00:14UU
Take a look.
00:24S1
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Frances Keyland - and you're listening to the Vision Australia library show here on Vision Australia Radio, where we talk about books in the Vision Australia Library collection that are free to borrow. Today we've got Jamie Kelly as a special guest, and he's talking to us about changes on the Vision Australia Online catalogue, also talking about the beloved library listening device, the envoy. And we've got some good reader recommended titles. I hope you enjoy the show. I've got some Jamie Kelly on the line familiar to many people, library members and Vision Australia clients. In general, Jamie is in online training and support at the Vision Australia library, and there's some recent changes with the catalogue that he's here to explain. Hey, Jamie.
01:19S2
Hello, Francis. Nice to be with you. It's been a while since you and I have had a chat, isn't it?
01:23S1
It has been indeed. Yes. I think we're both, um, still young at heart, but, uh.
01:28S2
Yes, absolutely. And if my memory serves me correctly, I think this is your 15th year of his. This. I'm sure you've wanted to be reminded of that.
01:36S1
Oh my goodness, 15 years. Oh well. Yep. Yeah. Okay.
01:40S2
I think 2009 you started. So congratulations.
01:43S1
Oh thank you Jamie, that's so nice of you. I know you're a radio fan and you love radio milestones from not just in Australia radio, but outside in the, um, radio world. And it was, um, National Radio Day or no, International Radio Day a couple of days ago too. So happy International Radio Day to you.
02:03S2
Thank you, thank you.
02:06S1
All right.
02:06S2
Anyway, yeah, yeah. Back to the topic. So there are four changes to the catalogue, to the website, the library website that, uh, I think very beneficial to our members. I'll explain what the four hour and then sort of go into detail. So, the ability now to bulk remove books, uh, we've simplified the basic search function. We've also made it simpler to subscribe to newspapers and podcasts and magazines and also the. Now when you select Braille, you have the option to either download a Braille book or to request a embossed copy. So they're the changes. So going back to the first one, which is probably the biggest one, which is the ability to bulk remove books.
This will particularly benefit Envoi users and families that support our members with invoice, because before you had to go in and just remove one book at a time. So if you wanted 20 books on your envoi and you've got a profile and you've got to take 20 off to get 20 more, you had to sit there and go, bang, bang, bang, take off 20 books. So now you go in and you select each one, there's a checkbox, or you can do a select all, uh, at the top of the list. And then you hit the remove button, which is at the top of the list. So, and give it about a minute or so and it will wipe off the 20 books. Or if you even just want to remove 1 or 2 books, you can do that in the same thing with periodicals. And, you know, as they're called here.
But thinking of newspapers, podcast magazines, if you then change the view to periodicals, you can do the same thing with those. So that's particularly good if you've got quite a few, uh, build up of, podcasts and newspapers that you want to wipe. So that's a really nice change. The second one, the, simplifying the basic search. So when you go to the home page and do a basic search now, you now only have the ability or should I say you now have the ability to select format. So if you want to search for Braille you can select the format and search and get only Braille. So we've simplified the basic search and put that function into search by format. Now the next one was around subscribing to uh periodicals. So now the simplified the function to subscribe.
So you just basically search for your new content say the age, select your format and and you then activate or select the subscribe button. So it's now simplified the process to subscribe to a periodical. And the last one with the Braille content. When searching for braille. Now you select braille and then you get the option to download a copy of the book that's in the bref file, or request a embossed copy. So it just looks more simpler. That's modest, so that you straightaway see, when you request a book that you've got these two options. So they're the main changes, Francis, which I think is something that will be very pleasing to our members.
05:36S1
Absolutely, Jamie. So this is on the website only, like the online catalogue, but not the app. Is that...
05:43S2
No, not the app, no. So that's when you go to Wall Vision australia.org/login and you log in and you'll see the excess, uh, website. And that's where those changes are.
06:00S1
Just a bit of a refresher as well. Are you able to just give a little bit of an explanation of what an envoy is?
06:09S2
Certainly. So Envoy Connect, which is a very popular device which the library, uh, mainly offers now for, for members. And you buy it through the Vision Australia shop for $80 and it's a little handheld device, audio device that has six buttons. It fits in the site in your hand. It's, um, I kind of can only think of it about the size of a cigarette packet, which is probably not the best analogy these days. The current model is usb-C charge, which is a lot better for for our members because you don't have to worry about which way the USB plug goes in. It has six buttons. It has a speaker, a headphone jack down the bottom, uh, and it's quite accessible even though it's a very simple device.
