Update
October-December 1996, Vol. 19, No. 4
ISSN 0160-9203

National Library Service 
for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
The Library of Congress

Machine-repair program highlighted at Pioneers convention

A specially designed exhibit and an exchange of awards
highlighted the talking-book machine-repair program at the
Telephone Pioneers annual convention in Denver September 29
through October 1.
     The convention, which took place at the Denver Convention
Center, was attended by some fifteen hundred Telephone Pioneers
nominated by their chapters because of their contributions to the
organization. NLS was invited as a Telephone Pioneer Partner, one
of several organizations that benefit from volunteer assistance
by the Pioneers. Other Partners are such organizations as the
Junior Achievement Program and the U.S. Department of Education.
During the festivities, Pioneer president Walter Sessoms
presented Brad Kormann, chief of NLS's Materials Development
Division, with a Partnership Award recognizing the long-standing
relationship between Pioneers and the talking-book program.
     The NLS representatives, Mr. Kormann and NLS Quality
Assurance head Robert Kost, in turn, presented awards to two
Pioneers. These awards were conferred at separate dinners of the
respective chapters. Jerry Adamson, Moline, Illinois, past chair
of the Telephone Pioneer machine-repair coordinators, and J. Walt
Alfred, Miami, Florida, a leader in the Volunteer Repair Project
(VRP), received recognition for their services.
     Other machine-repair coordinators present at the convention
included Betty Cox, current chair, of Kemp, Texas; Luther Buckbee
of Grafton, New York; Richard Hamel of North Andover,
Massachusetts; and Logan Kratzer of Montgomery, Alabama.
     At the invitation of the Pioneers, NLS mounted and staffed
an exhibit depicting the machine-repair program, the ongoing VRP,
and the recognition events held throughout the NLS network. The
exhibit, which consisted of five hinged, two-panel boards,
displayed enlarged pictures of Telephone Pioneer machine-repair
activities, awards ceremonies, and letters of appreciation. The
exhibit also displayed a disassembled talking-book machine,
information on repair techniques, and videotapes. It was staffed
by Mr. Kormann and Mr. Kost. Located near an area where
festivities, including dancing, were staged, the exhibit area was
active from early morning to late night.
     "It was a very enjoyable but long three days," says Mr.
Kormann. "We were glad that some of the talking-book coordinators
were able to assist us with staffing the exhibit. People were
stopping by all the time." Mr. Kormann adds that he was also
grateful that contractor Henry Bausili skillfully designed the
exhibit to be easy to disassemble when the exhibit closed after
midnight on the last day of the convention.
     NLS partner, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind
(CNIB), represented by Rosemary Cavanaugh and Jim Sander, staffed
an exhibit flanking the NLS area. CNIB also received a
Partnership Award.
(photo caption: Betty Cox, Pioneer machine-repair coordinators
chair, holds the award NLS received from the Telephone Pioneers.
Left, Jerry Adamson, past chair of the machine-repair
coordinators; right, Brad Kormann, NLS. Photo by Telephone
Pioneers.)
(photo caption: One of five display panels presenting the NLS
machine-repair program to Pioneer convention-goers. Photo by
Telephone Pioneers.)


Nevada library honors volunteers with family barbecue

The Nevada regional talking-book library honored Telephone
Pioneers and other volunteers at a family barbecue on the terrace
behind the Nevada State Library and Archives on July 27.
     The Telephone Pioneers received an appreciation plaque
signed by the Telephone Pioneer president and by NLS director
Frank Kurt Cylke. It was presented by George Thuronyi, of the NLS
Publications and Media Section, who commended the Pioneers for
their "tremendous contributions" to the talking-book program.
     Other guests included representatives of U.S. senators
Richard H. Bryan and Harry Reid, staff from Lieutenant Governor
Lonnie Hammergren's office, and officials from Pacific Telesis
Group and Nevada Bell.
     Special awards went to Mrs. Betty Denison, who has
volunteered for fourteen years and contributed fifty-five hundred
hours of service, and to volunteers with one hundred, five
hundred, and one thousand hours of service.
     The barbecue, featuring smoked barbecue ribs and teriyaki
chicken, was prepared by a local caterer and organized by
regional librarian Keri Putnam. State librarian Joan Kerschner
introduced guests.
     Nevada's six Telephone Pioneers repaired nearly fifteen
hundred machines over the past year, and other volunteers also
performed library tasks ranging from shelving books to helping
clients select reading materials. In addition, the Nevada
Regional Recording Program, which began in March 1995, is staffed
by twenty volunteers who have narrated, monitored, and reviewed
more than twenty Nevada-related books and all issues of Nevada
magazine since April 1995.


