By Catherine Durivage, Director, Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Faribault

(Editor’s Note: This report was made at the NFB of Minnesota annual convention on October 8, 2005.)

Good afternoon. Somebody asked me if I am delayed, and I wish I could have said what I said on Wednesday, after I hit a raccoon on the way to work. That raccoon left a mark on my car to the tune of $2,000. Anyway, I don't have that kind of excuse today, nevertheless I am glad to be here. I appreciate Joyce asking me to return, and I also appreciate the opportunity to give you an update about the library.

It was just about a year ago that I was here, and I think I let everybody know that we had some retirements—last fiscal year we had three people retire. In a staff of twelve, that's a lot. We were lucky that we were able to re-hire our reference librarian Renee Parent, so she's back on staff as of February of this year [2005]. The two other retirements that we had were both thirty-year-plus employees. That's a lot to lose. Cheryl Peterson retired in February—she was here thirty-four years. I think that the only job she ever had was working for the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. She's now spending time with her grandkids. The other retirement we had was Ramona Reichert, who was one of our customer service specialists—you probably spoke to her on the phone. She retired in May. We are in the process of re-hiring those two open positions, and hopefully yet this calendar year we will get two more people. Please be patient with them when they come on board, as there will be a lot for them to learn with the system and the service as it is now.

As many of you know because you have called and we explained, we have a new automation system at the library. When I interviewed for the job back in May of 1999, it was my goal to upgrade our software. It took me six years to do that, but I am very pleased that we have a computer system that is a lot more responsive, not only to what we do every day, but to people that use the service. One of the biggest things that we can offer now is access to your library account online. If you are an internet user and want to order your books yourself, to view your library record, to see what you have checked out or for magazine subscriptions, place books on hold or request, you can do that now right from your computer. It is a big improvement for us to be able to offer that. We can give you all the information if you call or e-mail us. I know some of you are using it now, and what we would appreciate, is that if you have any feedback about the software, positive or negative, let us know. This is software that virtually every network library is using now. There are very few other options for network libraries in terms of computer software, so we have a lot of power with this vendor. If we don't like something because you don't like something, we will let them know, and the more they have to go on and the more they hear from us through you, the more changes can be made. Use your leverage, and we will use ours with the company. We're still learning—the system was installed in May. We had about a month before we had to shut down because of the partial government shutdown. It took over a month to get caught up from the backlog, from where there were twenty-five mail bins waiting for us when we got back in July. That was a bit of a setback, as we had momentum going with the software, so now we had to backtrack a little. Another advantage to each of you as well is that we can now send books in series order. If you have a favorite series you like and want to read those books in order, just let us know—we can do that now as we couldn't before.

Another advantage is, say you don't like books by a certain author and don't want to read those—you're tired of, say, Nora Roberts or John Grisham. We can tell the system not to send you books by that author. Just tell us and we will let the system know that. If you like particular authors, let us know that as well.

We can also tell the system not to send a book by a particular narrator. Some people don't like some of the narrators, because of the tone of the voice or they can't understand them, so we can tell the system not to send those too.

As I mentioned, you have online access to your record now. It is web-based—no more Telnet! Once you get into the system, if you don't like the password, you can change it at any time. If you forget your password, we can change it for you; you don't even have to tell us what the old one was, just tell us what you want it to be. There are help screens on every page within the software online. I think they're pretty good help screens, but if you have a question or something doesn't make sense, let us know that.

We appreciate your feedback. We do know that there are some problems with the online catalog, and because we have leverage with the other network libraries that are using the system, I'm confident that those changes and improvements will be made.

For your information, and I can make sure to send this information, the website address for our new software is www.klas.com/mnbph. You might wonder why it says klas.com. Our software is hosted by our vendor, so they maintain our software and our database. The abbreviation stands for Keystone Library Automation System.

Some other things that we are doing, we are adding more descriptive videos to send out. Being a little short-staffed, we're a little behind on getting them inventoried, but we are purchasing more and will continue to do that. We'll buy whatever we can get. Some are moving to DVD's, and we will purchase those as well, so you don't have to worry about whether we will go to that format—we will.

