Director's Corner: Update from the Library for the Blind and Print Disabled

 Director's Corner

Contributed by John Owen, Director

To all of our patrons, families, and stakeholders,

Governor Hogan has lifted the state of Emergency across the state of Maryland as of July 1.

What does that mean for the Library for the Blind and Print Disabled?

1)  The whole of our staff will be returning to the library building as of July 1.  As you know, we've had a core group of staff members at the library on a daily basis throughout the pandemic making sure books and materials were sent out and returns processed, and we handled our reference desk, programming and other functions remotely.  Now staff that were working remotely will be returning to the library building on a regular schedule.

2)  We are covering our reference desk live once again.  A librarian will be available by phone between 9 AM and 4 PM to take your calls.  If your call goes to our voicemail, please leave a message.  Our librarians are on other calls and will get back to you as soon as they can, usually the same day.  And you can continue to email us also.

3)  We anticipate opening for patron visits around July 8.  We have arranged the common areas to allow for safe distancing as necessary.  Computer use will be available, as well as walk-in service for materials.  Please wait for an announcement from us.  

4)  Library hours will be Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM.  For the next few months, the library building will remain closed on the second Saturday of the month. Look for further news on that scheduling in the future.   

 

4)  If you still prefer, you can use our curbside service to pick up or drop off materials during library hours.  

5)  Technology User Group will continue to meet by teleconference only at the pre-scheduled dates and times.  The format has proved quite successful over the last year with the opportunity for larger attendance of patrons from a wide geographical range. 

6)  Downloads of audiobooks and electronic books are available through BARD any time of day as usual. Bookshare subscribers through our library also have access to that collection too.

You can contact us by calling the reference desk at 410-230-2443 or emailing reference.desk@maryland.gov.  

Please let us know if you have any questions and concerns as we move forward to the next stage of our service.  

Thank you.

John Owen

Director's Corner: New Year!

 

Director's Corner: New Year!

Contributed by John Owen, Director

We hope the new year has started well for you.  LBPD welcomes 2021 with a continuing effort to overcome the peculiar challenges we faced in the past year and deliver excellent customer service to you:  our patrons, your families, and our stakeholders.  Together we’ve weathered these challenges, and we’ve appreciated the opportunity to create and innovate to make sure we are still serving your reading and information needs.  

In the new year, look for:

• An expanded pilot of the Humanware braille e-reader provided to us by NLS.  This compact refreshable braille device provides access to braille books through BARD via a WiFi connection or through files on an NLS digital USB cartridge.  We have already distributed over 110 devices to our patrons.  Those patrons have been testing out the device and offering feedback about the functionality of the braille e-reader.  And in the process, we’ve seen the download of braille materials increase from 219 in July before the pilot to 4,500 book and magazine downloads in November.  Now we want more patrons to take advantage of this increased access to braille.  Contact our reference desk if you are interested in reading braille on one of these devices.  
• Expanding service through Books on Demand (BOD) cartridges.  Assistant Director Mary Ramos talked about this new service in a blog post earlier this month.  We’re working on the ability to customize cartridges with multiple digital audiobooks on them.  With Books on Demand, you will not have to wait for a book you want to become available, and you will be able to read the books in most series on a single cartridge.  Books on Demand makes it easier for you to receive and return materials, too.  We are currently in a pilot phase, but LBPD will eventually be moving all our patrons to this process.  If you would like to be among the first to transition to Books on Demand, please contact our reference desk.  
• A new monthly series of Technology User Group topics.  It starts on Saturday, January 9, at 10 AM as Jerry Price leads you through accessibility in the Microsoft Edge browser and new updates to Windows Narrator and continues on the second Saturday of each month via teleconference.  In the meantime, you can catch up on all the informative TUG programs that you may have missed or want to hear again by listening here. 
• A new monthly series of programs in partnership with the University of Maryland Extension.  After a very successful series of virtual programs in 2020, UME agreed to extend the partnership for 2021.  The first program will be held on January 12.  Read about the whole series and register for these teleconferences here. 
• The fourth annual Beanstack Winter Reading Challenge to kick off the new year.  Join with your fellow patrons and LBPD staff to read 100,000 community minutes between January 1 and January 31.  Register and track your reading at https://marylandlbph.beanstack.org. 

