Update January-March 1999, Vol. 22, No. 1 ISSN 0160-9203 National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped The Library of Congress Volunteer recording program celebrates twentieth year in Texas Twelve volunteers were recognized as the Texas volunteer recording program celebrated its twentieth anniversary last year. The volunteers included Margaret Barton, who has been with the program thirteen years; Marisol Brown, eighteen years; Cinda Cyrus, nineteen years; Millie Dalrymple, eleven years; Therese East, twenty years; Frances Edwards, seventeen years; Judy Evans, fourteen years; Tom Fairbrother, eighteen years; Ollie Handley, eighteen years; Janice Lathin, twenty years; Mary Jane Prall, seventeen years; and Joel Rudd, twenty years. These "first-decade" volunteers, along with the many others who joined the program more recently, have recorded approximately four thousand books and magazines. "We are so fortunate to have such loyal, productive, and enthusiastic support from our recording studio volunteers," said Jenifer Flaxbart, director of the Texas Talking Book Program. "Their hard work and commitment to quality help us create books and magazines that are valued and enjoyed by our patrons in Texas--and beyond." The Texas volunteer program was organized and launched in 1978 by studio manager Carolyn Randall, who worked with the staff of the Texas State Library and Archive Commission (TSLAC) Talking Book Program. During the next two decades, the program expanded from a handful of volunteers and one recording booth to more than a hundred volunteers and three booths. Ms. Randall, who was studio manager for its first ten years and volunteered weekly for most of the second decade, was honored at a celebration last year. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by TSLAC director and librarian Robert Martin, and a letter of commendation from NLS director Frank Kurt Cylke. An honored guest at the celebration was NLS audio book production specialist Bill West, who was instrumental in starting the Texas volunteer effort. The Friends of the Talking Book Program Volunteer Recording Studio, Inc., formed in 1995, sponsored two successful fundraisers in 1998. The first was a raffle for a gourmet dinner prepared and served by Friends president Lori Brix. This effort netted $250. The Friends also raised about $600 by gift-wrapping holiday purchases for customers at an Austin bookstore during December. The store provided the wrapping paper and encouraged customers to tip the volunteers. The gift-wrapping activity also provided an opportunity to inform bookstore customers about the Talking Book Program and the volunteer recording studio. During the year, the Friends, who help recruit volunteers, also created a web site at www.silentpartners.com/friends/friends.html. (photo caption: First-decade and newer volunteers alike were honored during the twentieth-anniversary celebration: (seated, left to right) Janice Lathin, Stephanie Murphy, and founder Carolyn Randall; (standing, left to right) Therese East, Bill McLean, Joel Rudd, Frances Edwards, Tom Fairbrother, and Ollie Handley.) (photo caption: NLS audio production specialist Bill West greets Carolyn Randall, right, and former studio staffer and volunteer Tina Klinkhammer during the Texas Volunteer Recording Program's twentieth anniversary celebration.) North Carolina library holds volunteer workshop The North Carolina Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NCLBPH) invited NLS government information/volunteer specialist Freddie Peaco to hold a two-day workshop in January on recruiting volunteers. Gary Ray, NCLBPH director of Volunteer Services, explained, "We have about a hundred dedicated volunteers working in three or four categories, but as we have grown over the years our need for more volunteers has increased. We have not launched a recruitment effort for more than five years." On the first day, four staff members and one long-time volunteer who has worked in several areas, including volunteer administration, attended the session. The program concentrated on volunteer-program evaluation and job descriptions. It also covered strategies for recruiting, interviewing, matching volunteers with tasks, and record keeping. On the second day, Ms. Peaco provided tips and advice to staff on a personal level. She held one-on-one sessions with the director of Volunteer Services and with each of the three staff members responsible for specific volunteer activities such as the recording program and braille services. Pound Ridge volunteer celebrates 100th birthday At age seventy, Edith Blockman Waters wanted to expand her volunteer service to her community. She decided to learn literary braille transcription, receiving her certification in October 1970, and