New Jersey Red Cross braillists celebrate seventy-fifth year of
service

If you're zipping along Route 280 or the Garden State Parkway and
notice a bumper sticker on the car ahead proclaiming "Driver
Reads Braille," don't be concerned. The car is probably on its
way to the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey in East
Orange, where there are more than 125 volunteers and a number of
staff members who do indeed read braille and drive.
     The Red Cross chapter has sponsored a braille department for
seventy-five years, and it is one of the largest and oldest
transcription services in the country. To celebrate the
seventy-fifth anniversary, the chapter honored the braille
department volunteers, past and present, at an evening gala that
included cocktails, dinner, and dancing.
     Two hundred volunteers, friends, and dignitaries attended
the September 27 event, which included a raffle and silent
auction to help support the work of the braille department.
     John Lampert, assistant braille director of the agency,
explains that after World War I most Red Cross chapters
established braille departments to provide reading material for
servicemen blinded in the war. These projects thrived through the
1930s, he says, but were eliminated or cut back during World War
II as Red Cross volunteers turned to such war-related activities
as rolling bandages.
     The Metropolitan New Jersey chapter, serving Essex, Passaic,
and western Hudson counties, kept its braille service, which now
has a staff of two full-time and three part-time employees, plus
about 125 volunteers who work at home and another 25 who help out
at the office.
     Those volunteers who work at home use computers to
transcribe textbooks needed by blind elementary or high school
students throughout New Jersey.
     "Most of our volunteers provide their own computers and
dedicate much of their free time to transcribing," Mr. Lampert
says. Volunteers who do not own computers receive them from the
Red Cross. Jane Bente, braille director, and Mr. Lampert also
volunteer on weekends to transcribe mathematics books. Mr.
Lampert estimates that the Metropolitan New Jersey Red Cross now
has a library of eight thousand textbooks available.


Montana thanks Pioneer volunteers

The Montana Talking Book Library honored Telephone Pioneer
volunteers with a pie and ice cream social at the Barrister Bed
and Breakfast in Helena this summer. Each Telephone Pioneer
received a certificate of appreciation signed by NLS director
Frank Kurt Cylke and presented by Steve Prine of the NLS Network
Services Section, who was conducting a consultant visit at the
library.


Illinois recognizes ten Pioneer groups

Illinois Telephone Pioneer machine-repair volunteers received
national and state recognition at the 1996 Telephone Pioneer
Volunteer Recognition Celebration in Chicago.
     Six of the ten machine-repair groups were represented at the
event. H. Neil Kelley, specialized services consultant for the
Illinois State Library, greeted the group, and Michael Moodie,
NLS research and development officer, presented an appreciation
plaque from NLS.
     The library gave each volunteer a certificate and a
carpenter-style apron, and each group received a plaque and a
battery charger. Letters of appreciation from each talking-book
center were read. Entertainment was provided by Vision Quest, a
group of blind musicians and singers that specializes in jazz and
blues.
(photo caption: H. Neil Kelley, Illinois State Library; Barbara
Perkis, Illinois regional library; and Michael Moodie, NLS, with
NLS appreciation plaque.)


Libraries receive pirates' machines

NLS cooperating libraries in southern California, Georgia, and
Texas recently received duplicating machines confiscated from
tape pirates. The pirates had been illegally reproducing and
selling copyrighted audio materials. Each twelve-thousand-dollar
machine is capable of making eleven copies of both sides of a
sixty-minute tape and rewinding them in less than two minutes.
     Law enforcement authorities had previously been destroying
confiscated machines. Although seized property is usually sold at
auction, officials feared selling the machines might allow the
equipment to fall back into the hands of tape pirates.
     The idea of donating the machines to the libraries came from
Mary Levering, former chief of the NLS Network Division who is
now associate register for national copyright programs at the
Library of Congress Copyright Office. She learned of the machines
at a September 1995 briefing for copyright staff by the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has been working
with law enforcement agencies against the pirates.
     "I know a community that could use this equipment," she told
RIAA officials.
     As a result, Steven D'Onofrio, RIAA executive vice president
and director of anti-piracy, contacted NLS, and the two
organizations formalized a memorandum of understanding under
which NLS libraries could receive the confiscated equipment.
     "RIAA is working to give the seized tape-duplicating
machines to talking-book libraries across the country," said
Charles Lawhorn, senior regional anti-piracy counsel for RIAA in
Los Angeles.
     At least eighteen pieces of industrial high-speed
tape-duplicating equipment have been turned over to the three
libraries. The total estimated value of this equipment is
$108,000.


