Vol. 35, No. 2
June 2005
VOLUNTEER NEWS
Volunteer Produces New Magazine for Library
One of our veteran volunteers, Jim Yeater, has taken on a new project. He is reading the Arizona Wildlife Views magazine. It is a new addition to our family of magazines available to our patrons. He has been the voice of Arizona Highways for many years and now will put his special talents to work on this fine publication from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Jim has volunteered his services not only reading magazines, but also as a reader of numerous books and doing many special projects for us. We are very honored for the time he gives us.
Library Director Receives Award
Library Director Linda Montgomery recently received a ‘Turtle Award’. This is an annual award presented by State Library Director GladysAnn Wells to recognize individuals or organizations who cherish Arizona’s rich cultural heritage and who have supported the agency’s efforts to accomplish its mission. One state library staff member and one individual or organization outside of state government are selected each year. Linda has been director of the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library for eleven years but she just reached twenty years working with the state library agency. Some of our long time volunteers will remember that Linda began her work in the agency as Special Services Librarian at BTBL where she had many responsibilities for volunteers and the recording program.
Linda was presented her award in March at the Arizona Convocation, an annual conference that promotes collaboration and resource sharing in libraries, archives and museums. She was not actually given a live turtle, although as a lover of the outdoors that she is, a real turtle would have been ok. The Turtle Award derives its name from the agency logo which resembles the outline of a turtle. More importantly the turtle symbolizes individuals who have helped the State Library move forward through extra effort which often involves sticking their necks out of their shells. Linda has worked with the agency and guided the library through many changes and she represents the agency, library services for disabled individuals and the talking book program in an exemplary manner on a state and national level. Congratulations go to Linda for her fine work as Director of Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library!
Volunteer of the Quarter
Alta Holler learned about volunteering for the library through a unique program
called Creative Pathways offered by the Maricopa County Community College District.
Alta began her work with the college district as a work/study student in the
financial aid office in 1976 while she was attending Glendale Community College.
She continued working full time with students seeking financial aid while she
obtained her BA degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix.
She spent the next ten years managing financial aid services for the college
district. During these years, Alta who faced some serious health issues herself,
cared for her young adult daughter who was on dialysis and for her preschool-aged
granddaughter. Alta learned that Creative Pathways could allow her to use some
of her time to explore other areas within the district or with other agencies
that she might then pursue as a career change. When she looked at the volunteer
options available, the AZ Braille and Talking Book Library caught her attention
first because of her lifetime love of reading. Alta grew up in a large family
and she remembers finding a space in the back of a closet with just enough
light coming under the door so she would be left alone to read. In 1965 she
began to keep track of what she had read and her list is now over 750 titles,
including many books that she has read as a volunteer for the library.
In 1999 Alta began volunteering as a reviewer in the recording studio. She is a thorough and careful reviewer. She has been willing to help in many volunteer areas. Her volunteering at the library includes computer work, book inspection, tape duplication, cleaning talking book machines, putting together mailings, home review of Arizona produced books, clerical assistance, repairing broken talking book boxes – any volunteer job at the library that she is physically able to do she will do. Alta brought her daughter in to volunteer in technical services during periods when she was well enough. Her daughter passed away in 2003 from renal disease after 14 years on dialysis and two kidney transplants. Soon after, Alta’s son decided that he wanted to volunteer at the library. He juggles his own business and continues to volunteer once a week in machine services. Alta has experienced many ups and downs with her own health yet she continues to “want to give something back” to society. In addition to her library volunteering Alta and her son lead a “sandwich ministry” through their church. With other church members, they make 300 sandwiches every Sunday evening to help homeless, hungry people.
Alta is originally from Texas and you can hear her Texas origins in her voice. She came to Arizona when her husband was stationed at Luke Air Force base in the early 70’s. In addition to two grown sons, she has five grandchildren. Her granddaughter who lives with her is now 16, a good student and aspires to be a doctor who can help people with kidney disease. Alta says of herself’ “I’ve got a young spirit. My body’s just taking a break.” Clearly she intends to continue to contribute to society in the ways she can. She is a woman of very strong faith in God and her commitment to service in the community is testament to her faith. We are glad that many years ago, Alta discovered the AZ Braille and Talking Book Library and we are grateful for the many ways she continues to contribute as a volunteer.
Welcome to New Volunteers
Staff and volunteers welcome new volunteers who have joined us since March.
Margaret Basham-Hubbard – machine repair
Andrew Schrader – machine repair
Marsha Young – director
Time to Say “Happy Trails to You”
May 6 was Jill Bartlett’s last day as Outreach Librarian for the Braille and Talking Book Library. Two days earlier an open house for staff and volunteers marked the occasion. Jill retired after eighteen years as a librarian. At BTBL she was supervisor of Special Services and responsible for outreach throughout Arizona. Prior to her five years with BTBL, Jill worked in public libraries in other states, mostly as a research librarian. Before obtaining her library degree, Jill worked in several different industries.
