I thought this article might be of interest to this group, Axel (Schmetzke) Library University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point -----Original Message----- From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Catherine Alfieri Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 8:22 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: CURR: NYTimes.com Article: Upgrade for Blind Borrowers of Audiobooks Upgrade for Blind Borrowers of Audiobooks December 9, 2004 By IAN AUSTEN LIKE many Americans who are blind, when Lucille Uttermohlen doesn't feel like curling up with a bulky book in Braille, she turns to audiobooks that come from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, part of the Library of Congress. "When I lost my vision when I was 16, I was so happy to find out that there was a program that still allowed me to read," said Ms. Uttermohlen, who is now 50 and practices family law in Monticello, Ind. But the technology used by the National Library Service for people like Ms. Uttermohlen has more in common with the era of "Starsky and Hutch" than it does with the age of downloaded digital information. Most of the service's 600,000 users rely on four-track cassette tape players that were designed in the 1970's. While advanced for their time, the players are bulky (they're deliberately rugged to help them withstand repeated trips through the mail), have finicky rechargeable batteries and often vary in sound quality. Terri Uttermohlen of Baltimore, Lucille Uttermohlen's younger sister, who is also sightless, abandoned the system about a year and a half ago. "I found the tapes frustrating at times," Terri Uttermohlen said. "The sound quality isn't consistent. And I also found myself getting all excited at the end of Side 4 but forgetting where I set down the box containing Side 5." The library service has been frustrated, too. But now, thanks in part to the changing economics of the electronics industry, it has decided to switch to a digital system over the next four years. "We wanted something that's really tough, something that's really easy to handle and something we can afford," said Michael Moodie, the National Library Service's deputy director. "We really didn't have that until this summer." That, Mr. Moodie said, was when price predictions for flash memory reached a point that fit with the library's budget. "Flash is wonderful," Mr. Moodie said. "It had all the requirements we need for the last four or five years except price." Mr. Moodie said the service, which was established in 1931, has a long history of technology innovations. Its first audiobook, issued in 1934, was also the world's first 33 1/3 r.p.m. long-playing record. (The service has a special exemption from copyright laws that allows it to record books and periodicals without royalty payments.) Columbia records did not introduce the first LP for musical recordings, using a slightly different technology, until 1948. But because the Library of Congress distributed 98 percent of the recordings through the mail, the bulk and weight of even LP technology was a problem. A user wanting to hear "Gone With the Wind," for example, was confronted with 80 records. In 1958, that stack was reduced by the introduction of 16 2/3 r.p.m. records. The last gasp of records came in 1973 with 8 1/3 r.p.m. In the 1980's the service avoided a digital technology that most of the world adopted, compact discs. "CD's would have been a step backward," Mr. Moodie said. The first strike against CD's, he said, was that they are limited to 74 minutes of audio. Because the library's mono tapes contain four completely separate audio tracks and play at a slower speed than conventional cassette players, they hold up to six hours. Handling CD's without scratching them or loading them into a player the right way could be difficult for some blind people. The next steps in converting to flash memory will be designing a player and setting technical standards. Unlike most digital audio players, the library's device must have controls that can be easily manipulated by users with arthritis. Because data representing voice recordings can be compressed more than music, Mr. Moodie said the new flash memory cards, which will use a standard U.S.B. connection, will easily hold a single book regardless of length. Terri Uttermohlen said that when the library service's new system is available, she will give it a try. In the meantime she gets her digital audiobooks through a different method. She downloads text, either from the Library of Congress Web Braille server or from Bookshare, a subscription Web site for disabled people that offers books in a variety of formats, including a digital form of Braille. She then uses a speech synthesis program in a hand-held computer to play the books back as audio. One advantage to this approach, she said, is that the computer can read at a very rapid, if mechanical, pace. "I often find the human readers are too slow," she said. One drawback, however, is that many of the publications in Bookshare are scanned from print editions using computers, leading to problems with unusual book designs or typography. Cookbooks, in particular, can be a challenge. "When it says 'Bake at 2,500 degrees,' you know that it has read the degree symbol as a zero," she said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/09/technology/circuits/09blin.html?ex=110 3600 442&ei=1&en=d12061b887090baf --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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