transcribed books for more than twenty-six years. Sunday, December 6, 1998, more than eighty people gathered at the Le Chateau Restaurant in South Salem, New York, to honor Mrs. Waters for her community service, which spans more than fifty years, and to celebrate her one-hundredth birthday. Hosted by the Pound Ridge (New York) Lions Club, the late-afternoon luncheon allowed Mrs. Waters's friends and colleagues to recognize her braille transcription work and her volunteer service at the Pound Ridge Hiram Halle Memorial Library and other volunteer work. Pound Ridge Lions Club vice president and project leader for the event Silas Larry Smith presented Mrs. Waters with a commemorative plaque from NLS, signed by director Frank Kurt Cylke. She also received a letter of appreciation from the Westchester Library System. "We are so proud of Mrs. Waters and appreciate what she does. She is motivation for all of us, and I have a special affection for her," said library director Marilyn Tinter.The centenarian received commendations and birthday wishes from President and Mrs. Clinton, Governor George Pataki, Congresswoman Sue Kelly, State Senator Vincent Leibell, Assemblywoman Naomi Matsuow, and County Executive Andrew Spano. Memorabilia displayed at the luncheon marked the volunteer career of Mrs. Waters, who retired from braille transcribing in 1996 following a stroke. The exhibit included her braillewriter, her initial certification exam, some sample work, a list of the more than 110 books she transcribed into braille, and other mementos. At the luncheon the Pound Ridge Lions Club contributed an additional one thousand dollars to support the audio book collection at the Pound Ridge library, which the group established in Mrs. Waters's honor in 1997. The money is to be used to purchase recorded books. Mrs. Waters initially volunteered in the community by helping in the cafeteria of the Pound Ridge Elementary School while her grandchildren were in attendance. She also drove a school bus and worked in the library, where she still assists on Fridays with book registration and other tasks. She recounts that she became interested in braille when she and her husband sold their grocery business and retired. Looking around for volunteer opportunities, she learned that braille transcription was being taught at the library so she joined the class, which was sponsored by the Westchester Braille Group. She transcribed a wide variety of books, including novels and how-to books, that were sent to NLS and the Jewish Guild for the Blind. When the Westchester Braille Group disbanded in the early 1980s, Mrs. Waters began transcribing textbooks for the American Red Cross Braille Service in East Orange, New Jersey, where she continued until she retired. "Volunteering is just a natural part of life," says Mrs. Waters. Mrs. Waters received the Good Neighbor Award in 1971 and the Westchester County Office Aging Volunteer of the Year award in 1992. She was also honored in the "Young at Heart" contest sponsored by U.S. Healthcare. The Pound Ridge Community Church, where Mrs. Waters has been an active member for many years, held a service in her honor on December 13--her birthday--with the support of the library. She regularly donated her sewing and baking skills for church fundraising efforts. After the service, a past town historian and her husband presented a visual history of Pound Ridge and the surrounding area and a photographic retrospective of Mrs. Waters's life and times. (photo caption: Mrs. Edith Blockman Waters.) Johanna Bureau celebrates seventy-fifth anniversary At a special volunteer recognition luncheon on April 21, 1999, the Johanna Bureau for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Inc., will celebrate its past and look forward to a future of continued service. The Johanna Bureau is one of the oldest volunteer organizations to provide both braille and recorded transcriptions in the United States. Volunteers began producing handcopied braille in 1924, and in 1963 began providing recorded products to clients with visual impairments and dyslexia. Two members of Johanna Lodge #9, a now dissolved pre-Civil War women's fraternal group, saw the need to provide braille materials to veterans blinded in World War I. They encouraged their fellow members to learn braille, which led to the formation of the Johanna Bureau. The group was eventually housed in the Chicago Public Library, which circulated braille material produced by the group for forty-two years. Later, the Bureau moved into its own quarters, from which it continues to serve the Chicago Public Library, the Illinois State Library System, the Illinois Office of Education, NLS, and individuals and school districts in nearly all fifty states. The Johanna Bureau also provides