Press Release issued: 12 June 2012.
Oxgangs Library in south-west Edinburgh will today play a part in a nationwide drive to improve access to books for blind and partially sighted readers.
'Make a Noise in Libraries' began yesterday, a two-week campaign now in its eleventh year, to encourage more libraries to provide accessible books and reading materials, and to celebrate those that go that extra mile.
The library, based at Oxgangs Road North, has played home to the VIP (Visually Impaired People) Reading Group for the past five years. This afternoon, the group will hear a talk from two members of the Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland's transcription centre.
Glenda Carson and Kris Wallace will explain the process by which the charity produces books in formats such as audio and braille. Currently only around seven per cent of books published in the UK ever make it into any accessible formats.
Glenda said: "We will describe how we choose a book to transcribe, what the copyright position is with regard to the author and publisher, how we select the most appropriate professional actor to narrate the audio version, and what the actual transcription process, itself, entails.
"We hope the reading group will be interested in hearing how we've made a range of Scottish authors from James Kelman to Janice Galloway and AL Kennedy accessible to people with sight loss, to ensure they aren't deprived of the same reading pleasure as their sighted peers."
Community librarian Carol Marr said: "Just because you are visually impaired it doesn't dampen your imaginative thirst for books and reading. Access to literature offers a lifeline for many blind or partially sighted people. The spoken word and new digital formats provide a window to reading that the rest of us take for granted."