22 days that shaped NLS history
Getting TBT in alternative formats
Special issue: 22 days that shaped NLS history
As we start 2022, we take a look back at 22 key events that made the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled what it is today
By Gabrielle Barnes, Claire Rojstaczer, Mark Schwartz and Mark Layman
The beginning: March 3, 1931
American soldiers fought in World War I for only six months, but they suffered a terrible toll: more than 53,000 killed in battle and another 200,000 wounded, many of them blinded by gas attacks or shrapnel.
Concern for “the boys who were blinded in the recent war” led Congress in the 1920s to authorize the US Veterans Bureau to buy books in raised type for blinded soldiers. And in 1930, World War I veterans were very much on the minds of Rep. Ruth Pratt of New York and Sen. Reed Smoot of Utah (in photo illustration above) when they introduced identical bills to appropriate money to the Library of Congress to provide books for adults with vision loss.
The Pratt-Smoot Act became law on March 3, 1931—the date we commemorate as the founding of NLS. It was only 137 words, but in addition to setting an annual appropriation of $100,000 for books for the blind, the Pratt-Smoot Act established the framework for the NLS network of cooperating libraries and stipulated that veterans receive priority service—a commitment that NLS still honors.
Four months later, the Library of Congress’s Project, Books for the Adult Blind began operations. Its mission: “to furnish blind readers with the best literature in all fields of knowledge.” In the first year, the Library selected 157 books to be produced in raised type—starting with Woodrow Wilson’s biography of George Washington.
January 4, 1809
Celebrated as World Braille Day, January 4 is also the birthday—in 1809—of Louis Braille. His raised-dot system of reading and writing, introduced in 1829, revolutionized literacy and education for the blind, though it would take almost a century for it to win out over competing tactile writing systems. The Library of Congress Reading Room for the Blind, predecessor to NLS, once held books in many of those systems. In 1919, however, it began training and certifying braille transcribers, marking braille’s conclusive victory as the tactile writing system of choice in the US. Today the NLS collection includes more than 50,000 books in hard-copy braille and more than 16,000 in electronic braille.
January 14, 2011
Two years after it began producing talking books on digital cartridges, NLS completes its analog-to-digital transition. From 1968 until 2011, NLS produced 57,245 talking-book titles on cassette tapes and distributed more than 49 million copies of those books to its national network of libraries. The last cassette shipped: American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes. Fast forward to the 2021 fiscal year, when NLS circulated 15.3 million digital audio cartridges and patrons downloaded more than 4.3 million digital audio books and magazines from BARD.
February 1967
When NLS staff and collections moved from the main Library of Congress campus to a dedicated facility nearly five miles away on Taylor Street Northwest, they were told the location would be temporary. Not until 1978 was the building that still houses NLS today—55 years after the move—confirmed as a permanent home. Since then, the large two-story facility—former home of the American Ice Co.—has been through multiple renovations, beginning with the addition of a recording studio in 1971.
March 2, 1899
Congress passes an act lowering postage on letters written by people who are blind. It is the first such act benefiting the blind in the United States, allowing unsealed letters with raised characters to be mailed at third-class rates but be treated like first-class. Five years later, Congress funded the Free Matter for the Blind program so organizations and people—like NLS and its patrons—could mail braille materials for free.
March 4, 1933
On his last day in office, President Hoover signs an amendment to the Pratt-Smoot Act allowing the Librarian of Congress to purchase “talking book” records. The first one produced for the Library was Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Two years later, the Library had 27 talking-book titles. Today, more than 103,000 are available on BARD, and books in audio, originally an accommodation for blind readers, are everywhere.
March 26, 2012
Karen Keninger becomes the first blind person to be named director in NLS’s history. Keninger previously led the Iowa Department for the Blind and, before that, the Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. She was a strong advocate for braille, oversaw many improvements in service and raised NLS’s international profile through her work promoting the Marrakesh Treaty and by speaking at symposia around the world—often accompanied by Jimi, her guide dog. Upon her retirement in 2021 she was succeeded by Jason Broughton, formerly Vermont’s state librarian.
