Keep the Books Talking

KEEP BOOKS TALKING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] A half-million Americans stand in danger of losing their public library. They are the nation's blind, and their library is Talking Books, through which the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress (NLS) provides 500,000 Americans with free audio recordings of about as many books. Unlike the "books on tape" that are sold at retail bookstores, these recordings are unabridged, extensive and diverse -- and are designed for people who have no other way of reading print. NLS hopes to digitize its entire library and create new players. It has spent 17 years researching, building and testing new products, and it is ready to manufacture a fully accessible flash-drive player. The Library of Congress has asked Congress to appropriate about $76.4 million to produce the players and digitize thousands more books. But the Government Accountability Office faults NLS for not considering existing commercial products such as CD players and iPods instead of creating a new device.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR2007052901736.html
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