One other thing that I haven't talked about in previous opportunities is that we have a volunteer recording program at the library in Faribault. We have volunteers in the area that come in and read the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer and the Minnesota History Magazine. We've been doing that for a very long time. Because we have maybe five or six regular volunteers that read for us, we haven't always been able to get too many books read in a given year. I'm happy to say that we've picked up, and there is more and more interest in recording for us. This year, we have worked on a book about a Minnesota doctor—I think it was a veterinarian, but don't quote me on that. We're also doing a book on the state Capitol, because it is the hundredth anniversary of the Capitol. That is unusual for us to get some books done that quickly, but the more people we have record for us, the more we can expand our selection. Those will be coming out hopefully this year. Not everybody understands that when we record something, we have a monitor that sits right in front of the glass where the narrator is reading the material, and then we have someone review it. Then corrections are made. It is somewhat of a time-consuming process, but we want the final product to be good, and that's what you expect, so we don't want to short-change you.

I know I talked last year briefly about an online virtual reference service called Info-Eyes, on which Jennifer [Dunnam] last year was the guinea pig for me at a library conference that I went to. I wanted to let you know that there have been some changes in that service. I know some of you might have used it. I know that I even got an e-mail question from someone at State Services for the Blind, so I know it is being used here in Minnesota. It is a virtual reference service. You can now, Monday through Friday during normal business hours, click on a link that says “chat with a librarian," and either that same day or very shortly, someone contacts you to set up an opportunity that you can talk live with a librarian. If you don't want to do that and you just have a question, you can e-mail us, and a library staffer will research your question for you and send back through e-mail a response. Yesterday, I had five e-mail questions come in. I can tell you that there was one on "what is podcasting?" I had a question of "give me information about Isaac Newton." I didn't know which one, because I found three, so I sent them biographical information on all three. Those are the kinds of questions that we might get and you may be able to ask us. It was fun, and that's the most I've answered in any given day. It's still a service that exists. A lot of public libraries and university libraries offer virtual reference, but unfortunately, the software they use is not accessible. We are working with these companies, particularly one, to make the software accessible. As a round-about or alternative, we offer this Info-Eyes service, where you can go in and chat with us, and the software is accessible. It is provided by Talking Communities, and maybe some of you have used their software. There are eleven network libraries participating in this project, and the goal is that we won't be around, because we want these other companies to be accessible, and we are using some of our leverage to make that possible. I'm a little more involved in this project now because I am the co-coordinator of it. Between me and the Perkins School in Massachusetts, we will now be co-coordinating the service for the next two years. I do have a passion about this and want to see it get off the ground, and then actually go away, so that you can go to your public library research service and not worry about whether it's accessible or not.

I want to give everyone a big thank you for NFB-NEWSLINE® funding. That was a big accomplishment. I am happy to let you know that we still have people registering. I think I signed up three people just this week. Almost daily we are getting people signed up for NFB-NEWSLINE®. It is our goal to keep that publicized, and to get more users and more active users as well.

One thing that the National Library Service (NLS) did this year, and it was the first time they've ever done this, is they awarded a network library of the year award. I was very lucky to be a participant in reviewing applicants for this award. It was interesting, and hard to make a choice, but this year's recipient was the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. They were determined among all the applicants to be the winner, and it's kind of fitting, as they are the precursor to the programs of the National Library Service. They won recognition, and a thousand dollars from the National Library Service gift money, so you don't have to worry about your state or federal tax dollars paying for that award. It's a nice honor. Next year, there will be two awards. It was found out that there are some subregional libraries, like branch libraries in other states, which are really doing remarkable things. Only having one network award seemed very limiting. They're going to give a regional library award and a subregional library award. Anyone can nominate a library, there is a form, and there are requirements that have to be met to be selected or move past the nomination stage. It recognizes what we do in a way above and beyond what the National Library Service requires us to do.

