New Hampshire State Library Announces Conservation Grant Recipients

Eight New Hampshire institutions have received over $58,000 in funding through the New Hampshire State Library’s Conservation (Moose Plate) License Plate Program for the 2006/2007 fiscal year.

Those that were awarded grants are: the City of Claremont ($10,000), the Town of Madison ($6,856), the Town of Gilford ($9,280), the Town of Farmington ($8,531), the Town of Hancock ($9,707), the Town of Chichester ($8,050), the Town of Newport ($2,900) and the Bedford Public Library, which was awarded $3,785 for the “Bedford Public Library 1789 Register Preservation Project”.

According to the 1903 history of Bedford, there was a circulating library there as early as 1789. The Town has a leather-bound register listing the library’s original accessions as well as the names of the 38 residents who were the library’s original subscribers. This money will be used to preserve this register as a document of historic significance.

The Town of Hancock plans to use their grant money to preserve the town’s early tax records, which date back to 1790, as well as a Survey of Fences and Sales and Liens volumes.

The City of Claremont will use their awarded funds to restore and preserve fourteen unique volumes of historical cemetery books. These books, which in many instances are the only record of New Hampshire’s first settlers, contain valuable and irreplaceable information about many of the state’s early citizens.

“During this round of funding, the State Library received 13 applications totaling over $100,000”, said Michael York, New Hampshire State Librarian. “Since it’s inception in 2003, the State Library has funded 42 grant applications totaling over $220,000. We look forward to these numbers growing in the future and continuing to award deserving projects and communities”.

The next round of grants will be announced in late January, 2007. For more information, please visit www.nh.gov/nhsl/moose or contact Janet Eklund at 603.271.2393 or at jeklund@library.state.nh.us.

Be sure to continue buying, giving and renewing Moose Plates so that there will be sufficient funds for future worthwhile projects in New Hampshire. For more information on Moose Plates, please visit www.mooseplate.com.

Center for the Book - 603-271-2866

The Ladybug Picture Book Award Committee is seeking nominations for picture books for the 2007 Award. Titles must meet the criteria outlined on the Ladybug page at http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/bookcenter/programs/ladybug.html. Please submit your nominations to Diana Greenleaf at dgreenleaf@windhamsd.org by Monday, January 22, 2007. Please include the author's name, the illustrator's name, the title of the book, the publisher and the copyright date. (Books must be published from 2004 to 2007 and either the author or illustrator must reside in the U.S.)

Library Services to Persons with Disabilities - 603-271-1498/1-800-491-4200

'Most Websites' Failing Disabled

Most of the leading websites around the world are failing to provide the most basic accessibility standards for people with disabilities. Ninety seven percent of websites did not provide even minimum levels of accessibility, a new survey has found .

Accessibility agency Nomensa tested the leading websites in five different sectors across 20 countries. Only three websites, including the British Prime Minister's site, achieved the minimum standards. The report, commissioned by the United Nations as part of its International Day of Disabled Persons, will make depressing reading for anyone committed to the idea of equal web access for all.

KEY SHORTFALLS

• 93% failed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphics
• 73% relied on JavaScript for important functionality
• 78% used colours with poor contrast, causing issues for those with colour blindness
• 98% did not follow industry web standards for the programming code
• 97% did not allow people to alter or resize pages
• 89% offered poor page navigation
• 87% used pop-ups causing problems for those using screen magnification software

"This is a global failure and we are very disappointed with the results," said Alex Metcalfe, head of client services at Nomensa. He added: "It is important for commercial, legal and moral reasons that websites put in place a strategy for accessibility, both in terms of quick wins and longer term improvements."

Nomensa tested representative websites from five key sectors - travel, retail, banking, government and media. In the UK, the websites looked at included Marks & Spencer, Lloyds TSB, British Airways and The Guardian. The BBC's website was not included in the survey. The British Prime Minster's sites alongside the Spanish government site and the German Chancellor's site were the only three to conform to the most basic standards.

In order to reach the minimum standards - tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) - websites needed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphical content so that visually impaired people could 'read' pictures. 93% of the websites failed to meet those guidelines. A further 73% failed to make the grade because of their reliance on JavaScript for some of the website's functionality. JavaScript does not work with some screen readers used by those with impaired vision. Ninety eight percent did not follow industry web standards for programming code, meaning the foundations for web accessibility simply were not there .

Mark Gristock, marketing director of usability firm Foviance, is unsurprised by the results. "This is the same results we always get. The guidelines have been in place for seven years but they aren't actually checkpoints so people can interpret them in a variety of ways. What is needed is practical advice about what happens when you build a website. "Building dull, technically compliant websites is easy but building commercially successful sites that are also accessible is not," he said. It was time to share examples of good practice so that web developers could start incorporating accessibility into the design of websites, he suggested. "Accessibility consultants and organisations for the disabled clutch their knowledge of user requirements to them like they are the key to future profits - which indeed they are "If they had any interest in raising standards, they would be sharing their find with the world and opening dialogue with the design and business community about how best to integrate techniques with standard processes," he said. .

The World Health Organisation estimates that there are around 600 million disabled people worldwide, which represents about 10% of the world's population. Of these, around 80% are believed to live in developing countries.

The countries surveyed by Nomensa were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6210068.stm

Published: 2006/12/05