The VA Library

00:31S1

This is Studio 1 on Vision Australia Radio.

00:38S2

Hello, I'm Sam.

00:39S3

And I'm Lizzie, and this is...

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Studio One, your weekly look at life from a low vision and blind point of view.

00:45S3

On this week's show.

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We talk to Sarah Bladon, who is the manager of library services at Vision Australia.

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As we always say at this point, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experienced with any of the issues covered in this week's episode of Studio One, or whether you think there's something we should be talking about, you never know. Your story or insight may help somebody who's dealing with something similar. 

01:07S2

You can contact us. Email is best - studio1visionaustralia.org - that's studio - number one - at Vision Australia - dot -org.

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Or you can drop us a note on our Facebook page at facebook.com - slash - VA Radio Network - dot - org.

01:26S2

Okay. Where is she? 

01:31S4

Hello?

01:32S2

Lizzy. Where are you?

01:33S3

I'm in the magazine section of the library. Where are you at?

01:38S2

What did you say?

01:39S3

I said I'm at the magazine section.

01:41S2

Can you speak up? I can barely hear you.

01:42S3

No I can't. We're in a library and we're supposed to be quiet.

01:46S2

I'm going to have to... try again. I think we're on a bad line here.

01:51S3

A bad... hello.

01:55S2

Hello? Is that Lizzie?

01:57S3

Yes. Who else would it be?

01:59S2

I'm sitting beside the reference books. Where are you?

02:02S3

Are you sitting beside the what?

02:03S2

The reference books.

02:04S3

The referendums? Where would I find that?

02:07S2

Er, right by the door, I think.

02:11S3

Which door?

02:12S2

Okay, I'll try and find you there. Can you hold your hand up and. Okay, I think I see you. All right. Okay.

02:18S3

All right. Good. I'll catch up with you in a minute, then.

02:20S2

So, as I said, we decided to catch up in a library, but it turns out it to be the wrong library. The person who is trying to catch up with is not even in Adelaide. So let's cross to Sara.

02:37UU

Yo, Homes. What up? What up with you?

02:39S 

What are we gonna say? What are we gonna do? Where are we gonna go? Where are we gonna see? We're going to the library. I'm moving down the aisle with my homies in tow. We're grooving in the home of the librarian. No, she checks us out from behind thick glasses.

02:53S3

We walk right past. So today on studio one, we are talking to the manager of library services, Sara Bloedorn. Sara, how are you today?

03:00S6

Hi, I am wonderful. Thank you.

03:02S3

So just start off by telling us what sort of services does the Vision Australia Library provide? 

03:10S6

So we're a public library. But I guess we look a little bit different to most people's public library that they might be in their council area. We're a national library, which means you can access our content wherever you are in Australia. And we are for people that have a print disability. So that is anybody that has blindness or low vision, but it also includes other things, such as if someone has dyslexia or perhaps have suffered a stroke, or they have MS. There's kind of a myriad of reasons where they can come and use our library service, and we welcome everybody that fits in that category to come along and use it. 

We are completely free service, which is wonderful. So you'll never pay anything to use our library service. We have a huge library of audio books. I think we're edging close to 70,000 titles of every topic that you can imagine. That's impressive. We also have a very yeah, it's huge. We some people try to read everything in the library, but nobody's quite gotten there yet, which is good. And we also have a Braille library which has both Braille - so for any braille users, you may well know that you can either read Braille in a book, kind of like a printed book, but instead of the words it has the dots ... or Braille is something you can use on a device called an e-reader. So some people prefer to do that. And that's kind of an easier way sometimes. And some people love the traditional book and both are great. 

And we have a special collection called the Felix Library, which is for very young children, so generally from 0 to 7. And they, the kits that are sent out, they help to teach not only braille literacy but also tactile literacy. And they have an audio component.

04:43S3

So do you have large print material as well? 

04:46S6

No, we don't actually have a large print library. I believe we did in previous years, but we don't now. We specialise in Braille and audio.

