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

Part2:Country studies

Australia

Special projects

Vision Australia is undertaking the digitisation of its holdings, which throws up transition issues related to:

• Ensuring readers are not disadvantaged through the process, either by losing access to material in a transition period or through being unable to afford new playback devices
• Funding of the work involved and the evolution of a new funding model appropriate to digital production and delivery
• Copyright (see above)
• Avoiding duplication of effort by different agencies in conversion
• Ensuring that smaller alternative format providers have the resources and skills to produce high quality material in the new formats and also are able to network effectively with other agencies to ensure co-operation and lack of duplication

NILS has fully moved all its internal audio production to a digital technology platform and is currently undertaking the conversion of selected analogue masters to a digital format. It has conducted a research pilot with 700 clients to test the new digital service delivery model.

VA stated in its submission to the government in April 2005:

“We strongly believe that to maximise the effort of producers it is essential to eliminate duplication of effort both in the mastering of new digital audio files and the conversion of analogue masters to a digital platform. This issue was discussed at the 18 February Print Disability Round Table meeting and we would like to see the recommendation as shown in the notes of that meeting adopted. This recommendation is: “There should be coordination across producers to avoid duplication. This would suggest the need for a national catalogue using Kinetica and some means of notifying others of the intention to convert. The National Library indicated that it would be prepared to develop strategies for avoiding duplication.

“The National Information and Library Service of RBS.RVIB.VAF Ltd currently has 18,000 analogue titles in its collection. With the analogue dead date looming we have approximately 5 years to convert the total collection at a cost of between $15 to $19 million dollars. The cost to provide play back devices is estimated to be in the region of $15 million dollars. The blindness community will not be able to fund this transition on its own and will require Government and community assistance.

“As a transition strategy it is our view that the existing analogue collections should be maintained at a high quality but that at the appropriate time the number of copies of each title and the number of titles be allowed to reduce as natural attrition of analogue tapes occur through damage and loss. This should coincide with increased availability of digital formats.

“Copies of new titles mastered digitally should be put onto analogue cassette so that end users of the analogue cassette format are not denied access to new titles however the number of copies should be kept to a minimum.”

Books in the Sky

The Book in the Sky [http://www.audio-read.com.au/bits.htm] initiative is a project between the RSB of South Australia and a private company, Audio-Read Proprietary Ltd, which delivers audio books, newspapers, magazines, learning materials and other text to print-disabled users via broadband satellite. It employs a secure digital multicast system and a patented portable audio playback device called the Audio Navigator. The system allows book orders for next day delivery and makes magazines available in advance of newsstand sales. It claims that publishers can be confident that their copyright is protected as material cannot be copied and its use leaves an audit trail. Evidently the system is undergoing a limited roll-out following a trial.