System for cassette labels released

After successful field-testing by the multistate centers, the
NLS-developed system for producing print-braille labels for
cassettes (P&B Labels) has gone into general use. (See Update,
July-September 1993, pp. 4 and 5.)
     The P&B Labels system enables libraries and volunteer groups
to create labels almost identical to those used on
contractor-produced NLS books. The system is intended for
labeling locally duplicated books, magazines, or newsletters.
     The P&B Labels system consists of software and a user's
manual that NLS provides free to network libraries, and hardware-
-a printer and an embosser--that the libraries must acquire
themselves at a cost of approximately three-thousand dollars.
     P&B Labels uses a Braille Blazer embosser with specific
capabilities to produce clear plastic braille labels, and a
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer to produce print labels. When a
braille label is applied over a print label on a cassette, the
result looks and feels almost identical to NLS
contractor-produced labels.
     The print labels used are commercially available Avery audio
cassette labels or the equivalent. The braille labels are made
from commercially available clear acetate sheets.
     P&B Labels software allows agencies to input print and
braille label information and then configures it for the labels.
The book number is printed in simulated braille in the
later-to-be-removed center panel of each print label.
Non-braille-reading agencies can pair print labels with braille
labels by matching this simulated braille to the book number in
the center panel of the braille labels.
     The software consists of two program diskettes for the
menu-driven system and a diskette containing label information
for some eighteen hundred cassette titles. This database was
created by the multistate centers as they were field-testing the
system.
     Eventually NLS plans to distribute bibliographic records to
libraries for their use. The record for each cassette title will
contain all of the information needed for cassette labels. Until
that plan is operational, though, libraries must enter data
manually.
     P&B Labels data can be stored on a diskette, so that
agencies that don't have their own printer and embosser can send
the diskette to another agency to have the labels made.
     The system was developed by the NLS READS contractor, which
also distributes and maintains it. The contractor also supplies
limited hotline support for the system to all network libraries.
     At this time, the system does not produce container labels.
NLS is seeking a means of incorporating this function into the
system, but in the meantime, producers continue to devise their
own ways of producing container labels.
     Non-network agencies can acquire the P&B Labels system from
Blazie Engineering, the producers of the embossing equipment, at
the following address: Blazie Engineering, 105 East Jarrettsville
Road, Forest Hill, MD 21050; phone: (410) 893-9333.


Arizona volunteer receives Twelve Who Care Hon Kachina Award

Braille transcriber Imogene Hoelzen was selected as one of twelve
Arizona volunteers to receive the highly respected Twelve Who
Care Hon Kachina Award on October 18.
     "Few volunteers have played a greater role in making reading
material available to persons with visual or physical
disabilities in Arizona than Imogene Hoelzen," says Jeanie
Pawlowski, volunteer coordinator, Arizona Braille and Talking
Book Library.
     Mrs. Hoelzen received her Library of Congress certificate in
literary braille transcribing in 1967 and has transcribed
textbooks for the Foundation for Blind Children for twenty-nine
years. She is one of forty volunteer braillists who provide books
for some eighteen hundred visually impaired students mainstreamed
into regular classrooms throughout Arizona. She brailles
textbooks for students in kindergarten through grade twelve and
produces from two to five books a year.
     In 1981, encouraged by a blind friend, Mrs. Hoelzen
auditioned to become a talking-book narrator, and since then she
has given more than eight hundred hours recording books and
transcribing special projects in braille for the Braille and
Talking Book Library.
     In addition, she utilizes her braille skills to help the
Phoenix Zoo. Several years ago, the zoo began to plan a permanent
tactile exhibit. "Feel the Difference," located in the Children's
Zoo, became a reality this year. The exhibit includes life-sized,
sculptured mother and baby elephants and lifelike bugs, worms,
and fish. Each item is labeled in braille as well as print,
thanks to Mrs. Hoelzen.
     Mrs. Hoelzen took her first step toward assisting blind and
visually impaired persons when the youngest of her four children
entered first grade. "I wanted to do something worthwhile," she
said. A large notice in the Phoenix paper requesting volunteers
for the Foundation for Blind Children caught her eye. She called
that day and immediately signed up for training as a braille
transcriber. She liked learning braille from the very first
lesson. "If I can pass my skill along to one person who will
continue to pass it on to the next generation, then I have done
something worthwhile," she feels.
     In the late 1970s, Mrs. Hoelzen, with the support of her
husband, became the first volunteer in Arizona to use a home
computer to transcribe braille. Now, in her well-equipped home
office, she has her third-generation home computer, braille
software, and an embosser.
     When Mrs. Hoelzen answered the ad in the newspaper
twenty-nine years ago, she had little idea of what was to come.
She loves all her volunteer work, she says. "It's nice to know
someone can read because of what I do."
(photo caption: Mrs. Imogene Hoelzen, Twelve Who Care Hon Kachina
Award recipient.)


