Salt Lake Paralympic Games March 9, 2002, Snow Basin ski resort

Right…right…right…right…       Left..left…left…left….

Those words rang out to the 114 blind kids and their parents or family members at the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Games at Snow Basin Ski Resort on March 9, 2002. All of the children had a reading disability that prevented them from reading regular-sized print. Some had been blind from birth, others had some vision, yet not enough to make reading a regular-sized print book work out. All were from Utah or Wyoming and some had come in from very long distances.

It was just so great that the kids that needed it the most–those that may be able to participate in the Paralympic games in the future–were able to attend. They experienced being there when others who were also blind were speeding downhill. The right..right…right…left…left…left…were the instructions that the coach to a blind skier said as they guided their Paralympic star down the steep course.

Sure, the kids couldn’t see the event, or at least not very well by most standards, but then, neither could the blind skiers. Still, there was much they could do. The parent(s) could describe what was happening. They could feel the chill and the excitement in the air. They could share with others from all over the world in their same circumstance, some much worse (or better) than themselves. They could hear what was happening, experience the moment when winners stood on the stands as the crowds roared in approval. They could be a regular part of the Games experience. They could plan, they could scheme, they could dream.

How did they get this rare opportunity? They read. Either in braille, by recorded book (in those days on cassette), or in large print. I should say they read and they read and they read. They all got to attend because they’d worked so hard for it.

All of the Utah children that participated in the Utah State Library for the Blind’s Summer Reading program in 2001 were invited to attend. Those that completed their reading goals received the free tickets. Free to them, that is. Two tickets were donated by a community sponsor to each child that completed their reading goals; the Salt Lake Olympic Committee worked hard to make that work out for the kids. That was one ticket for the child with a visual disability, one for a parent or family member.

They attended the Women’s blind division downhill racing as well as the Men’s downhill racing events. The day was crisp and clear. The crowds were excited. They were all experiencing things they had never seen before. It was just that great.

Paralympic torch run March 7, 2002, Liberty Park

Because of his outstanding efforts at reading during the Summer Reading Program, Quinn Price, a 12-year-old patron of the Library for the Blind, was invited to be a torch runner at the opening of the Paralympic games, on March 7, 2002, at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. His father and grandfather ran with him: behind him, so they could give directions and encouragement, but he could be the one in the front of the pack. Quinn was an outstanding student and did an exceptional job of meeting his reading goals during the previous summer.

An unexpected surprise: some of the children that participated in the Summer Reading Program were invited to the groundbreaking of the All Abilities Play Park at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. The children got to dig a shovel of dirt and meet some of the paralympic heroes at the event. Two of them were Chris Waddell, winner of 5 Olympic Gold medals, and Lacey Heward, United States Paralympic monoskier, who has gold, silver, and bronze medals, and won two bronze medals in the 2002 Salt Lake Paralympics.

The Utah State Library for the Blind serves residents of Utah and Wyoming, no matter what their age, as long as they qualify. They need to be unable to read regular-sized print. It includes people with blindness, visual impairments, physical impairments that exclude them from being able to read regular-sized print (can’t hold the book, turn the pages, etc.). It also includes people with learning disabilities. Read more about the program on their website: http://blindlibrary.utah.gov.

Today I practically stumbled upon something so massive it’s amazing I didn’t bump into it earlier. The Digital Book Index is a meta-indexing project that provides links to over 165,000 full-text digital books, the vast majority of them free, though some come with a fee.

Some of their key topics are:

Arts:   Art & graphic arts, architecture, dance, decorative arts, costume, theatre & drama, music, photography, film & video
Children’s Books:   Contemporary & classic children’s books and stories
History:   American, English, Irish, European, Asian, African, local and regional histories
Law:   US Constitutional history, state constitutions, treaties, state statues & laws, legal ethics rules, copyright, and consumer information.
Literature:   Ranging from Chaucer & other medieval texts to modern, contemporary fiction
Math & Sciences:   Mathematics, astronomy, biology, botany & zoology, genetics, chemistry, physics, engineering, electronics, & computer science
Medicine & Health:   For professionals and patients including anatomy, radiology, infectious diseases, surgery, oncology, dentistry, and more
Philosophy and Religion:   Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, etc.
Reference:   Dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, style guides, etc.
Social Sciences:   Anthropology, sociology, Psychology, Folklore, Mythology, Economics, Politics

It searches more than 1800 publishers, universities, and private sites including:

• Boston Public Library
• Chicago Historical Society
• Cornell University
• Duke University Library
• Google
• Gutenberg Project
• Harvard University Library
• Internet Archive
• Library of Congress
• National Library of Canada
• NetLibrary (OCLC)
• New York Public Library
• U.S. National Park Service
• University of Utah
• Wiley Interscience
• Yale University

And…

•  Approximately 200 University Presses
• Several hundred commercial publishers including Bantam Books, MacMillan, Random House, and Simon & Schuster

Yea, this is digital reading at its finest hour.  Pick up your Nook, your Kindle, your iPad, or all three, and enjoy.

People have been asking for instructions on using a kindle to check out eBooks from their public library through OverDrive, courtesy of Pioneer: Utah’s Online Library.  Well, here you go.