May 8, 2019
The Marrakesh Treaty comes into full force in the United States, providing for the exchange of accessible-format books across international borders by organizations that serve people who are blind, visually impaired and print disabled. The treaty has helped NLS vastly increase the number of foreign-language books in the collection—and has allowed NLS to share its own digital collection with similar organizations around the world.
May 16, 2010
At NLS’s biennial national conference in Des Moines, Iowa, Director Frank Kurt Cylke presents the Pioneers, the national organization of telecom employees and retirees, with a plaque recognizing the group’s 50 years of repairing talking-book machines. From 1960 to 2010, Pioneers chapters repaired 3.6 million talking-book machines, saving taxpayers more than $200 million. Pioneers volunteers, like the one in the photo at right, are still an important part of the machine-repair program—though today’s digital talking-book machines are much sturdier than the phonographs and cassette players of the past.
June 1935
The American Foundation for the Blind produces—in mimeographed form—the first edition of Talking Book Bulletin, later renamed Talking Book Topics. (AFB developed the first talking books and worked closely with the Library of Congress Project, Books for the Adult Blind.) TBT is now in its 88th year and is available in a variety of formats: online in HTML and PDF and in audio on cartridge and through BARD and BARD Mobile.
June 19–22, 2013
NLS and the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts team up for “The Future of Braille,” a four-day gathering that brings together users and technical experts to solicit ideas on ways libraries can promote and support braille literacy. Proceedings from the Braille Summit, as well as a consultant’s study that documented the cost savings of moving to fully digital braille, helped get the legislative changes needed for NLS to provide refreshable braille displays to patrons who can’t afford expensive commercial models. NLS currently is pilot testing two models of a refreshable braille display, or eReader, for future distribution.
June 27, 1880
Born on this date, Helen Keller was an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage, labor rights, world peace—and NLS. “Books are the eyes of the blind,” she told Congress in 1930 while campaigning for what would become the Library of Congress’s Project, Books for the Adult Blind. “With our hands plunged into an interesting book, we feel independent and happy.” While she was initially dubious about the value of talking books, she came around by 1935, telling President Roosevelt that they were “the most constructive aid to the blind since the invention of braille.”
July 3, 1952
NLS extends service to children. The 1931 legislation that established NLS was titled “An Act to Provide Books for the Adult Blind.” Two decades later, Rep. Kenneth M. Regan of Texas took to the floor of the House to point out the consequences of that name: “Children between the ages of 12 and 16 could not use these books unless they did so surreptitiously.” His simple solution—dropping the word “adult” from the title of the act—passed the House by voice vote without objection, and the revised bill became law on this date.
July 30, 1966
President Johnson signs a bill extending NLS service to people with disabilities. In 1962, Rep. Glenn Cunningham of Nebraska had championed a change to the law governing NLS with a bill “to extend the benefits of the talking book program to quadriplegics, persons who have lost the use of both arms and both legs or lost those limbs.” Four years later, a revised bill expanding service to individuals with physical disabilities and low vision finally passed the vote. “I did not believe then—and I do not believe now—that any person desiring to further his or her education and cultural abilities should be deprived of the opportunity to do so because of physical handicaps,” Cunningham declared.
August 24, 1999
Web-Braille—”the best thing to come along since the interpoint embosser,” Access World magazine said—is launched. With an initial library of 2,600 digital braille titles, the online download service was NLS’s first experiment with online distribution. It taught NLS valuable lessons about scalability and customer service expectations that shaped the development of BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. WebBraille merged with BARD in 2013.
