Mary Rodgers Beal, Mississippi's Talking Book Services Director, attended the National Library Service’s Regional Conference for the Northern and Southern regions last month in Daytona Beach, Florida. (The Western and Midlands regions held separate conferences.) The State Librarian of Florida, Amy Johnson, and NLS Deputy Director, Jason Yasner, gave opening remarks for the multi-day conference. A highlight of her trip was the entertainment for the conference banquet: a patron of FTBBL is also an accomplished trumpeter who serenaded conference-goers during their meal.
Mary Rodgers learned about ways other libraries utilize outreach, toured the Florida Talking Book and Braille Library (FTBBL), and met with librarians from other talking book libraries. She thinks the structure of the Florida TBBL is pretty interesting; it's one of the few states to have subregional branches in addition to their regional library. These branches are housed in public libraries around Florida. Mississippi libraries can, of course, contact Talking Book Services here at MLC directly for information and tools to connect with the blind and print disabled in their communities. She also checked into how other regional libraries are handling the transition to Books-on-Demand and networked with other librarians about common successes and setbacks.
Beal says that she looks forward to sharing what she learned with others in her department! This will include refreshers on repair and operation of current digital players, as well as information on a new player set to come out in the future.
Would you like to get involved with Talking Book Services in Mississippi? If you or someone you know has a visual, physical, or print disability that prevents the reading of standard print books, give us a call toll-free at 1-800-446-0892. You can also ask for information on joining the MS Talking Books Friends group (Friends of Handicapped Readers) for National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled updates.
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