Another thing that NLS has started doing in the last couple of years is honoring patrons that are a hundred years old or older. They are calling it the Ten Squared Club. We are working to do that here in Minnesota—there will be PR and an opportunity that every recipient would receive a plaque indicating that they are chosen for this recognition. We have quite a few people that use the service that are a hundred years old or older. I think that will be really neat, and we hope that at least one of them can come down from the Metro area to Faribault where the library is.

There is a lot on the horizon with digital talking books. I know that there are issues out there of people thinking that the Library Service is moving way too slow in getting a digital player out and a digital format. Working as part of this program, and also as a person that uses an MP3 player, I understand the issues involved and how people feel that we should be further along. When you look at how many people use the service, how many cassette players are out there, just the logistics of changing to a new format, and doing it within the budget that they have—I think it's next year or the year after that they have to ask the Congress for an additional $70 million to get this new format going—that's a lot. It's a lot of money, and we really don't want to have to backtrack if something isn't right. They want all their ducks in a row, and to make sure of the format we're going with, which is digital and is most likely a flash memory type like you would use in a digital camera. 2008 is the deadline, not too far away. I understand from reading that they might be able to offer some things as early as 2007, maybe for download through the internet—we'll have to wait and see. If you don't already, try to use some digital service out there, not necessarily through the National Library Service, but there's audible.com, Bookshare, other online services where you can purchase or download materials, or even through the mail get things back and forth in a digital format.

I just got an e-mail a couple days ago about a new audio book called Play-away, which will be introduced possibly this holiday season, where the book and the player are one. If you go buy this audio book, the player itself is there, so you don't have to buy anything else, and when you want to listen to that book, you just press play. It's digital, and there's nothing you have to carry around with you other than that book. I think it's pretty cool. I'd like to see one in person, because they didn't give dimensions on the website, but there's a play and rewind, a start, you can do some searching, things like that. The navigational buttons are limited, like what's on a cassette player. They estimate the cost to be about $40 per book. It seems kind of high, but then an unabridged CD of a book can be $30 to $40 also. It holds one book, and its sole purpose is to play that one book. It's another thing out there for people to have and use. We will keep up with that and keep information in our newsletter.

Someone asked when the next newsletter comes out—that will be when I write it. With the staff shortage and everything going on I have to admit that hasn't been at the top of my list, but it's something that I will get out before the end of the year. We will devote some of that newsletter space to the digital talking book.

Public libraries offer e-books. We're not the only game in town, and I think that's fine. That gives you the opportunity to have more books and more resources at your disposal.

We did receive this week the 2004 Cassette Books catalog. If you were wondering why they were so late, so were we. There were production delays, but we have received those catalogs. If you haven't gotten one and you ordered one, be patient, it should be coming. If you want one, please let us know. We have the large print ones, and we'll get the cassette copies probably in a month or two as well.

The Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped is part of the Department of Education, as a lot of you know. It seems like every summer, they decide that they're going to revamp their website. I don't know why they do that in time for the state fair, but they've revamped it again, and as a result, not a lot of our content was moved over. If you go to the website and find us, you won't find as much as you did prior to August. I apologize for that. I will give the department kudos on making the site easier to put things on, but if you don't have the staff or the time to do it, then that doesn't necessarily help you. We are slowly tackling it, because we had information about our catalog, we had the descriptive video catalog online, in large print, Braille, and an MP3 recording of it so you could listen to it through your computer or save it and play it on another device. I will try to do a lot more of that. Be patient with us as we are making changes to the website. The best thing to do to get to the website is to go to education.state.mn.us, that's the main department's website. On the left-hand side of the screen, navigate down until you fine State Library Services, click on there and then you'll find us. I ask them every year to put us on their home page—why should you guys have to go burrowing through the website to get to us—that's ridiculous. So I've asked to have our link right on the home page, and I hope we can do that—I don't see why they won't—but call them or e-mail them and tell them you want a link on the main page. I'd rather have it come from you guys than just me if that's important to you.

That's my update on the library.