The Estonian Library for the Blind

Marja Kivihall

Dear colleagues,

I’m very glad to participate in this seminar here in Zagreb representing the Estonian Library for the Blind. In this short presentation I am going to give you an overview of the activities of the Estonian Library for the Blind, focusing on its status, holdings, production, patron groups, services, cooperation, recent innovations and future plans.

STATUS

The Estonian Library for the Blind was established in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, in 1947. In the Soviet period and also in the first years after Estonia regained its independence it belonged to the enterprise where blind people worked. From 1994 to 2004 the library functioned as a foundation. In 2004 the Estonian Library for the Blind became the branch of the Repository Library of Estonia and is administered and funded by the Ministry of Culture.

The library staff consists of 11 people, 4 of them are visually impaired. The main fields of work are editing and printing Braille materials, recording audiobooks and journals, cataloguing and lending literature.

The Estonian Library for the Blind is the biggest library to serve visually impaired people in Estonia, providing also Estonian-language materials for patrons abroad.

HOLDINGS

The holdings of the Estonian Library for the Blind include 3 main groups:

1. Audiobooks (including 1600 titles, 4200 copies)
2. Braille books (including 500 titles, 1200 copies)
3. Tactile books (including 20 titles)

Fiction makes up the majority of the collection, followed by reference and study materials. The larger part of the collection is in the Estonian language but it also includes audio and Braille books in Russian, English, German and Finnish.

The selection of children’s literature has considerably grown in the last few years and is available in the form of audio-, Braille and tactile books.

Quite a new book type in Estonia is a tactile book. Our library received the first such book as recently as in 2005. The majority of tactile books donated to our library are made by the work group "Beautiful Tactile Book" in Finland and by the students of Tallinn University and Estonian Academy of Arts.

The library collection increases through our own production, purchases and donations. The number of additions to the collection, both purchased and donated, has grown from year to year. In 2007 it reached its maximum of all times with 450 titles of books being purchased and 60 titles of books being donated to our library within a year.

PRODUCTION

The Estonian Library for the Blind is the biggest publisher of audio- and Braille books in Estonia. Its yearly production is approximately 85 titles of audiobooks and 70 titles of Braille books. We also publish talking newspapers (3 titles), magazines (5 titles), and a Braille magazine. These journals cover topics such as health, problems and concerns of elderly people and the blind.

In 2006 the library started an important transition from recording audiobooks on cassettes to CD-s in mp3 format. At present the library produces 10 copies of Estonian-language and 6 copies of Russian-language talking books. Audiobook production on the cassettes was finished at the end of last year. Talking newspapers and magazines are published on the cassettes until this summer and since then the production will be continued only on CD-s.

Another valuable sphere of work was started in 2007 - digitation and restoration of audiobooks on old tapes and recording them on CD-s in mp3 format. Until now 50 books have been restored and made available for our patrons.

The Estonian Library for the Blind plays an important role as the publisher of Braille books. Besides fiction, we also publish study literature. Through the project funded by the Estonian Ministry of Education the library has printed and made available for visually impaired schoolchildren 40 textbooks and workbooks in total in the past 2 years. In 2006 we also started to make tactile maps and pictures for the Braille textbooks.

PATRON GROUPS AND SERVICES

The Estonian Library for the Blind has more than 300 registered patrons ranging from schoolchildren to retired people. The main user group is elderly people; schoolchildren make up a small part of library users. Our services are also being used by patrons in Finland and Canada.

The Estonian Library for the Blind provides the following services:

• lending literature at the library;
• lending books, newspapers and magazines by mail;
• sending electronic newspapers to patrons by e-mail;
• interlibrary lending.

Library users can borrow 5 audiobooks, 5 Braille books and 2 tactile books at a time. Audiobooks are lent for 1 month, Braille books for 2 months and tactile books for 2 weeks. Patrons can renew a loan twice. Literature is lent by using the Internet based electronic catalogue URRAM. It was taken into use last year instead of KIRJASTO 3000 system.

Patrons living outside the capital can order literature by e-mail or telephone and the materials are delivered them by mail. Users living in Tallinn can get talking newspapers and magazines by mail, but they have to visit our library for borrowing books.

We also provide the electronic service. Electronic text versions of the three main Estonian newspapers are sent to our patrons by e-mail 6 times a week. At present this service is being used by 55 people. Interlibrary lending is a convenient system for people living outside the capital, as well as abroad. Last year many post-offices were shut down in Estonian countryside and interlibrary lending became the only way to borrow books from our library for people living in such regions.

COOPERATION

The main cooperation form with other libraries is interlibrary lending. We cooperate with libraries in Estonia and abroad. Patrons can order literature from our library and it is delivered them through the public libraries in different parts of Estonia. Right now we cooperate with 10 public libraries. Our library has an active cooperation with the Library of Tartu Emajoe School, providing materials for visually impaired schoolchildren.

Our cooperation partners abroad include Celia Library in Finland and St. Petersburg Library for the Blind in Russia. The exchange of books between Celia Library and our library has unfortunately become quite rare at the moment. Russian speaking patrons can order useful literature from St. Petersburg Library for the Blind.

The Estonian Library for the Blind also donates literature to libraries in Estonia and abroad. We send audio- and Braille books to two libraries by the societies of blind in the towns of Tartu and Parnu. Libraries for the blind in Kaliningrad, Latvia and Lithuania are provided with the Russian-language talking newspapers and books published at our library.

INNOVATIONS AND FUTURE PLANS

The last two years have been quite innovative for us. Development has mostly involved technical aspects of work with the purpose of improving the quality and selection of our production, as well as making our services more accessible for the patrons. Last years have brought along the following innovations:

• production of audiobooks on CD-s in mp3 format;
• making tactile maps and pictures for the Braille textbooks;
• digitation and restoration of old audiobooks;
• taking into use the Internet based electronic catalogue

Since the beginning of the current year the Estonian Post no longer pays for the postal services for the blind in Estonia. The Estonian Library for the Blind has to cover these expenses. To reduce the expenses it is inevitable to adopt the "on demand" lending system, i.e. patrons do not have to return books to our library. We plan to start such lending system this summer.

Another plan for the future is connected with electronic texts. The Estonian Library for the Blind participates in a cooperation project with the North-Estonian Society of the Blind and the Institute of the Estonian Language. The aim of it is to create a system for reading electronic texts by computer. The project will be concluded in June. As a result, the selection of electronic magazines, newspapers and books will widen in the near future.

With such glance towards future, I would like to end my presentation. Thank you for your attention!