at the catalog? Send us an e-mail at with your requests and we’ll get them to you. You can call us any time at 800-542-0866 and request books by author, title, subject, or book number. Leave a voicemail or talk to a Readers’ Advisor and your requests will go directly into your file. Use any of these methods and books will go out right away, and you can take the opportunity to let us know about those mysteries you keep getting, even though you hate mysteries, or that series that you never got the first book of… Be creative in how you think of a “list” and you will find you will get better books, faster, that you have chosen independently. The more involved you are in your library service, the better your service will be!

WTBBL Open House by Danielle King

On July 3rd, WTBBL held an open house to celebrate our transition to administration by the Washington State Library and becoming a part of the Office of the Secretary of State. We had a wonderful turnout with over 100 patrons, volunteers, and guests. The program included remarks by Secretary of State Sam Reed, and Washington State Librarian, Jan Walsh. WTBBL staff created displays to showcase our many services and gave tours to interested people. It was truly a great event! Thanks to all of you who attended and made it such a special day for us!

TIME TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF: RETURN YOUR BOOKS ON TIME! by Kathryn Pierce

In the past, WTBBL staff members have not been very demanding about overdue books. With the limited rollout of digital equipment and books in the next few years, this must change. Although the Library will still not charge fines for lost or overdue books, patron return records will now become one of many factors in determining the order and scope of digital item distribution.

To include reasonable mailing times, the checkout period has been increased to 6 WEEKS (3 months for institutions). Books are due back six weeks from the day they left the Library. At a patron’s request, a single renewal of the same time period will be granted, UNLESS another patron is waiting for that particular title - but this should be done before the book is overdue.

Make it easy on yourself! Keep all your WTBBL materials in one place. Read them in the order in which you received them, and return each item promptly. If you really aren’t particularly interested in something you’ve received, just send it back right away. If you’re having trouble keeping up, WTBBL staff will be glad to adjust the number of books you receive at one time.

A list of books currently checked out, and the dates they were sent, can be located in the patron record portion of the online catalog (www.wtbbl.org), or obtained by phoning or emailing the library. Overdue book notices will be sent out in the near future, and on a regular basis thereafter. If you receive a notice, and have lost, or believe you already mailed back any item on it, you are responsible for contacting the Library to let us know.

A big THANK YOU to the many patrons who ALREADY return their books promptly!

WTBBL Staff — Who we are, what we do!

Alan Bentson (Readers’ Advisor): Alan is one of the few blind Readers’ Advisors in the country. He lives in Olympia, Washington, and is fanatically devoted to reading and music. Favorite reading: history, historical fiction, science fiction and anything he can get his hands on. Favorite music: folk, jazz, and anything he can manage to play on the piano.

Amy Ravenholt (Assistant Program Manager): Amy, the assistant head librarian for WTBBL, manages day-to-day operations and works with you on any problems you may have using our service. She enjoys do-it-yourself projects and contra dancing (the modern version of country dances you might have read about in Jane Austen novels).

Ann Hay (Information Technology Manager): Ann manages, upgrades, troubleshoots, and maintains computers used by staff and volunteers at WTBBL, edits the WTBBL website, and assists staff with specialized equipment at WTBBL. She was born in Seattle, spent five years in the Philippine Islands as a child with her family, and loves gardening, photography, and old wood boats.

Ashley Baird (Shipping Page): Ashley works in the shipping department and recently graduated from the University of Washington.

Danielle King (Program Manager): Danielle is the head librarian for WTBBL and oversees all programs and operations. She is an avid birder, loves all animals, and enjoys drawing, needlepoint, and photography.

David Junius (Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator): David is the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator at WTBBL, working with the individuals, organizations, and companies that help provide our services. He lives in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle with his wife and three dogs.

Ed Godfrey (Braille Assistant): Ed produces braille transcriptions of in-house WTBBL documents; proofreads braille; converts braille files to internet files for the WTBBL website; collates and embosses books produced by our volunteers for the circulating collection. He enjoys transcribing print music into braille, doing genealogical research, and eating out as often as possible.

Eura Ryan (Administrative Assistant): Eura is the administrative assistant for WTBBL and oversees purchasing, facilities and the receptionist position. Her past is in ancient languages and history, but her future is in library science. She enjoys a good movie or a good science fiction book on a rainy night.

John Pai (Lead Broadcaster): John is the Lead Broadcaster for the Evergreen Radio Reading Service. He oversees the operation of the radio service as broadcast engineer, executive producer of programs, and radio volunteer trainer. He also is a visual artist who has been creating media installations for over 10 years in Seattle.

Joyce Van Tuyl (Braille Coordinator): Joyce coordinates the production of material submitted for transcription into braille, including books for the circulating collections and in-house documents. Volunteer transcribers are trained and supervised by the Braille Department. Monthly and quarterly records of production, volunteer hours, and community service promoting braille literacy are also prepared.