Posts from Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library

The year has flown past and the brink of a new year is a good time to look back. We hope everyone has a great holiday, whatever you celebrate, and a wonderful new year. Here are the things that caught our attention this fall:

The following links caught our attention this past month. Plus, we've got a couple of announcements about new services.

We can't believe the summer is nearly over. Aside from the distractions of a minor earthquake and a hurricane (though Irene had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time she hit New York City), we served up a number of links on our Facebook and Twitter pages that you might find interesting.

A good biography is like a good novel. It can transport you to a different place and a different time, and inspire the imagination. But what has always appealed to me about biographies is that they could put me into someone else's head, letting me vicariously live a life more interesting than my own. Growing up, I read mostly fiction, especially science fiction and mysteries, which took me to exotic places both real and imaginary. But when teachers insisted we students be well-rounded readers, the non-fiction books I turned to were on the biography shelves in my local library.

Creating visual art is not the first thing most people consider when thinking of people who are blind or who have visual difficulties, but there are many such artists and photographers who challenge that perception every day. The Andrew Heiskell Library was pleased to host an exhibition of artwork by students who have visual impairments, running from June 14 through June 18.

We liked the following links this past month:

Creators of TV shows get their inspiration from many places, but lately they seem to be turning more and more often to books for their source material. And with quality programs doing justice to the books that inspired them, it's a welcome trend, especially if it leads fans of the shows who have never read the books to seek them out. Here are some to get you started.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then those words are priceless to people who cannot see. Verbal imaging is the art of describing pictures, art, and the world for people who are blind or have visual difficulty. For the past few years, Art Beyond Sight/Art Education for the Blind has been conducting art and craft programs at the Andrew Heiskell Library, teaching a variety of techniques to blind and visually impaired people, from sculpting to painting. And through their New York Beyond Sight project, they've been making city landmarks accessible to people who can't visually experience them.

Our links from April.

Free touch tour of the Glenn Ligon: AMERICA exhibit at the Whitney Museum on Friday, May 6 at 11:00AM. Call 212-570-7789 to RSVP.

How Bind People See the Internet is a nice overview.

"War is Peace." "Freedom is Slavery." "Ignorance is Strength." These tenets of doublethink are from George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984. It's Dystopia Week at Tor.com, which provides an excellent incentive to look at one of my favorite genres, or subgenres: Dystopian Fiction!

From inspiring stories to the latest in assistive technology, we've got it all! Here are the links and announcements we posted on Facebook and Twitter for March.

The New York Times covered our Unseen Dance program, presented by the No-See-Ums.

With few exceptions (music, sculpture, tactile canvases), the Arts have typically been inaccessible to people who are blind or who have visual difficulties, but the times, as is often said, are a-changing. Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums will be presenting BARK! An Unseen Dance, at four New York Public Libraries this month. Based on non-visual perception, this is the first dance form fully accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.

We've got a grab-bag of links and articles for you this month.

Unseen Dance at the New York Public Library: Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums perform BARK, a dance for blindfolded audiences. Audience members experience the dance through their other senses. The group will perform at the Andrew Heiskell Library on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. For Adults Only.

In the summer of 2009, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped officially went digital. For many months before digital cartridges were introduced, however, digital books were available for downloading from the National Library Service's BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. At first, the BARD service was only lightly used, but once patrons started to receive their players in mid-2009, BARD downloading began in earnest. Here's how the year of downloading books shaped up, statistically speaking. The number of total downloads for the month is in parentheses for each title.

This month's links focus on disability rights, along with some useful services.

The White House Disability Group holds monthly calls to update the public on various issues related to disabilities.

To listen in:
Dial-in number: (800) 230-1093
Title: Disability Call (use instead of code)
For live captioning (at time of call) go to the event page.

Most people read with their eyes. They might read a physical book or electronic text. Some people read with their ears, listening to audiobooks or Talking Books from the National Library Service. And some people read with their fingers.

January 4th marks the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, inventor of the raised writing system that bears his name and is still used by blind people to communicate.

We've got a few links that might interest you as we say goodbye to 2010 and welcome 2011. Don't forget: The library will be closed on Saturday, January 1, 2011, but you'll be able to leave Voicemail messages at 212-206-5400 and 212-206-5425.

As we get ready to say farewell to 2010, we want to wish all our patrons and their families a Happy New Year. The library will be closed on Saturday, December 25 for Christmas and on Saturday, January 1, 2011 for New Year's Day. You'll still be able to leave a Voicemail message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

We've got some news and interesting articles to share with you.

The number 1 BARD download for November was The Heart Of The Matter by Emily Giffin, DB 71280 [NYPL] Tied for a distant second: Split Image by Robert B. Parker, DB 71123 [NYPL] and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, DB 48437 [NYPL].