scriveners for handicapped students taking the Illinois bar exam. (This article was written by Edith Weiner, Johanna Bureau.) Big bash at the Montana State Capitol rotunda The Montana Talking Book Library celebrated its thirtieth anniversary on September 29, 1998, by introducing patrons to those who have worked hard on their behalf and honoring the volunteers who have played a vital role in the library's success. Volunteer Barbara Baarson received a Special Appreciation Award for her dedicated work on behalf of library patrons. Chuck Wirth received a Telephone Pioneer Award for his long hours spent repairing cassette book machines. Lea Blunn, Mary Zednick, Jane Briney, and Giles Walker were honored as Recording Team of the Year. Five summer youth volunteers received special Life-Saver awards for contributions made during school vacations. At least a dozen volunteers received individual awards for service ranging from five to thirty years. The librarians thanked all the volunteers and presented them with the staff's own creation, a glass plate etched with the skyline of a nearby mountain range. (photo caption: Tom Basinger receives a plaque on behalf of the Telephone Pioneers from Carolyn Sung, chief of Network Division, NLS.) Braille Authority of North America elects officers Elections were the priority when the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) met in Boston, Massachusetts, November 9 and 10, 1998. Serving the next term (1999-2001) are Phyllis Campana, American Printing House for the Blind (APH), chairperson; Bettye Niceley, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), vice-chairperson; Frances Mary D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), secretary; Susan Reilly, California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped (CTEVH), treasurer; and Dolores Ferrara-Godzieba, Associated Services for the Blind (ASB), past-chairperson. The organization also formed a new technical committee to develop standards for tactile graphics and announced that an errata sheet correcting errors found in Braille Formats: Principles of Print to Braille Transcription 1997 will be available on the BANA web site at www.brailleauthority.org. In addition, the list will be in transcriber newsletters by the spring of 1999. The meeting was hosted by the National Braille Press. The next BANA meeting will be in Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 2-3, 1999. On November 2-6, 1999, the U.S. members of BANA will host the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) in Baltimore, Maryland. Books being selected for grade 1 braille A variety of fiction and nonfiction books in grade 1 braille are now being added to the NLS collection, an action prompted by the National Advisory Group on Collection-Building Activities. The group recommended that NLS provide this format for adult readers who have a need for or prefer the more elementary form of braille. Mastering grade 1 braille, the letter-for-letter substitution for print, is the first step to braille literacy. Books in the NLS collection are generally in grade 2 braille, which contains a number of contracted forms that speed the reading and take up less space. Mastering the contractions is a more advanced braille reading skill. Approximately three to five books a year are being selected for the grade 1 braille collection with an anticipated limit of about fifty. A larger number is not considered necessary because most patrons advance from this level to grade 2 braille. More important than the number of books, the collection must represent the varied interests of people who are learning braille. Criteria used for selection include high general interest, relatively short length, and low vocabulary. Such popular works of fiction include classics, westerns, and - romances. Nonfiction titles are generally subjects believed to be of interest to many patrons. Magazine article features NLS narrators NLS narrators Laura Giannarelli and Ray Hagen and studio director Margie Goergen-Rood were featured in "The People behind the Talking Books," an article that appeared in the March-April 1998 issue of Enable Magazine, published by the American Association of People with Disabilities. Author Kathi Wolfe also interviewed former NLS narrator Flo Gibson and Suzanne Toren, who has narrated more than 1,000 NLS talking books at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). Ms. Wolfe, who identifies herself in the article as "one of 780,000 patrons of the government program that provides recorded books to people who are blind and/or have physical disabilities," writes frequently on disability issues. