About blindlib!
A little history about blindlib
It all began during the year 1918 when the devastating worldwide influenza pandemic hit the township of Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape. Whilst nursing the many local people afflicted, Josephine Wood (affectionately known as Josie Wood) met up with a British nurse, Miss Comber, who had come out from England with the idea of starting religious study circles for the blind. She had developed a personal collection of 100 Braille volumes, and talked Josie Wood into developing an accessible library for visually impaired people, as she had been recalled back to England. Josie Wood housed the small library in a small room in her house until 1924, when she bought a building which she turned into a library and flats for rental (to subsidise the running of the library).
During 1921, a further supplementary stock of Braille books was received from the National Institute for the Blind, the National Library for the Blind, UK, and the American Braille Press in Paris. By the end of 1923, Josie Wood had taught herself Braille, and with the services of her niece, Edith Wood, the first Braille transcription service evolved. It was at this time that a Library Committee was appointed to give the Library an official status. The Cape Provincial Council made the first public grant to the library when they donated £100. Towards the end of 1924, a Deed of Trust was drawn up, and all the Library assets were transferred to the newly appointed Council. In this deed, the library was described as “The South African Library for the Blind”. The South African Library for the Blind (Blindlib) now functions under its own act of parliament, SA Library for the Blind Act 91 of 1998.
Today, Blindlib has a staff compliment of 42 dedicated staff members, a membership of 5,594, an audio and Braille collection of 22,761 books and an annual circulation of over 170,000 books, in Braille and audio formats.
Status Of Existing Digital Development – South African Library for the Blind
Conversion from our existing analogue system to digital is both partially funded and in the process of being implemented. The digitization process is inevitable if we are to remain able just to exchange books with other major libraries for the blind in the world. For example, Netherlands stopped distributing analogue books at the end of 2003. Denmark, USA, Canada, Sweden and Britain were soon to follow suit, and the Library of Congress is at an advanced planning stage of digitization.
Blindlib started experimenting with Daisy during 2002/3. In the same year, our first Daisy Book – using LP Studio Pro, was produced. The title of the book FRONTIERS by NOEL MOSTERT.
During late 2004 we procured equipment to convert our analogue book collection to the digital medium, after research was conducted by a local consultant.
During 2005 Blindlib digitized its four recording studios, and started with the recording of our first Daisy books straight onto on the new Daisy recording software. The software we are using in the studios is called My Studio PC, a very user friendly Daisy recording program. During 2006, all Blindlib volunteer home narrators were trained and set-up to record onto the Daisy format.
During 2006 more equipment was purchased to assist with and fast-track our A2D conversion. To date, we have produced a total of 412 Daisy books. Of these, 221 books were recorded straight onto the Daisy system, and the other 191 books were either converted from our Analogue book collection, or, from commercial books purchased which were then converted to the Daisy format.
