Advisory Committee to the Nebraska Library Commission
Talking Book and Braille Service
Nebraska Library Commission
1200 N Street, Suite 120 Meadowlark Room
Lincoln, Nebraska
Friday, November 14, 2008, 9:00 a.m.
DRAFT Minutes subject to change at the next meeting
The Advisory
Committee to the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille
Service held its regular meeting Tuesday, November 14,
2008, at the Nebraska Library Commission, Lincoln, NE. Notice of the meeting
was submitted to local newspapers (Lincoln
Journal Star, Omaha World Herald), and
posted on the Nebraska Library Commission Web site.
Members
present: Joan Davis, Bob Deaton,
Brenda Elson, Marjorie Harrison, Annette Hall, Sheila Jacobson Dave Oertli,
Shirley Schmidt, Scott Schultz, and Mary Trenerry
The meeting
was opened by Mary Trenerry, who is serving as chairperson.
Annette
Hall showed the Board the card that was put in every person 's packet who
attended the fall convention for media specialists (NIMH).
In addition, over seven hundred cards were sent to media specialists in
both public and private K-12 schools.
The card lets people know that digital talking books are now available
and that over 11,000 titles are offered online with more books frequently being
added. Once again it was addressed
that it is important that, in this case schools, understand that talking books
are for a wide variety of disabilities, not just people with visual impairment.
Likewise, it is important that people understand that talking books are
for a wide age range of audiences.
Toward this end, Annette shared a colorful flyer that was given at the NIMH
convention which educates teachers/media specialists about what is available for
school age children through Talking Books.
The flyer highlighted the Golden Sower winner and the nominees; various
children 's/teenage magazines; reference books, etc.
It might also interest schools that most of the books on the Accelerated
Reader program are also available on talking books.
Annette also shared a poster she put together for the conventions.
She passed around a notebook that was on display at the convention to
give people an idea of the wide variety of books and magazines available.
Mary and
Joan said they would each send e-mails to middle school teachers in their
individual districts and see what books are most popular in the AR program and
inform the teachers of the availability of the books on tape.
Dave said
he has had some people express their interest in the Victor, but Dave and Scott
both mentioned the frustration trying to explain to people that they have to buy
their own. It further complicates
things to explain that individual patrons can sign up and multiple users can
share one machine, but an institution that buys one can not sign it out to
multiple users. It was discussed
whether it is too early to contact schools about doing an in-service on the
Victor?
Dave went
on to explain that 12.5 million dollars has been allocated over the next six
years to continue with additional funds to produce digital players and by then
it is hopeful a complete transition from the current player will be complete.
The Library of Congress is hoping for the transition can be complete in
the next three years.
Outreach
was once again discussed, as the group agreed that this is an important part of
our mission. Joan said she had
spoken to a Rotary Club about Talking Books.
Dave also read a note from Nancy about the NIMH convention and said the
break out session on Talking Books was very well attended in the a.m., but there
were many conflicting workshops in the p.m.
She also said Annette did a great job on organizing and presenting the
material.
Brenda,
Scott and Dave presented information about Talking Books to the Learning
Disability Association. Between
70-80 people attended and Scott said that he felt the display that was set up
had quite a few people stopping and asking questions.
They felt it was a good opportunity to get word out on the new
technology. Dave expressed his
frustration that people are sometimes confused about who qualifies for the
service. He mentioned a woman came
by and she was convinced that Talking Books services are for blind people only.
She said she had heard this from other people.
Annette
said that there have been some new volunteers and that some are very adept with
technology. She said that they have
used the new volunteers in the Reviewer Work Station to check for accuracy and
background sounds-the volunteers drop markers where mistakes occur.
Scott said that since the studio has gone digital is it easier to recruit
producers. There are also volunteers
who are not as technology orientated, but they have been very much appreciated.
It was then asked if there seems to be more of a trend in volunteerism
and are there different ways to use volunteers than traditional ways?
Sheila
mentioned that the Lincoln Public Library has a wide array of ages in their
volunteers. They have over 1000
volunteers who have jointly logged 20,000 hours.
She said the youngest are middle school aged and they help with the
summer reading program. Seniors in
the Lincoln Public Schools are required to have 20 hours of volunteer hours, so
the library has many high school students who do a range of activities and are
very helpful with day to day tasks.
The elderly also make up a proportion of the group of volunteers at the library.
Sheila also brought up though, that it is sometimes difficult to find
staff to supervise the volunteers.
Shirley and Margie talked about how volunteers are used in Columbus and
Scottsbluff. When Annette asked what
kind of recognition volunteers are give, Shirley said she thinks offering lunch
is as good a motivator as any.
Sheila said that it is essential to recognize the volunteers. She said that one
of their recognitions that is successful is at the end of the summer, the
library has a shelving party and staff and volunteers are fed.
Sheila said
that the Teen Advisory Board did a video about volunteering that was a big hit.
She also mentioned that a new library by a middle school was having
problems with students after school.
The library was pro-active and put their high school volunteers there to
supervise. The library also invested
in popular games such as Guitar Hero, a Wii, etc.
and they have had very few problems.
The topic
of digital players came up again.
Scott said it will probably be several years before all patrons can have digital
plays, but it is not too early to think of places to advertise and ways to
advertise. Bob mentioned that there
is some concern about people using the new digital players-especially among the
elderly. He mentioned that some type
of training needs to be in order.
Dave said there is a program in place to help people, and it will be so much
easier to use than the old recorders, he doesn 't anticipate the problems will be
as great as one might think. Dave
also mentioned that much time is being spent trying to fix cassette players and
there are not federal funds available anymore for cassettes.
Dave also said that he wonders if the word 'digital ' puts some people off
and that maybe it needs to be substituted with the word 'simpler '.
Shirley said that she has heard more that people are anxious to get the
new digital recorders and she hasn 't heard any one express concern about
manipulating the machine. Scott said
that he anticipates the earliest Nebraska will receive any of the new recorders
will be May of 2009. Nebraska will
receive 500 of them, with 40-50 of them arriving each month and veterans will
have the first option to use them.
After veterans, students will be given the option, then borrowers in good
standing.
A support
network was once again mentioned for people who purchase a VICTOR.
Scott mentioned that up to 30 books at a time can be downloaded on the
cartridge and it will depend on how much traffic the website can handle as to
how quickly a book can be downloaded.
He said a one thousand page book will take between two to ten minutes.
Dave
mentioned the DVS movies are available and the library has over 700 of them.
The movies are quite well done with dialog that describes the action.
A friend of Dave 's has asked that the policy that is in place regarding
borrowing movies be reviewed.
Currently a person has to b an active borrower from the library in order to
borrow a movie. Dave said there are
several companies that make movies for the visually impaired including WGBH out
of Boston; Oklahoma Narrative Network; Turner Network; and a company in Canada.
Descriptive video is meeting with much success.
Good byes
were said to Bob Deaton, who has been a valued member of the Board.
The meeting was adjourned and Dave will look at dates for our next
meeting in the spring.
Respectfully Submitted,
Joan Davis
For more information contact Scott Scholz, Director, Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service.
402-471-6553
800-742-7691
Scott Scholz