04:53S3

Well, I suppose if, if your books can be got online, then you won't, there's not much of a need for large print.

05:00S6

So yeah, I think a lot of libraries still use them, but, you can also get e-books have been really good for that because it gives you the ability to zoom in on print, which is great.

05:08S3

And so you say that you're a national library, but do you actually have a physical library that people in your area can visit?

05:14S6

Yeah. So we're based in Kooyong in Melbourne. So that's where I work in my library. Team works, so people can come and visit us at Kooyong when we always love it. When people do, some people come in to pick up some Braille. Other times people will come in to get a bit of help with their audiobook player or just to have a chat. So we love all of that. But having said that, of course we would love to kind of help and support anyone across Australia. So for that, we do have a phone number. People can call Monday to Friday and you can speak to someone about anything to do with the library, whether it's joining, whether it's I need a new book to read, please recommend me something or my players not working or anything like that. So yeah, we definitely here for everybody, regardless of where you are.

05:55S2

Tell us a little bit about yourself. How long have you been working for Vision Australia and what got you involved with this?

06:00S6

I have been at Vision [indistinct] just short of eight years. And I came to Vision as a children's librarian, which was wonderful. Then I moved to the Felix Library, which was a complete joy. Everybody kind of talks about it as being the most lovely job in the organisation, and I have been the manager of the library. Oh gosh, how long now? Six months now, which has been great. So my background is as a librarian, I kind of studied that when I left high school, and probably in that very quintessential way of like, I like books, maybe I'll work in a library. But I also love people, and I think there's a nice crossover of that, because we get to do such lovely things and interact with with the community in such a wonderful way, but came to Vision Australia with no understanding of blindness and low vision, not having kind of experienced that in my family. 

So lots to learn and lots to kind of appreciate and understand about the different ways of reading and also to. Kind of appreciate that we take for granted people that read print, that everything is available at our fingertips. And for somebody with blindness and low vision, that's just not true. So the little bit that we get to do to help in that regard is wonderful. And I know it sounds naff to say, but it's such a lovely place to work. And we get so much beautiful feedback about the impact that we make on people's life. A lot of people and many, you know, lose their sight as they get older. One of the biggest losses is that they feel like they've lost their joy of reading because they can't do that anymore. And it's, you know, loses a bit of a lifeline for them. So we can recreate that with the library, which is great.

07:35S2

Yeah. Having such a wide range of... material can be sort of a double edged sword in a way, because a friend of mine lost his sight when he was 14, and all he had available to him was the entire Braille section and audiobook section of the Casuarina Library in Darwin, which meant that he became extremely well read, because when he ran out of one thing, he just kept on reading stuff, whether it was interested in on or not. So here was this sort of Darwin Yobbo who knew Shakespeare and all the classics as well. It was a rather incredible.

08:09S6

Oh, I love that. That's great. There you go.

08:13S2

How easy is it to become a member or to access the services? 

08:18S6

Yeah. Super easy. So there's a few ways to do that. We have an online form, which probably takes about five minutes to complete. We'll just ask kind of, for some basic details, and then we can get you started. That's pretty quick. But some people might like to talk to a person and get signed up over the phone again. It's quite a short process. And you're welcome to call the Vision Australia number, which I'll have to reconfirm for you. And yeah, you can call up. So very simple. We don't ask a whole lot of anyone really. There's not a lot of, you know, arduous checks and balances. We've tried to make it as simple as possible so as many people can access the library as they want to.

08:53S2

So you don't have to be like a client of Vision Australia or anything like that. Or is there any sort of other requirements or anything like that?

09:00S6

No, you don't have to be a client of Vision Australia. You don't have to have kind of paid for any service or use anything to do with this in Australia previously. The only requirement is that you that you have a print disability and you identify as someone with a print disability. So what that looks like when you're filling out the form is we'll ask you obviously to check a box to confirm that. And we will ask you to provide the details of a referrer. So this can be anyone from an educator. If you're a young person, it could be your your GP, it could be your eye doctor. And what we do is we just kind of have those details on record so that we can confirm your eligibility, but you don't need to submit any paperwork or any letters from doctors or anything like that. It's just the provision of a name and some of their details.

