NLS Press Release

Library of Congress Exhibition Featuring Prototype Machines for Digital Talking Books to Open Oct. 21

For Immediate Release:
October 21, 2002

Contact: Robert E. Fistick
(202) 707-9279 or rfis@loc.gov

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington will open a Digital Talking Book exhibition with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, Oct. 21 at 1:45 p.m. in the Mumford Foyer, sixth floor James Madison Building. Sponsored by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) in the Library of Congress, the exhibition titled "'Dook' - Digital Talking Books: Machine Design Competition Winners" will present the six winning entries of a competition to design a prototype playback machine for Digital Talking Books (DTB).

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the first-prize prototype DTB player called "Dook," designed by Lachezar Tsvetanov, a senior at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Tsvetanov's entry was one of 146 entries from 28 industrial design schools across the country. Launched in January in cooperation with the Industrial Designers Society of America, the competition challenged student designers to create the next generation of digital playback machines to replace outmoded analog audio cassette players.

NLS is in the midst of full-scale transition from analog audio casssettes to DTBs, a project that will involve converting approximately 30,000 titles (about 10 percent of NLS' collection) from analog tape recordings to master digital recordings and developing a digital playback device to replace the four-track tape player that has been in service for nearly three decades. NLS has approximately 730,000 audio cassette players in use worldwide today and maintains an inventory of more than 23 million cassettes containing audio books and magazines that it circulates free of charge to blind and physically handicapped readers.

The exhibition will run through mid-December in the Mumford foyer. Exhibition hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Library of Congress Home NLS Home Comments about NLS to nls@loc.gov

About this site Comments about this site to nlswebmaster@loc.gov

Posted on 2006-02-24