Library of Congress, Local County Public Libraries Launch
“Take a Talking Book” Public Education Campaign

Montgomery County Public Libraries and other local library systems will join the Library of Congress on October 31 in launching a public education campaign designed to promote the benefits of talking books to persons with vision loss and physical handicaps, their professional caregivers and eligible older readers.

The “Take a Talking Book” national public education campaign kick off event will be held from noon to 1 p.m., at Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Harriet Henderson, director of Montgomery County Public Libraries, will deliver closing remarks.

Sponsored by the Library of Congress’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and area public libraries, the campaign communicates the benefits of the talking book program that offers those who can’t see regular print, hold a book, or turn a page, an opportunity to continue enjoying reading. In addition to Talking Books in English, he Library of Congress also provides the service in other languages such as French, Cambodian, German, Italian, Laotian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The public education campaign will run in Maryland, the District and Virginia through March 2003 and is part of a multi-pronged effort by the Library of Congress to both increase and improve services to eligible older Americans.

These high-quality recordings of unabridged books and magazines are played on easy-to-use playback equipment. The talking books and playback equipment are sent by mail, at no charge, to people who are eligible. With more than 60,000 book titles available in recorded formats, the program is able to provide a range of books similar to that in any public library collection.

The agenda will feature the following speakers:

Welcoming Remarks
Mary E. Raphael, Director
District of Columbia Public Library

The Voting Senior – America’s Asset
The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton
U. S. House of Representatives

District of Columbia Office on Aging Commitment to Well Informed Seniors
E. Veronica Pace, Executive Director
District of Columbia Office on Aging

“Take a Talking Book” National Campaign to Reach Senior Readers
Stephen Prine, Head, Network Service
Section, National Library Service/BPH
Library of Congress

Senior Access to Information
Oral Miller, President
American Council of the Blind

Senior Access to Information
Don Galloway, President, D.C. Chapter
National Federation of the Blind

The Making of a Talking Book
Mary Beth Wise, Narrator
National Library Service/BPH
Recording Studio

Closing Remarks
Harriet Henderson, Director
Montgomery County Public Libraries

Montgomery County’s Special Needs Library, co-located with Davis Library in Bethesda. The library provides the Library of Congress Talking Book Service in English and Spanish, a small print Braille collection in English, and a deposit collection for nursing homes and homebound services. The special Needs Library has the largest collection of large print books in the county.

According to Frank Kurt Cylke, director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, the number of seniors currently served by the program is about 349,000 compared to the 1.8 million eligible seniors in America.

To assist professionals working with senior adults, the library has also produced outreach materials including a 17-minute videotape program, “Talking Books for Seniors,” a companion manuals for these professionals, and a handbook for the program’s network librarians to use in helping develop cooperative programs at health care and retirement facilities.

For more information about the Talking Books Service, call the toll-free number at 1-888-787-2771 or e-mail nls@loc.gov.