Maxine Loraine Zerman, braille mathematics consultant, dies

Maxine Loraine Zerman, age sixty-eight, died September 3, 1996.
She had served as Nemeth braille advisor to NLS since 1985 and
also developed the Nemeth proofreading certification test for
NLS.
     Mrs. Zerman was certified as a literary braille transcriber
in 1978 with a perfect score. She received her certification as a
mathematics braille transcriber in 1981.
     She was a life member of the National Braille Association
(NBA), served on its board of directors, and chaired the
Mathematics and Science braille committee. In 1984 NBA honored
Mrs. Zerman with the Distinguished Service Award for contributing
five thousand volunteer hours, and in 1993 she received NBA's
Continuing Service Certificate.
     Mrs. Zerman held many offices in her local transcribing
group, the Sarasota County Braille Transcribers, and in the state
organization, Visual Aid Volunteers of Florida. At the time of
her death, she was president of Sarasota County Braille
Transcribers and had been named innovator of the year by the
Florida chapter of the Association for Education and
Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).
     She presented many workshops for NBA and the California
Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped (CTEVH).
Memorial donations may be made to the Scholarship Fund, Visual
Aid Volunteers of Florida, c/o Barbara Morgan, 6756 Wisteria
Loop, Land o'Lakes, FL 34639.


Braille student-instructor dialog

The Braille Development Section (BDS) receives numerous questions
concerning a variety of problems in braille transcribing. This
article will address the issue of choosing a book for the
thirty-five-page trial manuscript. The question-and-answer format
is intended to give clarity.
Student: Are there special requirements for choosing a book, or
can the transcriber choose any book that he/she finds appealing?
Instructor: There are special requirements. The book should
contain reasonably adult vocabulary. Children's books are not
suitable. The book you choose should be at least high school
level.
Student: Is it preferable for me to choose a book without a lot
of braille challenges?
Instructor: Your book should contain a variety of everyday
challenges that a certified transcriber is likely to encounter.
     1. Your thirty-five-page trial manuscript must be submitted
according to the rules of literary braille. Therefore you should
not choose a book that requires textbook format.
     2. You should not choose a book that contains a lot of
foreign names such as Chinese, Polish, Arabic, and others that
may present difficulty in determining whether they should or
should not be contracted.
     3. You should not choose a book that contains a lot of
complex formatting such as tabular material.
Student: What kinds of challenges, specifically, should be
included?
Instructor: There should be
     1. At least some use of italics for emphasis and for
distinction (as in book titles, foreign phrases, etc.);
     2. Some use of blank lines to indicate a change of scene,
thought, or action, or to indicate quoted matter; and
     3. At least some prefatory pages in addition to the title
page, such as a contents page, dedication, or preface.
Student: May I choose a magazine article for my thirty-five-page
trial manuscript?
Instructor: Magazine articles often present some very complex
formatting problems. Therefore, I would not recommend choosing a
magazine article for your trial manuscript.


Volunteers master new skills

During the months of July, August, and September 1996,
certificates in braille transcribing were awarded to thirty-seven
persons in literary braille transcribing and two in literary
braille proofreading.

LITERARY BRAILLE TRANSCRIBERS

Alabama
Valerie Mitchell, Pell City
L'Tanya D. Ratchford, Talladega

Arizona
LeeAnn M. Stange, Casa Grande

Arkansas
Steven E. Engel, Wrightsville
Danny G. Franklin, Wrightsville
Michael Ryan Webb, Wrightsville

California
Diana Burkhardt, Anaheim
Arlene L. Terris, Walnut Creek

Connecticut
Rickie C. Emmons, Cheshire
Albert J. Goodrow, Cheshire

Florida
Margaret M. Rogaski, Jacksonville

Iowa
Charlotte L. Zeman, Cedar Rapids

Kansas
Patsy R. Kater, Newton

Maryland
Donna Marie Embleton, Stevensville
Lizbeth Richardson, St. Michaels
Maynard W. Simmons, Towson