09:43S3

Fantastic. And I've actually been a member of the library for quite some time. You used to have a service where you were able to transcribe certain things if you didn't already have the material on hand. Is that still available?

09:57S6

Absolutely. So there's a couple of things to that. So we, we love to get suggestions of books. So maybe you've heard about a new book coming out or you've just done a deep dive into your favourite author and you realise we don't have a book. So our first thing we'll say is kind of let the library know and put a request in. We very rarely say no, because, you know, the collection is for our users. So we want it to be everything you want it to be. Very rarely, it might be something that is is not something that would be suitable for the library. It might be something more kind of like a... personal memoir or maybe some family history or something like that. 

So that's where we have a service called Personal Support. So everybody that's a member is entitled to, I think it's 363 pages per year to be transcribed into any format you want. So that can include large print. It also includes braille and audio. And so we can't tell you what to use your 360 pages on. We get everything from recipes to memoir. As I said, old letters. It can be boring things like your microwave manual, if that's what you need. So we can get... but just whatever you need, we'll make that happen for you.

11:04S3

Yeah, I used to use it quite a lot during high school and university for my Braille music. So when I was doing piano and music theory, I used to get a lot of my stuff transcribed by the Vision Australia library, and so did my piano teacher. Actually, she was the one that got me onto that.

11:20S2

Right. Is there anything from this service that you've come across your desk that you've gone, Oh my God, I would never would have thought of that!

11:27S6

Oh, like in terms of like books that have been requested or...

11:30S2

Yes, yes, that's what I'm thinking.

11:32S6

Oh, I remember recently someone had requested like a history of trains and it was for a very specific time and a very specific type of train. And, you know, that's not my area of interest, but good on anyone that that enjoys that. And I guess we all read such varied things, don't we? Even as a librarian, like people, our biggest, most popular books in the. Library of Crime books. People love crime and mystery. They love true crime. And not my area at all. Not not something I like to read. I don't know how I could sleep at night, but we just are constantly requested for new ones. So just trying to kind of respond to to what people are asking for.

12:08S2

One of the things I heard recently with an interview with our colleague Peter Greco was someone was transcribing, I think it was knitting instructions.

12:18S6

Oh, you're so right. That is true. That's right. And another one, actually, that reminded me to somebody at a... guide to learning how to do drumming. And I just have to completely admire our audio team for how they work out, how to, you know, put all this terminology and describe something that's often quite visual in terms of here's a diagram of where you should put your hands, or you know how the stitch in the knitting should look. But they do so much work to make sure that it is completely accessible in an auditory way.

12:46S3

If someone wanted to check out, like some Braille books or something, how many books at a time can you check out from the library?

12:53S6

Yeah, I think it depends on the person and their requests. We tend to with audio books, say about 20 at a time, but we do have some people that go through 20 and a week or, you know, they're just constantly listening with Braille books. I think it would probably be up to that many, um, if people wanted to. It tends to be over Christmas. So we get a lot more requests for, you know, people will stockpile a few because we'll have a bit of a shutdown period. And a Braille book can be anything from kind of four volumes to our longest book is 45 volumes. So it might take you months to read. It might just take you a week to read.

13:27S3

Is that the Holy Bible, by any chance?

13:29S6

It's actually not, although that is very long now. Longest book is [lame is wow ?]. Yeah, 45 volumes. You'd have to be keen, wouldn't you?

13:37S3

Extremely. You'd have to be very passionate about that.

13:41S2

Chalk up having a few draws as well. Or if you are a good sized desk, I'm guessing.

13:45S6

I just would love to have seen the mailman delivering that, because it went out recently and somebody borrowed it. I'm like, that would be so funny because we put the volumes in like a number of bags so they're not too heavy. We don't want anybody to strain themselves carrying them. So I think it would have been, you know, maybe 15 bags of Braille all up, which is quite astounding.

