rightscom

Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

Sweden

TPB

TPB (The Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille) is a Government authority that, in collaboration with local libraries, provides people who have print disabilities with access to printed materials.

TPB's mission is to produce and lend talking books and books in braille. TPB also provides advice and information on matters concerning talking books and braille.

In Sweden, the first DAISY talking books (on cd-rom) were transferred to DAISY from analogue tape in 1996. TPB has produced in the DAISY format since 2001.

TPB is the national centre for the inter-library lending of talking books and maintains a stock of 36 600 DAISY talking book titles and 46 000 analogue talking book titles (May 2006); acquiring approximately 3 000 books annually. TPB's stock contains books in fifty different languages.

Service provision - general

People living in Sweden with print disabilities have the right to borrow DAISY-books from their local library. The library orders complementary titles from TPB. Talking books are located in the web-based catalogue TPB-katalogen. Swedish citizens abroad may also contact TPB to borrow books.

TPB is the national agency responsible for the administration of talking book loans to libraries. All Swedish public libraries and school libraries may borrow talking books directly from TPB. The normal lending time is two months.

Talking books are exempt from postage when sent to and from libraries. Most borrowers prefer to visit the local library to borrow their books. People unable to go to the local library themselves may have their talking books sent to their home free of charge.

In Sweden the lending of talking books is an integral part of the public library system. Talking books can be borrowed at the local library or school library.

Local libraries have their own stocks of talking books and county libraries have a comparatively large talking book selection.

The total distribution of talking books both analogue and digital in 2006 was 144 129 (or 154 952 units). In 2005 TPB started a national digital distribution service to those libraries who had received special permission from the Government to download DAISY files. In 2006, 25 677 talking books were downloaded (in addition to the 144 129). The total lending figure for 2005 was approximately 1.8m loans (Swedish library statistics are always a year behind).