Vol. 37, No. 1
March 2007
VOLUNTEER NEWS
New Volunteer Opportunity in Summer Reading Program
Want to help kids get excited about reading? We are looking for a few good volunteers to help with summer reading.
Last summer saw the launch of a very successful effort to get our young readers to increase their reading. Our new youth librarian, John Berkeland, wants to build on this and involve volunteers in this summer’s program.
Volunteer tasks will include calling parents to let them know about the program, following up by phone with students, and packaging and sending out prizes. If you are interested in this opportunity, call Jeanie at 602-255-5578.
to the generous Staff of the Arizona Humanities Council!
As a holiday project their staff chose to give the AZ Braille and Talking Book Library a donation to purchase several books that will be recorded by our volunteers. The books chosen were written by some of the featured authors who will be at the Arizona Book Festival on April 14th, at the Carnegie Library
We were thrilled to have a chance to give their staff a tour of our library. They experienced first hand how their donation will be used and it gave us a chance to show-off our new digital recording equipment. We enjoy giving tours of our library!
The Arizona Humanities Council, a nonprofit organization, works with museums, libraries and other cultural and educational organizations to develop public programs to support the humanities. We hope to collaborate with them on future partnerships to benefit library patrons.
Volunteer Spotlight
“I’m doing exactly what I like to do” says volunteer reader and director Doris Walker. Doris is giving three, sometimes four days a week to record books, magazines, essays and textbooks for people who are unable to read print. She loves audio learning herself and listens to everything from novels to Spanish lessons, often while she is ironing, cooking or doing other tasks at home. She says our ears have a lot more to give us than just providing a place to hang our earrings!
Doris got started with studio volunteering when she heard a recruitment message for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic on Channel 12. Soon she was reading textbooks in their studio. At RFB&D she heard about the AZ Braille and Talking Book Library where she could record a wider range of books. She says she loves telling stories and thought ‘This sounds like the place for me.’ Promising herself that she would not neglect the textbooks she set up an audition at the library. Since 2000 she volunteered for both programs.
At BTBL Doris is a self-monitor for AZ Magazine. This means that while she reads, she also operates the recording equipment using a remote box inside the booth. She partners with volunteer Toni Ackley to record books. She and Toni each have their own book that they are narrating. They alternate positions, one week reading and the next week directing for each other. Doris and Toni also are one of the teams who recently completed recording an essay for Great Decisions 2007.
When asked if she has favorites among the 25 books she has produced for the library collection, Doris noted Grand Ambition, about a couple lost in the Grand Canyon and Sarah’s Quilt, the remembrances of a woman who grew up in southeastern Arizona in the nineteenth century. Both of these are works of fiction, based on real events. Doris says there is ‘nothing cooler’ than bringing characters alive and she had lots of fun doing that in each of these projects. She also thinks both of these titles are great examples of Arizona books. Doris has a deep appreciation and love for the Southwest, particularly Arizona. Her work on Arizona books gives her many different ways to share Arizona with other people.
Doris grew up in New Mexico but has lived in Arizona most of her adult life. For many years she worked as manager of a team of technical and financial planners for US West. She and her husband have three grown children. Another avocation of hers, besides audio book production, is theater. In college she was originally a theater major and has continued to take all kinds of theater related classes. She has acted, directed, made costumes – done most everything for numerous community theater productions. She says theater provides another opportunity for her to tell stories.
While story telling is a big motivator, Doris says the friends she has made with other volunteers in the studio and the welcoming, supportive library staff makes it easy to volunteer. ‘We get the credit for volunteering’ she says but really we get the ‘goods’ – the opportunity to do something that’s fun, challenging, we enjoy and is of benefit to other people. What could be better than that!
Machine Repair Workshop
On January 23, 2007, 32 machine repair volunteers attended a workshop at BTBL. Attendees included both new and long time volunteers.
Kevin Watson, Equipment Repair Officer for the National Library Service, flew in from Washington, DC for the day to present the most current techniques and standards for repairing talking book machines. Michael Usrey, AZBTBL Machine Repair Supervisor, said considerable time was spent teaching the proper way to use meters to test and set the play frequency so that playback is clear, crisp and at the proper speed.
All five repair groups, Phoenix, Tucson, Sun City, Mesa, and the Springs in east Mesa were represented by volunteers who will share information with others in their groups who were not able to attend. Following lunch, volunteers who were interested stayed for an afternoon session which was devoted to the repair of amp boards. Arizona volunteers repair thousands of amp boards sent from other libraries. As they were leaving, many volunteers offered that they found the workshop very helpful and were glad they had attended.
Welcome to New Volunteers
We welcome new volunteers who have joined us since the last newsletter.
Janet Ellison – RRRB (Recorded Recreational Reading for the Blind also Sun City Talking News)
Eileen Gawlowski – RRRB/director
Jeremy James – machine repair, Mesa
Elaine Johns – RRRB, tape prep
Ann Robbie – director, RRRB
Eugene Sprenkle – reader, RRRB
John Turmala – machine repair, Phx/duplication
Prescott Machine Repair
We want to thank the dedicated volunteers of the Prescott Machine Repair Group, Bud Baker, Gordon Crawford and Howard Moxham, for their long standing commitment to repair talking book machines. In 1981, following his retirement from Mt. Bell, Bud Baker began repairing machines at the Prescott Library, taking over for the single volunteer who was moving out of state. Bud worked alone until he recruited a few others from the Telephone Pioneers. Gordon Crawford began repairing machines in 1987 and Howard Moxham joined them in 1990. These three volunteers, along with Bill Elerick and George Stailey were repairing through July, 2005, when they had to vacate their space due to the renovation of the Prescott Library. We expected the group to start repairing again when the library renovation was complete in Sept. 2006. Unfortunately, when the Prescott Library reopened, the allocated space was not satisfactory for the needs of the volunteers. Another space has not been secured so machine repair is not now being done in Prescott. Together, Bud, Gordon and Howard gave over 4200 hours repairing talking book machines. We, the staff of the AZ Braille and Talking Book Library, on behalf of all of our patrons who have listened to talking books as a result of their repair efforts, thank them for their dedication and excellent repair work.