So when I say it's accessible, it charms. When you turn it on, it chimes. When you turn it off, when you volume up or down with the toggle volume button, it increases with a beeping sound or decreases with a beeping sound. If you go up or down the sleep button, which you use when the envoys in pause mode, it goes dong for 15 minutes, Dong, dong for 30 dong, dong dong for 45, and then a lower for dong dong dong dong dong for off. So it's quite accessible. And even when you plug it into charge, it'll chime. So it makes it quite accessible. You can also check the battery. So when the envoy is turned on, and the envoys in pools mode, if you hold down the rewind button for a second, it goes dong, dong dong. If the battery is full or dong dong if it's half full, or one dong if it's kind of fairly flat.
So they're really nice accessibility features, Frances, which, we've had sort of built into the envoy. It holds 20 books and the battery usually should last around about ten hours. And, it's very popular. They, they we're selling them every day. And a lot of people when they joined are. Purchasing the envoy either through a package or themselves or family member. And either they are getting the library to manage the invoice so we can load up with 20 books. If they have a profile, we send it out in a yellow plastic pouch. You remember those plastic yellow pouches? Frances?
08:39S1
I certainly do that. Velcro.
08:41S2
Yes. Yep yep yep. Freepost. So with the address card, we send the envoy loaded with 20 books, and when the library members read their 20 books, they send it back to us, and we refresh the bookshelf and send the envoy back for 20 more. Uh, or the family member can support them if they have a computer using the excess kiosk software for windows. So, um, yeah, there are thousands and thousands of them. I don't know the exact number, but probably around about 3000 envoys out there.
09:12S1
Well, and after that, I mean, if you're a member of the library, that's and you purchase one of those for, as you said, $80, the material that you will be able to put on on that is all free from the library. There's no.
09:25S2
Yes. Absolutely no. So they only cost you the device, which is $80. And often what people do is buy two so that if it's a library managed invoice, they will get, uh, they'll have one loaded with, um, their books and they'll send the other one back, uh, to have a replenishing of books. So they've always got an envoy on the go because there's probably a about a three week turnaround. You know, I just send one back, right, have it loaded and come back. So you have to allow for the post. So you're having to usually works very nicely.
10:00S1
So with the envoys Jamie they're kind of perfect also for people who aren't that technological or they don't feel confident with, um, modern technology.
10:10S2
Absolutely, Frances, because they're so simple. There's no advanced sort of technology in them. There's no speed buttons or anything like that, and they're very simple. And if the I guess, the most complicated thing that you do with them, and it's a little bit tricky when you can't see as if you had to reset it, if the envoy froze. And that can happen sometimes. And that's when you have to hold down the play button and poke a little paperclip in the little hole on the back to the left of the serial number. And if you hold down the play button and tap the paperclip in that little hole a couple of times, it resets it. And often I say you might need some family assistance or someone with with with sight to assist you to do that. That's about the most tricky thing that that you can do with it. But, um, it is a very simple device to use. And it's I talk to people every day who love it. Um, and so that would be simply lost without it.
11:12S1
Yes. Jamie, I know you've just been. This has been really, a major part of your career at Vision Australia for the past couple of years or few years. Just start really getting that training, um, across to people. And I remember myself, too. Just the the joy in which people would ring up, often people that didn't feel technical and they would say, look, I've got it. I don't know where to begin. I've got the device. What do I do? Yeah. And and feeling that change of, oh, oh, is that all I need to do or just being confident about using it was such a great thing. Yeah.
11:44S2
Well that's right, Frances. Often, you can get something new. And for a lot of people, they get something new and it can be quite overwhelming, even if it's something fairly simple. So just by taking somebody through a device with some baby steps so you don't have to learn the whole lot, you can just do the basic things like learning to turn it on, turn it off, how to stop and play a book, go back at chapter or for the chapter and go to the next book. If you just keep it very simple and just, you know, tackle 1 or 2 things at a time. It's very it makes it a lot easier to be like when we first introduced the Daisy CD players, which was a big change from cassette going back quite some years.
And, you know, you know, once people become for me with a device, it's like a friend and, yeah, as I say, I speak to so many members who just love the envoy, and they might be a little bit sort of daunted at first and say, oh, the buttons will be small. Or, you know, I'm having trouble feeling the buttons, but you can put markers on, on the buttons or, you know, a tactile marker, that sort of thing. And it's really quite an amazing little device for what it is.