There is more programming in store throughout the year for all of our patrons. 

And we will continue to respond to your telephone and email messages while sending out audiobooks, braille books, and large print materials as we have every day throughout the pandemic.  We are even adding more books to our Marylandia collection, converting textbooks for college students, and teaching our patrons how to navigate their assistive technology and mobile devices as we do in “normal” times.  

Our LBPD building remains closed to the public, following the guidance of the state of Maryland and our concerns for your safety.  We continue to handle materials in a safe and efficient manner.  We have weathered issues with mail service but are confident that, finding ourselves on the other side of some of the busiest seasons for our USPS partners, this situation will improve. 

Yes, we do look forward to being able to open our doors to have you come for events, browse the collection, and attend classes, but in the meantime, keep communicating with us and we will keep reaching out to you.

How to reach us:

• Reference desk by phone at 410-230-2443 or email at reference.desk@maryland.gov
• Website:  www.lbph.maryland.gov
• Blog:  https://mdlbpd.blogspot.com/​​
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MDLBPD/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mdlbpd    
• Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/mdlbpd/  

Together we will build communities that flourish through the power of information and literacy so that ALL MAY READ!

Thank you for Hosting Braille Bettie

Thank you for Hosting Braille Bettie

Contributed by LaShawn Myles, Youth Services Librarian

During the month of October, Braille Bettie traveled across the state visiting schools, libraries, organizations, and even outdoor spaces.  It has been a blast and the support has been enormous.  The Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped wants to thank all those who participated and advocated for “Braille Literacy” across the state.   A special thank you to the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives. We shall continue to encourage and raise awareness of reading for ALL!  #ReadBrailleMD.

Please enjoy this "thank you" video! 

Director's Corner: Library Updates

Director's Corner: Library Update

Contributed by John Owen, Director

This update was given at the National Federation for the Blind - Maryland Chapter's annual meeting on November 9, 2019.

On behalf of Irene Padilla, the State Librarian, the Maryland State Library Agency, the Maryland State Library Board and the Staff of the Maryland State Library for the Blind and (for now) Physically Handicapped, I thank you for the opportunity to address this convention about Our Library, Our Story and our Future.

But first, a seemingly unrelated story:  Fifty years ago in 1969, a Saturn V Rocket launched carrying three astronauts to the moon.  Their names were . . . Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon Jr., and Alan Bean.

Those weren’t the names you were expecting me to say, were they?  You were expecting Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin.

But in 1969 the United States successfully sent two ships to the moon – one in July and one in November.  In fact, all told, we landed on the moon six times (it would have seven if things had turned out differently for Apollo 13).  Each time we took new technology like cameras and land rovers, we explored new landscapes and we brought back more moon rock to study.  Each mission built on the last.  Each mission taught us something new.

One year ago, the Maryland State LBPH celebrated its 50th Anniversary.  We told our story, celebrated our legacy, acknowledged patrons who’d been with us since the beginning and we looked ahead.  Since that celebration we have:

