Blind Library
When a book is recorded at an
RFB studio, at least four copies of
it are automatically made, one
going to the student requesting the
book and the others to the Recording
for the Blind Library at the
organization's eight-story national
New York headquarters building in
New York City. The RFB Library
currently holds over 12,000 recorded
titles.
The organization's headquarters
is sent all requests by students for
needed recordings. If the book has
already been recorded, a copy is
sent from national headquarters to
the student. If not, headquarters
secures the book publisher's permission
to record the title and
assigns one of the 7 local units,
according to their strengths in various
subjects, to produce the recording.
"We're strong in law, medicine,
and, for the time being at
least, in Spanish and Russian," Mrs.
LaSauce noted of the
Charlottesville unit.
Mrs. LaSauce said that, originally,
recordings were made on
discs, but that now tapes, "which
are faster, safer, and can be mailed
more easily," are being used. She
noted that the old disc recordings
in the RFB Library are being
phased out in favor of taped recordings
now, and added that
braille is also "quickly going out"
as a medium of education for the
blind.
In addition to the recording of
books, raised line drawings - photographs
redone so they can be
interpreted by a blind student
through his sense of touch - are
produced at the Charlottesville Recording
for the Blind unit.
In this process, a tracing o a
photograph is first made and then
placed in reverse over a thin piece
of tin. With the use of a special
tool, the picture's outline is then
stamped into the piece of foil.
Next, a sheet of special-composition
paper is laid over the
impressed foil, and the two pieces
are placed together inside a kiln
which quickly melts the paper over
the foil and, thus, into the outline
of the picture. Special books of
raised-line drawings are made to
accompany recordings of textbooks
where they are considered helpful.