12:59S1
Now, there's a story about the envoy, and I used to tell some people when I worked in the library, it almost sounds unbelievable that these were originally designed by a company that wanted to, um, that would put the Bible in audio on them and then drop them from planes.
13:16S2
Yes. That's correct. Make a voice to make them. I still do. They have a few different models, but they make the envoy for Vision Australia with our modifications, and that is very true. I saw the original device. I think they used to call them Roadrunner or something like that. And they, yeah, they had the Bible on them. And because they have the solar panel on the back, so they would charge, with it, you know, in the sun, in the desert sort of thing. And, so the solar panels are actually quite handy because you can actually, you know, put them on your window ledge and trickle charge them for a bit if you have to.
13:54S1
But that was true. They used to just drop them out of planes. And that shows you can't really break them very easily though.
14:01S2
They did some very sturdy road testing with them. And uh, they're very, very sturdy little solid devices.
14:08S1
Yeah. Oh well, long live the envoy. And, um, thanks very much, Jamie, for coming on today. By the way, are you reading anything interesting at the moment?
14:16S2
Yes, Francis, I am actually reading a book that, uh, about the Saint Kilda football player Nicky Winmar. I think it's just one of our new books that are out now. Oh, yeah.
14:30S1
All right. Yeah. Oh, well, are you a St Kilda supporter then, or, yeah...
14:34S2
No, I'm not, actually, but I'm just interested in topical people, and, I like AFL, but I don't barrack for anyone specifically. I haven't for years.
14:44S1
Ah, yeah.
14:45S2
I used to barrack for Collingwood when I was young, but then I kind of got a bit cynical when the AFL took over from the VFL. And I just like to, to watch, you know, a good game of footy and yeah, particularly the finals and the grand final, but I don't get overly worried about it otherwise. Yeah.
15:02S1
But Nicky Winmar yeah. Wonderful person to read about.
15:06S2
Yes, absolutely.
15:08S1
Alright. Thank you Jamie once again. And it'd be good to have you on the show again.
15:12S2
Thank you Francis. And again, congratulations for such a great effort. And I know that you're so appreciated by so many members with the show that you do being one of the most popular on Australia radio.
15:22S1
Oh, that's so lovely, Jamie, I, I it's a privilege to be able to do this show. Really. But thank you so much. Okay.
15:29S2
Thank you.
15:30S1
Bye bye. And that was Jamie Kelly talking to us about changes that are happening with the website catalog. And if you do use a computer or a laptop to access the catalog that way, or if you'd like to, it's visionustralia.org/login... Vision Australia - dot - org forward slash login. And that will take you to the login page. And the login page simply asks for your username or your email and a password. So if you'd like to explore that part of the library and being able to use the online catalog that way, just call the library. If you're not sure what your password is, or the library can set one for you and get you up and running.
With being able to choose your own books from the online catalog as to what Jamie Kelly has been reading, the book Nicky Winmar Sport is made up of moments at thrillers at the time and quickly disappear. Very few endure for decades. Even fewer transcend sport and speak to an entire nation. April the 17th, 2023 marked the 30th anniversary of Saint Kilda legend Nicky Winmar proud and defining stand against racism. One of those moments it hasn't diminished over time and, regrettably, is just as relevant today. It is a stand that has become iconic and so is Winmar, not just for his courage, as he declared to a hostile, jeering crowd, I'm black and I'm proud to be black. But also because he was one of the game's most talented and celebrated players.
Born to Noongar parents in Western Australia's wheatbelt, 200km from Perth, Neil Davis Nicky Winmar quickly displayed an ability to overcome adversity. He would need it. He had a hard upbringing but loved to play footy every day with his younger brother amid the livestock on a farm with their father worked as a shearer. The skinny teenager soon began playing footy among hardened men for the local club, and was signed to a senior team as a promising 15 year old. Winmar would go on to become one of the most decorated players in AFL history. Recently inducted into the illustrious AFL Hall of Fame. A member of both the Indigenous Team of the century and the Saint Kilda Team of the century, Nicky was the first indigenous footballer to play 200 games. This long awaited autobiography tells the story of Winmar brilliant career in colourful detail, as well as giving moving insight into his life amid the pain, the turbulence and the triumph, his heart and abiding sense of humour shine through. Let's hear a let's hear a sample of Nicky Winmar by Nicky Winmar. It's narrated by Luke Carroll.