14:03S3

Well, I remember borrowing Twilight, I think it was the last book, breaking Dawn. It's the longest one, and I think it was four bags and each bag had like three volumes or something. It was quite impressive. The amount of paper.

14:16S6

Yeah. Amazing.

14:20S1

This is Studio One on Vision Australia Radio.

14:27S2

So with the audiobooks. So I think a lot of our listeners would be familiar with, uh, the paid apps like audible and things like that. And the quality will sometimes vary. Well, you'll often get, uh, professional actors reading and things like that. What is the, um, go with the audiobooks? So here at the library, do you get the same sort of things as you would on audible and or do you actually produce them yourselves? Yeah.

14:53S6

Great question. And it's an absolute mix of things. So, about ten years ago, something called the Marrakesh Treaty came in, which has been really game changing for us. It means that anything that's available in in a format that's not accessible, we can, um, we can transfer or convert. So Daisy Audio is what we use, which means that we're able to easily access kind of existing audio books that are out in the world, whether it be audible or other kind of, um, publishers that have created them and put them into daisy format. And, you know, as you would note, audible taking the world by storm, everybody's listening, and so many more books are coming out in audio. It's such a great and positive thing. 

But there will be books that we find that people don't create into audio. Sometimes it's kind of like a small Australian publisher hasn't created that. Or maybe it's an older book that someone's requested and there was never an existing audio book. So we do have, um, a production team and we have studios at Kooyong. And so, um, our team then work to create wonderful versions of these. Often they're supported by amazing narrators. Who are they put through all the checks and balances and audition to make sure that the quality is really good, because I'm sure you can appreciate. I certainly can as well, that the reading of an audiobook can make the huge difference. If you don't like the accent, or if they've got a bit of a weird intonation that you don't enjoy, it can really, you know, take away from the enjoyment of the book. 

So we're quite careful to make sure we match books. If it's a young adult book, that it's a young reader, if it's a book that's being told by the perspective of a female narrator, then we'll we'll have somebody come in to do that who is kind of appropriate to the story. And if yes, it's certainly we'll look at different accents as well. And we love getting feedback, but it's always so interesting because some people will be like, no, I don't want any narrators with this accent or I don't want anybody any male narrators. And a lot of it can be personal preference, but the quality is amazing.

16:47S3

Well, you say you try to match the reader or the narrator to the perspective of the book. Have you ever had a young child or any child come to read a kid's book?

16:56S6

Yeah, we have, which is really lovely. It's harder to organise, and even for a young adult, that's particularly difficult because it's hard to get young narrators because people are busy, um, doing things. But we absolutely have we have a series of books called Big Visions, which are all about, um, kind of young people and their experience with blindness and low vision. And we had some young, younger people read them, and it really makes a real difference when you're listening to the story because it feels quite authentic.

17:21S2

Then the motivation would be an interesting one, really. When you're reading, say, a longer piece of work. I read Dick Smith's memoirs a few years ago, and what I found interesting was you could actually tell when he was starting to flag, and then you could actually hear the edit, and then all of a sudden he's back to his normal bright himself as he's reading it there. So you could tell that he is he sort of pressed the button, gone. Can I stop now? And I'm tired.

17:49S6

And that's such a fair point because you can't... you can imagine, like someone can't sit in their studio for eight hours, that them at 9:00 and then at 5:00 is completely different person. So often it's about scheduling our narrators to come in for a suitable amount of time so that they keep that energy up, and that means that it can take weeks to get through a book, especially if we're talking about a big book. And then, of course, going back, if kind of mistakes are made or edits need to be made. So it's not a short process.

18:16S2

So where do you tend to do the recordings there? I mean, you've got um, radio studios in Kooyong, but do you have your own specific, um, equipment as well?