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post and the Miami Herald. The article covers the recording process and some of the attitudes narrators have toward their art and the extensive work that goes into preparation of each recording. Wolfe describes Giannarelli's and Hagen's reaction to fan mail. Says Giannarelli, "This can be lonely work. One spends months reading a book. Then it's sent out. But, as far as we know, it's resting in a vault somewhere. It's wonderful to get a letter!" Hagen exclaims, "So far as we know, we're just reading to ourselves! We get fan letters--but never as many as we'd like." The article contains photographs of Giannarelli and Hagen, as well as images of NLS patrons and a photograph of Helen Keller and Robert Irwin, both of AFB, with the original talking-book machine. Braille student-instructor dialog The Braille Development Section receives numerous questions concerning a variety of problems in braille transcribing. This article addresses some of them. The question-and-answer format is intended to give clarity. Student: I am transcribing a book written by Ann McGovern. The name McGovern is printed in all capitals except for the letter c, which is in the lower case. I realize that on the braille title page, the book title and the author's name are written in full capitals. Is it then correct to place a single-capital sign before the letter m and a double-capital sign before the letter g in McGovern? Instructor: That is correct. When a book is written by an author whose name begins with Mc or Mac, and the letters c or ac are smaller than the other letters, a single capital sign is placed at the beginning of the name and a double-capital sign before the second part of the name. Student: I am aware that the ea contraction is used in the word disease. However, should the ea contraction be used in disease meaning ill at ease? Instructor: No. When the word disease is used to mean ill at ease, the word ease is preceded by the prefix dis. Section 34B1 of the official code, English Braille, American Edition, says that a contraction must not be used where the usual braille form of the base word would be altered by the addition of a prefix. Therefore, the ea contraction should not be used in the word disease meaning ill at ease. Student: I recently completed my thirty-five-page trial manuscript for Library of Congress certification. In one instance, the word economy was divided between lines. In my evaluation report, two points were deducted for not using the con contraction in economy. Could you please explain? Instructor: Certainly. It is true that when economy is not divided between lines, the con contraction is not used. However, the contractions for be, con, and dis may be used when they constitute a syllable in a divided word unless they are the last syllable in a divided word. Since the word economy is divided after the letter e, the syllable con appears at the beginning. Therefore, the con contraction may be used. (See Section 43 of the official code.) Student: I realize that the placement and format of captions is not mentioned in English Braille, American Edition. Section 18.1 of the Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribing says only that captions that simply identify the pictures themselves should be omitted. However, I am transcribing a book in which picture captions provide information not given elsewhere in the text. Therefore, I feel that the captions should be included in the braille text. Am I correct? Instructor: Yes. Even though the official code and the instruction manual do not address this problem, a suggested solution is given below. Picture captions, maps, diagrams, etc., should start in cell 7 with runovers in cell 5. Begin with the word that tells the reader what it is that you are brailling (picture, diagram, map, etc.), and continue brailling on the same line. For example: Picture Caption: [exact wording as it is given in the print] If the caption happens to have more than one paragraph, start the next paragraph in cell 7 with runovers in cell 5. Because of the change in margin, a blank line is not needed above or below, unless required for other format reasons (such as a major change of thought, scene, or action). Student: In the book that I am transcribing, there are a number of abbreviations written without punctuation such as Mr, Mrs, Dr, etc. Should I insert the missing period in braille? Instructor: No. Section 27 of the official code says that abbreviations may be written with or without the period or capital in accordance with the print copy. Therefore, to retain the flavor of the author's style, when abbreviations such as Mr, Mrs, and Dr are written without a period in print, a period should not be written in braille. Meetings National Braille Association (NBA) Twenty-fifth National Conference, Antlers Doubletree Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Thursday, April 