18:13S3
Before I began writing this book, I wanted to determine exactly why I should do it. And why anybody would want to hear it. The answer came in two forms. Maybe people who are interested in how an athlete reaches the top of their chosen sport and then stays there, and how people set about achieving their lifelong goals, be they sporting or otherwise, might also gain some insight on Indigenous Australians. Maybe people might simply seek insight on Indigenous Australians, sporting or otherwise. I also wanted to try to gain some insight into myself and ideally learn from my failures, while also celebrating my successes.
The Washington Post recently reported that California's esteemed Chapman University surveyed thousands of people and found that the American population second greatest fear is death. What's the greatest fear? Public speaking. Anybody who see me speaking publicly will know I'm more comfortable making a football talk than talking myself. I don't hate it, and I'm not scared of it. But as a well known Indigenous Australian, I'm often called upon to offer my thoughts on a variety of topics. And while I'm always willing to give public speaking a go, it's not my area of expertise. I'm a naturally shy person who doesn't feel completely at home in front of a microphone. That doesn't mean I don't have anything to say. It's just that I prefer to do so in my own time and space, which is the luxury that narrating an audiobook provides.
19:56S1
And that was a sample of Nicky Winmar by Nicky Winmar. Nicky is spelt Nicky, Nicky Winmar is Winmar Winmar and that ball goes for 7.5 hours. Keeping on the sporting theme and recent releases into the library, the next book is grim ish and it's by Michael Winkler. Just a little bit of background first. Grim ish is a 2021 experimental historical novel by Australian writer Michael Winkler, and it's based on fact. It's based on the tour of Australia in 1908 1909 by boxer Joe Grimm, and it includes Grimm's work as a sparring partner for both Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns prior to their fight of the century. On Boxing Day in 1908, it was named an Australian Book of the Year in The Guardian for 2021 and The Age and Australian Book Review. Even the USA had some glowing reviews. Thomas Hauser gave the book a positive review and called it a compelling, impressionistic portrait, and in 2002, Grimm was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. So it is a fiction book, but based on a real character, and I've been keeping my eye on this one for a while, hoping that it does come into the collection. So here it is. Pain was Joe Grimm's self-expression, his livelihood and reason for being. In 1908 to 1909, the Italian American boxer toured Australia, losing fights but amazing crowds with his showmanship and extraordinary physical resilience. On the East Coast, Grimm played a supporting role in the Jack Johnson Tommy Burns Fight of the century on the West Coast. He was committed to an insane asylum. In between, he played with the concept and reality of pain in a shocking manner not witnessed before or since. Let's hear a sample of Grimm ish by Michael Winkler. I'm not quite sure of the narrator. It's not listed, but we'll have a listen.
And that was a sample of Nicky Winmar by Nicky Winmar. Nicky is spelt [spells it], Winmar is [spells it]. And that ball goes for 7.5 hours. Keeping on the sporting theme and recent releases into the library, the next book is Grimmish and it's by Michael Winkler. Just a little bit of background first. Grimmish is a 2021 experimental historical novel by Australian writer Michael Winkler, and it's based on fact. It's based on the tour of Australia in 1908 1909 by boxer Joe Grimm, and it includes Grimm's work as a sparring partner for both Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns prior to their fight of the century. On Boxing Day in 1908, it was named an Australian Book of the Year in The Guardian for 2021 and The Age and Australian Book Review. Even the USA had some glowing reviews. Thomas Hauser gave the book a positive review and called it a compelling, impressionistic portrait, and in 2002, Grimm was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
So it is a fiction book, but based on a real character, and I've been keeping my eye on this one for a while, hoping that it does come into the collection. So here it is. Pain was Joe Grimm's self-expression, his livelihood and reason for being. In 1908 to 1909, the Italian American boxer toured Australia, losing fights but amazing crowds with his showmanship and extraordinary physical resilience. On the East Coast, Grimm played a supporting role in the Jack Johnson Tommy Burns Fight of the century on the West Coast. He was committed to an insane asylum. In between, he played with the concept and reality of pain in a shocking manner not witnessed before or since. Let's hear a sample of Grimm ish by Michael Winkler. I'm not quite sure of the narrator. It's not listed, but we'll have a listen.