Michigan
Marlow Hudson, Jackson

Minnesota
Julia K. Hally, St. Paul

Nebraska
Michael T. Caddy, Lincoln
Trayton Lee Upton, Lincoln

Nevada
Matthew L. Banks, Indian Springs

New Jersey
Karen F. Ayres, Berkeley Heights
Matthew A. Hladik, Chatham
Laurie I. Markoff, Linden
Barbara A. Norton-Steifel, Wallington

New York
Julia Johns-Kendall, Brooklyn
Merle B. Murphy, Brockport
Mary Jane Puchol, Rochester

Oregon
Janice Brown, Portland

Pennsylvania
Cynthia J. Miller, Marion Center
Dorothy V. Rodgers, Allentown
Rita M. Thomas, Pittsburgh

South Dakota
S.L. Buckland, Yankton
Mikkel Stavig, Yankton
Charles F. White, Yankton

Texas
Ruby Jessica Delagarza, San Antonio

Virginia
Lori L. Cortor, Vienna

LITERARY BRAILLE PROOFREADERS
Mary J. Johnson, Houston, Texas
Vileen O. Shah, Chicago, Illinois


Meetings

National Braille Association (NBA)
     Thursday, April 24-Saturday, April 26, 1997, twentieth
National Conference, Omni Austin Hotel Southpark, Austin, Texas.
     Friday, November 7-Saturday, November 8, 1997, Fall Regional
Meeting and Workshops, Valley River Inn, Eugene, Oregon.
     Friday, April 24-Saturday, April 25, 1998, Spring Regional
Meeting and Workshops, Holiday Inn Downtown, Louisville,
Kentucky.
     For information on these meetings, contact National Braille
Association, Three Townline Circle, Rochester, NY 14623-2513;
(716) 427-8260.

California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped
(CTEVH)
     Thursday, April 17-Saturday, April 19, 1997, CTEVH XXXVIII
Annual Conference, Cathedral Hill Hotel, San Francisco,
California.
     For information about this meeting, contact Mike Cole, 400
Adams Street, Albany, CA 94706; (510) 559-1101.


Eight tips for taking great photos for publication

Most newsletters rely on photographs contributed by volunteers
and staff who do not regularly shoot pictures for publication. To
help our contributors produce clear, technically excellent, and
interesting photos, we offer the following suggestions:
     1. To make interesting pictures, take pictures of people
doing interesting things. If someone won an award for his or her
work, show that person at work, not getting the award. If a group
of people were involved in a project to help in the community,
show them at the project, not as a group shot. This sometimes
means choosing to include one person over another. While we all
like to be as inclusive as possible, pictures will be more
compelling if they are personal and individual.
     2. Get in close to your subject and reduce distracting
elements. This is one of the great keys to good picture taking.
You have to be forward about stepping up and getting into the
scene.
     3. When you take a portrait shot, the same rules apply. Get
in tight. Show people in their natural environment. People often
take portraits with the subject's head in the middle of the
frame. Don't do this! Rather, have the subject's eyes about a
third of the way down from the top. This will always be a better
picture.
     4. Experiment with different camera angles. Sometimes a
fairly ordinary shot becomes extraordinary if taken from slightly
above, or below, the subject. Try getting down on your knees and
aiming up at the action.
     5. If your picture is poor technically, it could be of a
wonderful subject and still not be usable. One way to reduce the
number of blurry, out-of-focus, or poorly exposed images is to
start using the faster films that have improved so much in recent
years--films rated at 400 speed or higher. These films allow
faster shutter speeds (to reduce blurriness) and greater depth of
field (to reduce focusing errors).
     6. Another technical issue involves the common use of
autofocus cameras. These cameras are nice, but they certainly
aren't foolproof. Practice using the focus controls to make sure
you have your main subject in good focus. Also, most autofocus
cameras have a way for you to focus on a subject and then,
usually by holding the exposure button down halfway, to recompose
the picture. By doing this, you don't have to keep the main
subject in the middle of the picture, and it will still be in
focus.
     7. If you know that your pictures will be used in a
publication that prints black-and-white photos, use
black-and-white film. The end product will be of higher quality.
     8. Always shoot more film than you think you need. Sometimes
the smallest differences between shots make one excellent while
the other is ordinary. Taking lots of shots will give your
editors lots of choices.
(Reprinted with permission from HIGHLIGHTS: The Newsletter of
AARP Volunteers, May-June 1995. Edited slightly for Update's
needs.)


Update is published quarterly by: National Library Service for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542
Correspondence should be addressed to Publications and Media
Section.

Coordinating editor: Freddie Peaco
Publication editor: Ruth Nieland
Braille student-instructor dialog: John Wilkinson