29-Saturday, May 1, 1999 Fall Regional Meeting and Workshops, Radisson Plaza Hotel, Orlando, Florida; Thursday, October 14-Saturday, October 16, 1999 Spring Regional Meeting and Workshops, Holiday Inn University Park, Des Moines, Iowa; Thursday, April 27-Saturday, April 29, 2000 For more information about these meetings, contact National Braille Association, Three Townline Circle, Rochester, NY 14623-2513; (716) 427-8260. California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped (CTEVH) CTEVH XL Annual Conference, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sacramento, California; Thursday, March 25-Saturday, March 27, 1999 For more information about this meeting, contact CTEVH, 741 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029-3594, (213) 666-2211; web site: http://edtech.sdcs.k12.ca.us/epd/ctevhhome.html Visual Aid Volunteers of Florida (VAVF) VAVF 1999 Conference of Volunteers, Radisson Resort North Hutchinson Island, Fort Pierce, Florida, Wednesday, May 12- Friday, May 14, 1999 For more information about this meeting, contact Florence Mathiesen, VAVF president, 6097 Blueberry Lane, Crestview, FL 32536, (850) 682-7750, e-mail: fjmat@juno.com Volunteers master new skills As a result of a delay in awarding evaluator contracts, no literary braille trial manuscripts or mathematics braille transcribing tests were scored during the months of October and November 1998. During the month of December 1998, certificates in literary braille transcribing were awarded to nine persons. LITERARY BRAILLE TRANSCRIBERS Delaware John R. Smith, Wilmington Florida Janet A. Kitsmiller, Orlando Doris Sloan, Macclenny Virginia M. Williams, Jacksonville Kansas Juanita A. Ryan, Prairie Village Nebraska Robert D. Powelson, Lincoln Nevada Richard J. Smith, Las Vegas New York Nancy J. Hester, Rome West Virginia Raymond E. Cox, Huttonsville Audio art Them by Ray Hagen If you've been following this narration series, you have--in theory--learned to unleash your true self, reign in your excesses, cope with punctuation, revel in research, accept grim inevitabilities, and tweak your own ear. In short, you now have your own room in Narrator Nirvana. So, enough about you. Now let's talk about . . . them. Namely, all those folks out there who'll be listening to these books over which you've sweated and slaved. It is safe to assume that they (1) speak and understand English, (2) have read a book before, and/or (3) have listened to a recorded book before. This absolves you of the need to talk v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y so as not to confuse them. We may also assume that they listen to recorded books not because they're hard of hearing (you don't have to shout) or, shall we say, intellectually challenged. If a nonfiction book on any given subject is requested, do assume that the reader cares about that subject, has read other material on it, has some degree of expertise in or knowledge of it (possibly a good deal more than you have), and/or wants to learn more about it. And if the selection is fiction, the reader may be a fan of the author or of the genre, has probably read similar material in the past, and simply wants a good story told well. (Gosh, just like the reasons we read books! Amazing.) And they know more about you than you suspect. They know, for instance, that you are an adult human of the male or female persuasion; that you have certain human attributes (mouth, saliva, teeth, stomach, nose); and that you are reading from a book into a microphone with the deliberate intention of having it listened to. They know that you are not a roomful of people, just one lone soul. This should relieve you of the responsibility of trying to con them into thinking otherwise. Also, except for the children, they're not children. And even the children have their own smarts. None of these listeners will appreciate being condescended to--that creepy tone of charity some well-meaning but ill-advised narrators use when they read to "those less fortunate." And, having lives of their own, the readers tend not to much care about your needs or your insecurities or your artistic vision, if any. They just want to read the book, and it's your job to get it to them. Tell them the story. What story? The one the author wrote. Tell it how? The way the author wrote it. Now I ask you--what could be simpler? (photo caption: Ray Hagen is a narrator in the NLS studio. Photo by Yusef El-Amin.) Update is published quarterly by: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress Washington, DC 20542 Correspondence should be addressed to Publications and Media Section. Coordinating editor: Freddie Peaco Publication editor: Jane Caulton Braille student-instructor dialog: John Wilkinson Audio art: Ray Hagen