22:00S4
I did as I was told and found singular, astounding. Joe Grimm more forgotten than remembered Joe Grimm, pain artist born Saverio Giannini on or about the 16th of March 1881, in Avellino, Campania, Italy. Migrated to the USA when he was ten, worked as a shoeshine boy in Philadelphia, started frequenting boxing gyms as a sparring partner, then commenced fighting as a professional in 1899. In his first three years he had 78 recorded bouts and won 31 of them. Then he stepped up in class, fought greats and near greats like Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Joe Walcott, Dixie Kidd and Peter Mayer. A fight against Bob Fitzsimmons in 1903 seemed to set him on a different course. He lost, but attracted wide attention for his ability to endure six rounds with the former world champion. After that, he combated immortals like Jack Johnson and Joe Ganz and countless lesser lights, and his contests changed in a profound sense, becoming not about winning or losing, but hinging on whether or not he could endure the punishment meted out. And on that score he invariably triumphed.
23:36S1
So that was Grimmish by Michael Winkler. Michael is spelt [spells it], Winkler [spells it] - and from michaelwinkler.com.au . Michael Winkler - dot - com - dot - A-U. It says on the website here, Michael Winkler braids the story of Grimm in Australia and meditations on pain with thoughts on masculinity and vulnerability, plus questionable jokes. In a haymaker of experimental nonfiction, Helen Garner wrote about this Grimmish. Eights and eight I didn't even know I had. I lurched between the bursts of wild laughter, shudders of horror and gasps of awe at Winkler's verbal command, the freshness and muscle of his verbs, the unstoppable flow of his images, and the bizarre wit of the language of Pugilism, and all the while a moving, subterranean glint of strange, masculine tenderness.
And I could just go on. There's so many great reviews by other prominent Australian authors and newspapers publications, but I should warn you also that this book does have high levels of bad language and violence, so it might be a bit of a challenge for some people, but that is our Grimmish, well awaited book by Michael Winkler.
And now, very quickly to another book by wonderful sportsperson and wonderful writer Jelena Dokic. This book is Unbreakable, and she has released another autobiography. But we haven't got that in the library yet. But this is one that she released a little while ago. This is the story of Jelena Dokic's survival, how she survived as a refugee twice, how she survived on the tennis court to become a world number four, but most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell. Jelena was a prodigious talent, heralded as Australia's greatest tennis hope since Evonne Goolagong. She had exceptional skills, a steely nerve and an extraordinary ability to fight on the court. But off it she endured huge challenges. Let's hear a sample of Unbreakable by Jelena Dokic. Written in conjunction with Jessica Halloran. It's narrated by Sally Turnbull.
25:52S5
Yugoslavia 1991 to 1994. I am eight years old when I see my first dead body. It's a foggy morning in our Croatian city, Osijek, when my father and I push out from the bank in our little wooden boat to go fishing on the river driver, and suddenly I see a man. His hair mattered, bobbing face down in the water. His body looks bloated and his hands are blue. Papa, I say, pointing. Don't look, he says, nervous. Our weekly fishing trip is over. He turns the boat back and rows quickly to shore. War is brewing here. The dead body is a sign. Not that I understand this to long afterwards. After the Second World War, Croatia was bundled up with Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia Herzegovina to become Yugoslavia, a federation of states. It was inevitable that the nationalism of each country would boil over at some point. Croatia wanted its independence from Serbia, but Serbia didn't want Croatia to have its independence.
In the preceding weeks, there have been indications close to home at the Balkans is about to erupt in battle again. Angry Croatian neighbours have threatened my proudly Serbian father straight to his face. Get out or die, they say. There have been phone calls to our family home, men threatening to throw me and my baby brother out the window of our 11th floor apartment. The country is fractured. Dad is worried, mum is frightened. And now this body. Tensions are rising a few weeks after the incident of the floating corpse on the river. Our lives radically change. It is a hot summer's night. The 21st of June, 1991 to be exact. It is night time when my usually stoic truck driving father arrives home anxious. Another threat has been made. Pack tonight. You are leaving tomorrow morning, he tells us.
27:37S1
That was Unbreakable by Jelena Dokic. [spells out her name]. And that book goes for nearly nine hours. Thank you for joining us on here this today I'm Frances Keyland, and thank you to Jamie Kelly. Lovely, lovely to catch up with Jamie today about a couple of things. One is the changes to the online catalogue, just little tweaks that make the catalogue a bit easy to use. Also, a wonderful little rundown on that great player, the Envoy. And if you'd like to know anything more about anything that Jamie spoke about, don't hesitate to call the library. And I'm getting a few reader recommended coming in, so thank you so much. We'll have them on the show in the in the future. If you would like to contact the library, the number is 1300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656. Or you can email: library@visionaustralia.org ... that's library at Vision Australia - dot - org. And have a lovely week and we'll be back next week with more Hear This.
