[Blindtlk] It's the Digital Age: (Aziza)

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it's the digital age
> Library Takes Talking Books' Digital
> Products for the Blind Migrate From Cassette to Flash Drive
> Judith Dixon is helping the Library of Congress convert its "talking books"
> from cassette tapes to more USB flash drives. Though the recorded
> book looks much like a cassette, it connects to a USB port on the machines,
> as shown at left. (By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)
> Wednesday, March 5, 2008; Page A19
> Judith M. Dixon, a clinical psychologist by training and a sophisticated
> techie by avocation, is helping to lead the Library of Congress into the
> digital age.
> Dixon, 55, who gave up university teaching 27 years ago to join the
> library's National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped,
> is a key player on a team that has been working for the better part of a
> decade to create a new generation of audiobooks for the library's more than
> 700,000 registered blind and disabled users.
> The goal is to make the digital format the backbone of the library's
> "talking book" program by transferring onto special digital flash drives the
> 60,000 titles that the library has on audiocassettes and giving patrons new
> machines on which to play them.
> "The library system is here because free public library service is a basic
> tenet of our society," said Dixon, who is blind and navigates with the aid
> of a guide dog. "This program is providing access to people who would
> otherwise not have it."
> Under the program, blind and disabled users may obtain audiobooks through
> the mail from any of the service's more than 130 regional libraries
> throughout the country. There is no charge for the books or the players, but
> to keep the machines, users must check out at least one book a year. The
> library plans to roll out the new machines and digital books by the end of
> the year.
> One of the new digital cartridges can hold 46 hours of audio. In contrast, a
> single cassette tape holds six hours -- and then only when recorded at
> half-speed and on four tracks. Since the typical book is 15 hours long, the
> new format means all but the longest books can be contained on a single
> cartridge, Dixon said.
> The transformation also is driven by necessity. The cassette tape belongs to
> a generation of technology whose time has passed. As the library-issued
> cassette players on which blind users play tapes fall into disrepair,
> finding spare parts grows harder and harder.
> The Library of Congress and its users have been through technological
> revolutions before. The library began offering audiobooks on long-play
> records in 1934. It added books on cassettes in the late 1960s, but the
> vinyl era lasted well into the 1980s.
> "This transition is probably going to have to happen a lot faster because
> cassettes just aren't going to be available much longer," said Dixon, who is
> a consumer relations officer for the library.
> The new players resemble the flat, dictionary-size cassette machines of old,
> with large buttons and a single built-in speaker. The digital cartridge is
> about the same size as a cassette tape, but it connects to the player via a
> USB port rather than fitting over two rotating pegs.
> Dixon and advocates for the blind say that relying on commercially available
> books on compact disc or in MP3 format is not an option. Many blind users
> have difficulty operating the tiny buttons of MP3 players, and the inventory
> of available books is usually limited to commercially popular titles.
> Congress has approved $12.5 million annually for four years to help the
> program go digital, less than the $19.1 million that the library had sought.
> That means it will be able to make 3.5 million copies of audiobooks over
> four years instead of 4.8 million, officials said. The program's advocates
> plan to press their case for more money today at a House Appropriations
> subcommittee hearing on the library's budget.
> "The old players will start to break down and the new players will not be
> available yet, and a lot of patrons are going to experience a halt in
> service," said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of
> the Blind. "The talking-book program is the primary source of reading
> material for most blind people. Imagine if someone told you, 'You know what,
> you just don't get to read anything for a while.' "