“One of the self-imposed yokes we are casting off is the false idea that farm life is dull… All I am saying is that there is also drama in every bush, if you can see it. When enough men know this, we need fear no indifference to the welfare of bushes, or birds, or soil, or trees. We shall then have no need of the word conservation for we shall have the thing itself…The landscape of any farm is the owner’s portrait of himself.”

– From “The Farmer as a Conservationist. (June 1939) reprinted in Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott, eds. The River of Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold (Madison: University Press, 1991).

A Sand County Almanac is the only book I’ve read more than twice in my life and for me, it is the greatest book ever written. The words of Leopold in A Sand County Almanac are every bit a pertinent today as they were over sixty years ago. Such a visionary he was. I try to read it about every five years or so because it re-energizes my effort that I engage in for landscape level conservation.

As with Leopold, I read Edwin Way Teale’s “Seasons” books when I was about 12-13 and I said, “Why does he see all these things out in nature that most of us don’t?” I think it caused me to focus, and it was certainly a part that led me to a natural history career. I consider my books personal treasurers. They call to me from my shelves like old friends!
– Jay Banta, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (retired)

Since baseball season is now upon us, and you’ve got me feeling nostalgic, I can’t help but think of that euphemism that we always say when our favorite team loses to the Yankees in the play-offs: “Just, wait until next year!”

With the Radio Reading Service, I feel the same way. The blind still have the need for audio access local information and entertainment. They always will have that need and it’s not a need that seems to be met by alternatives like cable TV, FM Radio, Google. Yes, the old method of delivering the Radio Reading Service over analog radio bands has had its day. The Internet, though, now affords numerous ways to stream and deliver digital content that is both better and cheaper than ever before.

The Radio Reading Service is down and out now, but what about next year? Is there a new season to look forward to? Can Utah libraries, and in particular The Library for the Blind, partner with our newspapers and local providers, and come up with an affordable way to deliver to them local news and information like grocery ads?

There are new methods, now on the cusp, that could be harnessed for the blind: advances in text-to-voice speech recognition, access to low cost and ubiquitous devices like iPods, easy ways to deliver and subscribe to podcasts, low-cost ways to stream digital content on the Web, libraries of eAudio books available to library patrons through PIONEER, and apps for the new e-readers such as the iPad that will make it easier than ever to find, download, and read e-books and e-magazines. You, quite likely, can think of even better ideas than these that I mention.

I’m not an expert in the field, but I do believe we can overcome any obstacles. Just like Cubs fans who are perennial believers, I believe that we can come back. I believe that we have the talent in this state to do this. I believe that the people of Utah are generous enough to support a digital audio information service for the elderly and the blind.

Let’s put our minds together to find a solution. I hope we can tell them before long that we’re working on something better, “Just wait until next year.”