Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Gradually it dawned on the librarians that while they were getting free books from the government they were incurring considerable expense for circulation, and one or two cities which had clamored to become depositories and had not hesitated to use a little political pressure, later asked to be relieved of the responsibility. The burden has now become so great on some of these libraries, who have long since forgotten that they at one time met the cost not only of circulation but of purchasing books too, that some other plan of financing these departments will probably need to be worked out. The federal authorities, who realize the burden, have hesitated to recommend that the Federal Government meet the entire cost of operating the branch libraries; first, because it would be hard to supervise the financial side of the operation, and second, because there might be a tendency on the part of lawmakers in Congress to reduce the appropriation for books by at least part of the cost of running the regional depositories. Possibly some day a plan will be worked out by which the states will meet the cost of operating the regional library serving their blind population. If it were practicable to have a depository in each state, it would be easier to get this kind of cooperation, but the number of borrowers in any one state is seldom large enough to justify the minimum cost of operating satisfactorily one of these depositories.

In the present situation state pride seems to make it difficult to get a state appropriation toward meeting a share of the cost of operating a branch library for the blind located in another state even though this might cost less than one-third of the amount it would take to operate a branch within its own boundaries.

A depository library must not only receive and ship books but it must give personal service in the way of answering letters about books, keeping records of books that each reader has already read so that he will not inadvertently be sent the same book two or three times when he, as many readers do, writes in and says; please send me another book. These libraries not only need to know what books the blind person has already read but also be somewhat familiar with the reading taste of each of the borrowers. This involves knowing something about his background, the kind of books he seems to express enthusiasm for, etc.

The Library of Congress has many problems to face, not the least of which is the selection of subject matter. We sometimes view with great satisfaction the fact that we now have over 2,000 titles on Talking Book records. But when we consider that the reading population of a town of 25,000 people frequently has a library containing 15,000 or 20,000 titles, one must admit that the United States blind population of over 300,000 has grounds for complaint when it is offered a library list of Talking Books of only about 2,000 titles. It must be borne in mind that reading tastes of blind people are as broad as those of seeing people. The available choice of reading matter is restricted to an extent which seeing people would not tolerate in their public libraries.

This situation will be somewhat improved in time if the government appropriations continue at the present size so that more books are added each year. Also, certain needs are being met by adding to our libraries an evergrowing number of books recorded directly by good men and women who voluntarily give their services to read aloud to the blind people on some kind of recording machine. These records at present are not entirely satisfactory. They are often poorly recorded and poorly read, and the Talking Book machine designed for regulation Talking Books is not always suitable for such records and often destroys a book the first time it is read. But these matters will gradually be corrected as the librarians, readers, and blind people gain more experience.

THE TALKING BOOK

The twentieth anniversary of the Talking Book was celebrated in 1954. In this short span of time it has come to occupy in the lives of many blind people the position of an indispensable friend -- a friend that is always at their disposal, always ready to read to them at their convenience; a friend that has succeeded in opening to many of the blind new intellectual worlds of profit and pleasure.

Dr. Irwin was one of the first among workers for the blind to foresee the great possibilities of the Talking Book. He was always very enthusiastic about the new reading medium, and put all his drive and energy behind its development.

IN THE late nineteen-twenties when studies were being made of the relative legibility of braille embossing on one and two sides of the page, investigators were amazed to find what a small percentage of the blind population in New York City were able to read with their fingers at all. While the average speed of finger reading in some of the schools for the blind was about sixty words per minute, it was necessary for the investigators to accept people whose speed of reading was as low as twenty words per minute, in order to conveniently get a sufficient number of adult subjects to make the tests.