Blind and physically handicapped individuals who are seeking many kinds of specialized reading material now have a new guide, Another Source for Books: Electronic Text, published by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress (NLS).
Through the use of adaptive equipment, blind readers can now have virtually the same access as sighted readers to books and other information available via computers. Under the heading "another source for books," the most recent issue of the newsletter Projects & Experiments provides an introduction to basic computer technology, lists online resources for full-text reading material and explains how electronic technology opens up reading opportunities never before possible.
Articles cover: the range of material available on floppy diskettes, CD-ROM disks and online; how this material can be used in daily life; and the computer and adaptive equipment needed to provide the information in tactile or audio form. Adaptive equipment generally consists of either a braille output device or hardware and software for synthetic speech.
Other articles deal with access to reference books -- long a problem for blind individuals because of the space needed for multivolume braille works and the near impossibility of keeping such information current -- and with types of library resources for access to electronic documents.
The publication includes a list of Internet sites that have large collections of full-text public-domain books. Each citation gives a uniform resource locator so that readers can connect to the sites with personal computers using World Wide Web browsing software. This list is also available to Internet users on the NLS homepage (http://www.loc.gov/nls/).
Another Source for Books: Electronic Text is available in print and braille formats. For copies, contact: Reference Section, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20542.
Author Donates Books to Library Friends Group. Award-winning author Daniel Quinn has donated 576 audio copies of his book Ishmael to Friends of Libraries for Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals in North America Inc., a nonprofit group that supports library programs such as NLS.
The Bantam audiocassettes presenting an abridged version of the book will be sent to Friends members as part of the organization's "At-Home Cultural Series," and remaining copies will be offered to registered NLS patrons.
The book tells of a man who responds to an advertisement seeking a pupil who desires to save the world. He meets Ishmael, a gorilla who communicates with humans telepathically. Ishmael explains that humans are destroying other species and warns that, like most other species, they must obey the peacekeeping laws of nature.
Ishmael has been used as a text in courses on environmental and sociological topics and has been translated into seven languages. It won the 1991 $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, established to encourage authors to seek "creative and positive solutions to global problems."
Mr. Quinn is a former executive in educational publishing and currently writes and lectures on environmental and future-oriented issues.
An unabridged version of Ishmael is available to blind and physically handicapped readers through the network of libraries supporting the Library of Congress talking-book program.