18:24S6

No. So we use the radio radio studios in Kooyong because they're all set up. I'm good to go. And that means, yeah, the quality control is expert. I believe we did probably during Covid have some people doing recording at home, and people got really good at kind of setting up home studios, which is amazing. I'm not sure if that's kind of continued post-Covid, but for the most part, it's wonderful to get our volunteers into the studios at Kooyong.

18:48S2

So you also were talking about some of the programs that you run. You do things like you mentioned, like the Felix Library and things like that.

18:56S6

Yeah. So we as much as we all about books and we love books, you know, libraries are so much more than that. And a really important part of what we do is the programming that we offer all through the year. Um, so whether it's for young people or for adults, we love to have different events on that. Make a community from our library uses that really bring people together. So some of our kind of very regular things that are in conversation events. Um, and funny, you mentioned Dick Smith because we... a year or so ago, we had Dick Smith on. So our conversations are an. Hour spent with an amazing Australian author. We've had some huge names. We had Alexis write just a couple of weeks ago, and Dick Smith, as I mentioned, and it's a real privilege to kind of be able to invite our, our library users along. 

And not only do they get to listen to these authors speak, they also get to ask some questions, which is really special. But we also want to support the people in our library community that want to create things themselves. So we run writing programs all through the year, right? Your life is hugely popular, so that's generally a six week program where you get support from amazing writers to write your memoirs, whether it's because you just want to share it with your family or whether you're wanting to work towards publication. We also have some more intensive programs where people that are wanting to publish can get kind of quite in depth support recently, or maybe we haven't run it yet. This year we're running short story classes. 

We've also just recently run writing picture books for children. Last year we did all different genre writing, so it's yeah, amazing. We've got all different things happening all through the year. Um, on our website at your library, we keep up to date all the events that are coming up for children. We have things like storytimes and different opportunities to come along and do writing classes. We've also offered things for our young adults, like résumé writing or write a cover letter or, you know, supporting our young people as they move into employment as well. So definitely want to keep a lookout for anybody that's interested in having a go at the creative side of things.

20:59S3

So can these events be accessed online as well as at the physical library? Yeah.

21:03S6

No, I should have mentioned that most of them are online. Because we want people to have the opportunity, no matter where you are, to join in. So generally they're offered on zoom. And one of the great things about Covid, I guess, is we all got really used to using zoom. We also all of their programs are completely free, just like our service. So you can sign up for 1 or 5 and they'll never be any cost. We also have different programs where you can just come and enjoy and talk about what stories you like, get some ideas of what you might read next. Uh, we're running a session called writing for wellbeing, which is all about just kind of you finding joy in creativity. So yeah, please feel free for anybody to to to join up no matter where you are in Australia.

21:46S3

I like the idea of the resume and cover letter writing, because these are practical skills that, you know, a lot of young adults just don't know how to apply to their daily life. So it's fantastic that Vision Australia can offer some sort of support with regards to writing these things.

22:02S6

Yeah, absolutely. And I think when we think about literacy, we think about books and words and letters, but literacy, so many things. And that can be financial literacy, learning how to do your taxes or do a budget. And we look to do classes on things like that. We also health literacy. We've done programs for young people with everything from kind of how to eat well and look after your body to kind of creating great friendships. And so, yeah, I think it's important that it covers that whole breadth of things that it's not just, Oh, here's some books or, you know, here's, you know, learning to read or whatever, but yeah, you can kind of that literacy is in every part of your life.

22:41S2

Say so we've got listeners from all different walks of life, and they're not necessarily all blind, or even if they are and they're saying, you know what? I am really liking what I hear. How can I help out? I mean, Vision Australia is held aloft by volunteers. Is there any way that a volunteer out there can help out?

23:02S6

Oh, that's a wonderful question. And honestly, it wouldn't be what it is without our volunteers. I know you guys would appreciate that. And certainly the library is so grateful for that. We certainly have opportunities come up, um, through the library to support. And that can be anything from narrating our books to helping to make our Felix Library kits, um, and other short term projects that come up. So I definitely encourage anybody, if you've got a particular interest in, in volunteering in the library to keep an eye out, about opportunities to volunteer, which I believe is on our website. And please put an expression of interest in if there's anything that comes up.