Jill is looking forward to traveling, writing, restoring antique lamps, playing bridge and sleeping-in later. She also has two grade-school aged grandchildren in the area who will keep her busy. Staff and volunteers will miss her but hope that she has lots of good things ahead.
Two Businesses Lend a Hand
Many businesses are very serious about being good corporate citizens and one way they do this is by encouraging their employees to volunteer for local programs. The library has had two such groups lend a hand in recent months.
In March, eleven volunteers from Medtronic participated in that company’s 5 th Community Service Day. Medtronic has a large manufacturing facility in Tempe where they produce heart pacemakers and other highly technical, small medical devices. On Community Service Day all employees have the choice of volunteering at one of dozens of programs that have sent in help requests or taking a leave day. Most employees chose to volunteer. The eleven people who volunteered at the library helped in a variety of ways. They duplicated cassettes, shifted thousands of cassette books to make room for new books, and cleaned and play tested 118 talking book machines. They were efficient, professional and very productive. We are very thankful for the big boost they gave in technical and machine services.
In late April, eight employees of American Express volunteered three hours on a Wednesday morning. One of the goals of American Express is to promote team building among their employees in a different environment. Again, this group provided much needed help in the machine section. Library staff is very grateful for the help these business groups provide.
Great Decisions
In late February, volunteers completed the 17 th recording of Great Decisions. Great Decisions is a series of eight essays produced by the Foreign Policy Association of America, each focusing on issues of government and politics in different parts of the world. The essays are used as the basis for discussion groups that meet at community colleges or other community locations in many states. The AZ Braille and Talking Book Library makes this recording available to all other libraries for the blind through the National Library Service. This year we sent copies to 196 individuals in Arizona. We also sent 48 sub masters for use in other states.
Thanks go to: volunteer readers Jim Yeater, Doris Walker, Don Myers, Bill Coates, Marilyn Koch, David Aubrey and Jim McLeroy; volunteer directors Joan Miller, Kim Bell, Alma Myers, Ty Hofflander, Mel Shutz, Frank Holman; and volunteer reviewers Ron Donnell, Joan Miller, Alta Holler, and Sarah Raum. These volunteers all said yes to taking on this additional project. Each of the eight essays is recorded by a different recording team. We always have a short time frame to record the essays because the print copies aren’t available from the publisher until early January and most discussion groups begin in February or March. Although it means putting aside their on-going book project, volunteers usually enjoy Great Decisions’ current topics and good writing. Great Decisions 2005 is available in the library’s collection as AZC2696. Great job and thanks to all the volunteers who made this possible!
Spring is a Time to Say Thanks
Traditionally many volunteer recognition events take place in the spring. BTBL volunteers were involved in several recent events held to honor their volunteer work.
On March 12, the Talking Book Library held its 25th Annual Volunteer Recognition Event. 186 volunteers and guests attended a luncheon held at the Phoenix Art Museum in the Great Hall. Ten volunteers, Joe Baum, John Cummings, Jack Elliott, Fred Halleman, Pam McCune, Bob Ryan, John Schumacher, Jack Spells, Sam Strizich and Don Trudeau, received special recognition for giving 1,000 hours of volunteer service. Volunteers enjoyed excellent food, tours of the museum and a fine guest speaker. Each year the library chooses as guest speaker a patron who will let volunteers know how the Talking Book Library has helped them. This year’s speaker, Joan Brock, became blind as a young adult and is now a national motivational speaker. She told the luncheon group about all the ways talking books have made a difference in her life.
On Saturday, April 9, the Mesa Public Library held its volunteer recognition luncheon at the Mesa Country Club. All talking book volunteers who are located at the Mesa Library were invited. This includes nine machine repair volunteers and twelve recording studio volunteers. Mesa recognizes volunteers for their number of years of service. Two talking book volunteers, Linda Munsil and Shirley Fisk, received the highest awards for fifteen years of service. Congratulations Linda and Shirley!
April 14 was the day that long-time Talking Book Volunteer Ron Donnell received special recognition for his service at a luncheon sponsored by AVACA (Association of Volunteer Administrators of Central Arizona). AVACA is a professional organization comprised of people who work or volunteer in the area of volunteer management. Over one hundred local volunteer programs are represented in AVACA. Each group nominates one volunteer to receive an award at their annual luncheon. Ron Donnell was selected from BTBL for his thirteen years of service as a director and reviewer in our recording studio. This year the East Valley Institute of Technology Culinary School in Mesa was chosen as the luncheon site to showcase their restaurant and food management training program. Marilyn Koch, another Talking Book Volunteer, served as reader for the awards program.
National Volunteer Week, April 17-23, was celebrated at the library with refreshments and a raffle for a clock that was made and donated by a volunteer. The theme for the week was ‘The Volunteer Spirit Is Refreshing.’ Iced tea and cookies were available daily and volunteers were offered tea bags tagged with ‘You’re tea-rrific!” While it is important to let volunteers know throughout the year how valuable their contributions to our program are, it is nice to have one week set aside to remember how much volunteers do for the library. Thanks from staff and patrons go to all our volunteers for a job well done.