Barrier-Free Library

More than 35 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimers, a fatal disease without a way to prevent, cure or even slow its progression. With the help of NYPL, Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter would like to raise awareness about this devastating disease. September, World Alzheimer's Month, is your chance to join the global fight against Alzheimer's disease. Visit alznyc.org/worldalzheimersmonth for more information and show your support by wearing purple with a purpose on Alzheimer's Action Day —September 21.

We've asked Jed Levine, Executive V.P. and Director of Programs & Services for the Alzheimer's Association's New York City 

The following post was written by guest blogger Vanna Valdez, Benefits Outreach Worker, NYC Hunger Free Communities Consortium.

The New York City Hunger Free Communities Consortium (NYCHFCC) is a collaboration of New York City’s leading anti-hunger, nutrition, and aging organizations (AARP Foundation, City Harvest, Council of Senior Centers and Services of NYC, Food Bank for NYC, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, NYC Coalition Against Hunger, NYC Department for the Aging, Public Health Solutions, and United Way of New York City). This project works towards the creation of a hunger free New York City, with a particular focus on aiding the especially vulnerable  

I have been a librarian for about twelve years and have worked in many libraries for much longer. I am also dyslexic which I have been since I have known the meaning of that word's existence. Weird you say but it's the truth.

If you haven't experienced, or perhaps even heard about, ReelAbilities, this may be the year to discover this unique festival, which is a film festival, but also so much more.

I'd like to share an important message on behalf of Go Direct®, a campaign of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank from guest blogger Michelle Kloempken, campaign manager for Go Direct®.

With electronic payments, you can count on your money despite severe weather.

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:

Perhaps you have heard of real-time captioning, or CART (Communication Access Realtime Transcription), as it is often called. This is the provision of captions to accompany a presentation or performance in real time. The captions are generally projected onto a screen, where some or all of the audience can read them. CART can potentially enhance experience for several groups of people:

• those who became deaf after becoming proficient in English (or another language), i.e., the post-lingually deaf;
• those with mild to moderate hearing loss, who want to follow along with what they can hear, using the 

Lions International, working with other organizations that fight blindness, commemorated the first World Sight Day in 1998. Since then, it has been observed throughout the world on the second Thursday of each year; the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness are the chief coordinating agencies at present. Communities and organizations have initiated activities to support the main goal: to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of those with visual impairments. This year, the New York Public Library is working with partner agencies to join in this important work of raising awareness of 

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

I had heard a bit about Sharon Anyimi; but I didn't know much. I knew she visited Baychester Library in Co-Op City — a lot — and was always reading books with the help of the Closed-Captioned Television system (CCTV), also known as the video magnifier, located in the Library. I knew she was a "people person" with a friendly word for all. I decided to wend my way to the northeast Bronx and meet this intriguing library user for myself.

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.

Shortly after landing in New York City from Greece, Fotis Flevotomos walked into Mid-Manhattan Library on June 11, 2011. As Brigid Cahalan, The New York Public Library's Outreach Coordinator, was showing him the space in the Corner Room where his art would adorn the shelves from June 11 through June 23, I was staffing the Popular Library Desk and thought that he must have been jet-lagged — if he was, that didn't stop him from installing all of his pieces that day. Flevotomos's art was on display as part of the Low Vision and Blindness Resource Day. The New York Public Library, in collaboration with Lighthouse International, the Xavier Society for the Blind, and 

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.

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.