23:37S3

And these people that apply to volunteer, they don't just have to be in Melbourne. They can they can do stuff online. Is that correct?

23:44S6

Yeah, we definitely have times where we have opportunities for people, wherever you are, to support.

23:48S2

Yeah. So there is a myth out there. It was a joke that we used to sort of say especially,  sporting teams and things like that. So does this exist? Is there a Braille edition of Playboy?

24:00S6

Oh, I believe there is. I don't think we have one, though, sadly. That would be fun, wouldn't it? I'm just trying to picture. I know we've had some pretty saucy Braille books, I'll be honest. And some with some kind of tactile images, but I don't think it was Playboy.

24:21S7

Wow. That's very interesting.

24:22S6

Another time and report back.

Another time and report back.

24:24S3

It'd be very interesting. To read the image descriptions because, you know, like a lot of websites and social media platforms these days, they try to upload image descriptions with their articles so that blind and visually impaired people can get an idea of what the photo actually contains. So I could only just imagine the image descriptions for a Playboy or an erotic magazine or something like that. It would be very interesting to read it. I'm so curious. Now I might just have to request something of that nature.

24:55S6

Oh, absolutely. I think you should please do so. We can all have our curiosity... assuaged. And I think, you know, I do. We have books of all different sensibilities, and it is interesting in some of our volunteers, you know, get to read some pretty saucy stuff, which I think some probably enjoy very much and some find quite challenging. So you appreciate, you know, we don't want to censor anything, and people can read and listen to whatever they choose to.

25:21S3

So the other question I had was about textbooks and non-fiction books, because we all think about reading and writing to be, you know, based in fiction and creativity. But do you guys supply textbooks or do you have any textbooks on hand that people can borrow if they need to? 

25:38S6

Yeah, great question. We do have a big non-fiction collection. It tends to be around kind of those very general areas of interest. So whether it be gardening or health or, you know, maybe kind of the self-help area in terms of textbooks for a university or a high school student, we tend to do those on request. So that will be, you know, someone coming to us with a specific request for, you know, Maths 101. And then we'll make that into whatever format they want.

26:07S3

Oh that's fantastic. So even if you don't have it, obviously there is still that option to get it provided.

26:14S7

Absolutely. Yes.

26:14S2

If someone wants to find out more about the library, they go to, what's the website?

26:19S6

So it's Vision Australia - dot - org - slash - library.

26:22S3

And you said there's a number that people can call if they want to talk to someone face to face or in person. I should say.

26:28S7

Yeah that's correct. So the number is 1300 654 656 to speak to someone about the library.

26:35S2

And of course this will be available on our Vision Australia Radios Facebook page and on the podcast notes. Sarah, again thank you for joining us.

26:42S7

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

26:48S2

All right, so how do I find a book around here nowadays? I can't find the microfiche at all. Can you see them anyway?

26:57S3

No, no, I think it's probably best to go and ask someone about that one.

27:00S2

Do they even have microfiche anymore? Anyway, I think this is the door. Here, let us make a move. That is a wrap for this week. Thank you to Sarah for enlightening us all about the library. And of course.

27:14S3

Thanks to you all for listening.

27:16S2

Next week we look at public transport and the apps that are now being developed to make life easier for us.

27:23S3

But between now and then, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experience with any of the issues covered on this week's episode of Studio One, or whether you think there's something we should be talking about, you never know. Your story or insight may help someone who is dealing with something similar.

27:38S2

You can contact us via email studio1@visionaustralia.org ... that's studio - number one - at Vision Australia - dot - org.

27:44S3

Or you can drop us a note on our Facebook page at facebook.com, VA Radio Networks. We want to hear from you.

27:55S1

Vision Australia Radio gratefully acknowledges the support of the Community Broadcasting Foundation for Studio One.