September 16, 1996
President Clinton signs a bill—introduced by Sen. John H. Chafee of Rhode Island—allowing NLS to reproduce or distribute copies of previously published nondramatic literary works in accessible formats exclusively for use by print-disabled persons. Previously, NLS had to request permission from publishers to reproduce copyrighted works in audio or braille. The Chafee Amendment has been amended several times, most recently in 2018 to include all literary works and incorporate the Marrakesh Treaty.
September 19, 1935
President Roosevelt signs an executive order transferring $211,500 to the Library of Congress for production of 5,000 talking-book machines—phonographs modified to play 33 1/3 rpm talking books instead of 78 rpm music records. Helen Keller and the AFB’s executive director, Robert B. Irwin, (in photo at left) had met with Roosevelt to lobby for the appropriation. The Library appointed AFB to supervise the production and distribution of machines, which were loaned to libraries around the country. Prior to this, AFB sold talking-book machines at-cost, but during the Depression few blind people could afford them. NLS continues to loan talking-book machines to patrons—but now they play books recorded on digital cartridges.
September 20, 2013
The BARD Mobile app is launched in the App Store, allowing patrons to read NLS books and magazines on their own iOS devices. Updates and new versions of the app—including one for Android devices—offer users the ability to instantly download books, magazines and music materials in audio and electronic braille to their smart phones and tablets.
October 1, 2019
NLS—known as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped since 1978—changes its name to the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. NLS patrons, network libraries and advocacy organizations provided input on the name change, which sheds outdated language that some found offensive and outlines more clearly who NLS serves.
October 9, 1962
NLS adds music materials to its offerings. Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon was the first and leading supporter of NLS music service in Congress. “This universal language,” he told the Senate on January 7, 1960, “has helped the visually handicapped to lead richer lives and to communicate with others. Furthermore, braille musical scores have enabled many blind persons to become gainfully employed.” After two years bouncing between the Senate and House, his proposal was signed into law on this date, adding braille, audio and large-print music instruction and appreciation materials to the NLS collection—now the largest of its kind in the world.
November 11, Veterans Day
Service to our nation’s veterans has been a cornerstone of the NLS program from its beginnings in 1931. In the photo at left, from 1944, two WWII airmen enjoy an NLS talking-book record. NLS is proud of the partnerships it maintains with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Blinded Veterans Association.
December 21, 1829
Laura Bridgman may be less of a household name than Helen Keller, but she paved the way for her more famous successor as the first deaf-blind child to receive a formal education. Born on this date, fifty years before Keller, Bridgman studied at Perkins School for the Blind under the tutorship of Samuel Gridley Howe and gained international fame when Charles Dickens described meeting her in American Notes.
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Getting TBT in alternative formats
NLS patrons: If you subscribe to Talking Book Topics (TBT) in large print, did you know you can get fast access to the latest issue (and find back issues too!) on the NLS website and in a downloadable PDF? The webpage version has direct links to BARD—the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download service—for downloading or adding books to your wish list immediately, and the PDF includes printable order forms for mailing. You’ll find them at www.loc.gov/nls/tbt. TBT is also available in audio on cartridge and on BARD and the BARD Mobile app.
Haven’t signed up for BARD yet? You can get more than 100,000 books and 6,000 magazine issues there—including the latest bestsellers—anytime you want them. And there’s nothing to return! The folks at your network library can help you get started. Find their phone number at www.loc.gov/nls (click the “Find Your Library” link) or call 888-NLS-READ (888-657-7323) and follow the prompts.
NLS libraries in the news
Milwaukee TV station WDJT featured the Wisconsin Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL) on “CBS 58 Sunday Morning” in January. Library Services Manager Zarina Mohd Shah gave an overview of the library’s services and patron Sarah Heesen talked about what its books have meant to her—and to her mother, who also was blind and read braille books to the family while Sarah was growing up. Watch the story at https://bit.ly/3GZ3xHu External.
And the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story about the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians, or “LAMP,” another NLS network library, which reopened in December with a new name and a new space after a year of renovations. You can find the story at https://bit.ly/3H2oQYq External.