Instructions:

1. Visit your Utah public library’s website and click on the link to Overdrive. Or, go to http://pioneer.utah.gov and click on OverDrive.
2. Check out a Kindle book (library card required).
3. Click on “Get for Kindle.” You will then be directed to Amazon.com to redeem your public library loan. You may be required to login to your Amazon.com account — or create a new account — if you’re not already logged in.
4. Choose to read the book on your Kindle device, free reading app, or Kindle Cloud Reader.

Note: Public library books require an active Wi-Fi connection for wireless delivery to a Kindle device. Library books will not be delivered via your Kindle’s 3G connection. If trying to send to a Kindle device and do not have an active Wi-Fi connection, you may instead choose to load your library book via USB. Both Mac and Windows users can manage Kindle content through a USB connection.

I went to the Springville Public library open house last Friday night. Pam Vaughn, the Library Director, spoke, as did the mayor. There was a live band, the highlight of the evening for me. People were able to mingle, tour the new building, and celebrate the day. There is a stream running on one side of the property and from upstairs, one can look down and see the stream and the trees.  Some of the highlights of the building:

• The entry is breathtaking
• Lots of vibrant colors throughout
• Computer area with large screens
• Colorful children’s area with huge mobiles overhead
• Comfortable space for storytime/ events
• Teen area with lots of books and resources, right by the computer area
• Huge reception area upstairs, with room to grow for the library
• Very comfortable and cool staff area

My biggest takeaway: This is a beautiful library that will be an important community asset for many years to come. It shows that Springville City is committed to an informed, educated citizenry.

The Utah State Library sponsored the most useful, most fun class in September, at both the Provo Library and the State Library. Traci Lesneski of Meyer, Scherer, and Rockcastle Ltd. came and presented on “Placemaking at your Library.” She was so great! She has tons of insight into what makes the interior of libraries more patron friendly. Here are the slides she presented.

Here’s what she talked about:

• Changing expectations of library users and its impact on library design
• Principles of Placemaking and how it relates to a library user’s experience
• 10 Steps to a better library interior
• Recent library projects and what people are doing now

Attendees brought photos and floor plans of their libraries to re-design their own library spaces. They came away with ideas for what to do. I even came up with a way to redesign our library space here!

Some of the things that really made me think:

• There has been a decrease in print materials per person in the community in the past few years
• There has been an even steeper decrease in reference materials
• Audio and video materials are on the rise, and e-books are skyrocketing
• The public can’t get enough computers or technology

The shift is from:

Housing resources –> connecting to resources

Print centric –> user centric

Solitary –> solitary/collaborative (some solitary space is still needed, but so is collaborative space)

Mono-task –> multitask

Introverted –> extroverted

Fixed –> adaptable

And, finally, I really liked her 10 steps (make that 12 ??)

My very best takeaway seems to be: embrace color.

Thanks, Traci Lesneski, for the enlightening discussion. See you soon, I hope!

Colleen

Did you hear? OCLC’s Innovation Lab is going to start a new project: a web presence for every library. They will focus on the small libraries in America. It’s pretty exciting and offers some real possibilities to stand-alone’s that want to get a site!

[Here's my response to my 12/29/10 OverDrive post]

We’ve all heard of cloud computing (googledocs), cloud social networking (facebook), and here comes the next big thing: cloud eBook reading. That’s where your eBook is held in the cloud and you can bookmark your place and come back to it no matter which handheld or computer you’re using.

The big advantage is that you don’t have to download an app or a piece of software or have a dedicated e-reading device.

Joseph Pearson of Inventive Lab wrote, “The one single platform we expect future e-reading devices to have in common is the web browser. If you want to give your readership the freedom to own (forever) the books they buy from you, the web is where it will happen.”

Here are some cloud eBook readers that may be worthy of your time, Dear Reader.

• Ibis Reader Lets you download all off your books. Lots of free public access titles available on the site or get them from somewhere else and put them on Ibis Reader. Reads DRM-free books in the ePub format. A clean interface that’s easy to use and my personal favorite.

• Google Books You can use just about any device you own to read any book, anywhere.  Download for free multitudes of books in the public domain or buy copyrighted books through vendors set up with Google.  Read online or download to your device and read offline. There’s just so much here.

• Booki.sh works on Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, the Kindle3, the latest Blackberry phones, and any other device with a modern web browser. There’s nothing to install. Readers can go from following a link on a webpage to buying a book to reading it in seconds. On most devices, you can read books whether you’re online or offline.

All run on html5, which some are calling the future of the internet. In 5 years maybe 3,  let’s talk about whether that held true. This next generation html is showing up in newer websites and services. New features include media playback and interactivity and, most importantly for ebook reading, the ability to store offline data. I see html5 as an alternative to flash. Read more about html5 in this article by Terrence O’Brien, “What Is HTML5, and Why Should You Care?”

Here are some places to find free ebooks: http://www.teleread.com/free-ebooks/

And of course, the cloud’s silver lining is Pioneer: Utah’s Online Library, where you can find premium eBook titles through OverDrive. Not yet aboard the cloud, using the Adobe Digital Editions platform, they have great eBooks that I would otherwise have to pay for myself. Maybe one day OverDrive will jump on the cloud but not yet it seems.