• Put 147 Marylandia books on BARD that have been downloaded over 8000 times by patrons both here in Maryland and across the country.
• We re-opened our recording studio and are working with 11 weekly volunteers to record new projects.
• Hosted a Center Stage Mobile Theater Unit performance of Antigone with audio description and a touch tour followed by a thoughtful and lively discussion.
• Took our Technology User Group on the road to Hagerstown, Frederick, Greenbelt, Leisure World, Elkton, Bel Air, and Broadneck.
• Sponsored an accessible tour of the Goddard Space Flight Center
• Partnered with maker space group Full Blast STEAM and Baltimore YouthWorks to begin the Build a Better Book project to create multi-modal tactile storybooks
• Presented at multiple public libraries on the Build a Better Book project to encourage more maker spaces to create new tactile, multi-modal storybooks
• Sent Braille Bettie across the state to promote Read Braille across Maryland, a program in cooperation with the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and Governor Hogan to Read Across Maryland.  Braille Bettie appeared with many of our Braille readers and partners through social media posts.
• Encouraged reading through the summer for both youth and adults with the Summer Reading Program theme “A Universe of Stories”
• Assisted with making NASA learning kits accessible.  These kits are being used by public libraries for programming across the state.
• Visited all three NFB Bell Academies
• Provided service to 13 inmates at the Roxbury Correctional Institute in cooperation with librarians there
• Began planning for a transition to creating customized cartridges for patrons in the coming year
• Began offering Bookshare accounts to patrons of our library who are new to Bookshare
• Hosted Teleconferences on Microagressions, One Maryland One Book, and Weather and Disaster Preparedness
• Created a program and curriculum for accessible STEM programs through a grant from the Rural Maryland Council.
• Served alongside 36 dedicated volunteers who gave over 1970 hours of service
• Served over 50 students at 11 colleges and universities with accessible textbooks through the Maryland Accessible Textbook program
• Added more than 800 new patrons and circulated over 220,000 items including digital cartridges, Braille books, large print, downloadable content, DVDs and equipment.
• Served 6700 active patrons in every county across the State of Maryland
• Connected with Nonprofits, Social Workers, TVIs, and other professionals to help them connect their clients to us
• Welcomed new staff:  Kevin Middleton (IT), Taryn Tranby (Secretary/Patron Services), Brittney Lee (MAT program associate), William Jones (Maintenance)
• Said goodbye to Leslie Bowman, a fierce advocate for our library and the blind community, as she moved to Missouri to lead the Wolfner Talking Book Library (and be closer to her granddaughter).  She led many new initiatives in the few years she was here.
• Announced a new director – that’d be me.

So perhaps we’ll call this our Apollo 12 . . . or our Apollo 17 . . . or even our Apollo 13 but whatever happens in or out of our control, we will listen, we will learn, we will ask questions, we will solve problems, we will turn difficulties into successes and grow in our service to our patrons – you all -- across Maryland. 

This next voyage is already in progress:

By this time next year but much sooner, we will be the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled.  This will line us up with the language of the Marrakesh Treaty, ratified by the US in February 2019, and with the NLS which changed its name on October 1.  It will reflect our commitment to making information and reading material accessible for all.

By this time next year but much sooner, we will have implemented the Duplication on Demand service model which will enable the efficient creation of custom cartridges with multiple titles for patrons.  Patrons who get cartridges from us will see more books available more readily.  These changes benefit you the patron because we can focus on our energy on serving your information needs.

By this time next year but much sooner, we will have hosted a fourth Center Stage Mobile Theater production, offered more creative tactile tours, presented a series of teleconferences in cooperation with the University of Maryland Extension, experimented with hosting TUG through Zoom or other online remote meeting applications, encouraged readers to “Imagine Your Story” through the Summer Reading Program, and recorded more books and completed another phase of our Analog-to-Digital conversion of retrospective Marylandia books.

By this time next year and much sooner, we will be connecting with our blind and print disabled veterans, and people seeking job readiness skills.

By this time next year and much sooner (meaning right now), we will offer our patrons accounts with Bookshare.

By this time next year and much sooner, we will have discovered more of the informal networks that bring our patrons together so that we can connect you to services, information, resources and reading materials as information providers across the state.

We are grateful to our partners in NFB, MSDE, BISM, DoRS, MDTAP, our Advisory Council and our Friends group for serving our shared patrons alongside each other.

So talk to us.  Let us hear from you.  We will walk alongside you.  It took people from all walks of life bringing their pieces to the puzzle to get to the moon again and again.  It will take the same philosophy to continue the mission of serving the blind and print disabled community in the State of Maryland.