Readers May Expect Service Delays

Do to staffing changes, we are temporarily running Talking Books short handed. We greatly appreciate your patience until we are back to our full compliment of help. This doesn't mean you can't call us with questions or book requests. We're still here to help. It just may take an extra day to fill your order. Thanks!        Pam and Sherry

Pam's Picks and Sherry's Suggestions

Our Dynamic Duo have combined their talents to offer these suggestions on interesting and readable books.

RC 48105 Honk and Holler Opening Soon, by Billie Letts.

A roadside café owned & operated by a disabled Vietnam vet is home to a variety of very different regulars. Poignant and humorous.

RC 48869 Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende.

Aristocratic Chilean girl stows away on a sailing ship bound for the CA goldfields, 1840. She finds many adventures, and wonderful characters.

RC 37408 Book of Common Dread, by Brent Monahan.

Anne Rice, move over! Here's Vincent DeVilbiss, rare book collector and vampire. He tangles with a Lebanese prince over an ancient manuscript. Violence/sex/language.

RC 48575 Raise the Titanic! by Clive Cussler.

Back in hand as an NLS re-release, this is an early Dirk Pitt and NUMA swashbuckler. Espionage and adventure abound.

RC 44584 Pass the Butterworms, by Tim Cahill

Anecdotes and essays about some of his offbeat travel experiences and animal adventures. If you haven't discovered Cahill for yourself, now's the time to try him.

RC 39668 The Thirteenth Juror, by John Lescroart.

A novice lawyer defends a "Black Widow" accused of doing in two husbands for their insurance. Good courtroom drama along the lines of John Grisham.

RC 47621 Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, by William Ratigan

A history of maritime disasters on each of the five Great Lakes. Truth can be as just as suspenseful as fiction.

RC 49481 Green Hills of Africa, by Ernest Hemingway.

His factual account of a big game hunting expedition in 1933 that included both him and his wife Pauline. Reissue of a classic, well worth reading again.

RC 48118 The Way I Found Her, by Rose Tremain

An infatuated teen seeks to rescue a kidnapped author and is himself kidnapped. Enforced companionship deepens their friendship but ends in tragedy. Strong language/Sex. A NY Times notable book.

Manchester City Library adds Adaptive Technology

New resource aids for people with visual and reading disabilities were first demonstrated in early February. At the West Manchester Community Library, 76 North Main Street, one computer has ZoomText to supplement the black/white CCTV that can enlarge printed or written text and pictures for those with limited vision.

At the Main Library, 405 Pine Street, one computer has been equipped with a large print keyboard and three adaptive programs: MAGic for Windows to enlarge computer display fonts and graphics for those with limited vision, Openbook Ruby to read aloud printed text that has been scanned into the computer, and JAWs for Windows, a screen reader that allows blind users to hear and use any Windows software - Internet Explorer and MS Word, for example.

Manchester Main also has a CCTV available for those who need enlargement of print or pictures, this one capable of enlargement in full color.

Any library patron who needs this adaptive software may use the specially-equipped computer at Main for as long as two hours a day. The computer at WMCL may be used in thirty-minute periods. Reservations for use at either location can be made one day in advance.

For additional information, contact Susan Deschenes at 624-6550, extension 324.

Model Grocery Service in Concord

Do you find your supermarket trips more hassle than pleasure? If you live in the Concord area, help is at hand.

For a small fee, Robin Rogers and Sue Fletcher, as B.A.G.S, will gladly grab that grocery list and bring to your door every last item you asked for. They'll even make extra stops - say to the liquor store or to find gourmet coffee beans. An unlike so many of us, they promise not to forget a thing.

Here's how B.A.G.S. works. The service costs $13.00 - $10. for the shopping and $3. for home delivery. Senior citizens are charged $5. and group rates are available. Customers prepare their lists by Thursday night. They can email the list to BAGSNH@aol.com, or the team will pick them up. Groceries will be delivered in one and one-half to three days. Clients pay - by check or in cash - when the goods are delivered. The B.A.G.S. team shops at Fort Eddy Road, where three large chain supermarkets have stores.

Happy customers say that they are saving money because they can avoid impulse purchases and must organize their week's meals in advance. The service, based in Penacook and available in Concord and in some surrounding towns, is geared toward the elderly, people with disabilities, and beleaguered parents. To contact B.A.G.S. call 753-4539

This article was extracted from a feature in the Concord MONITOR and is presented for information only.

January Magazine Mailings Delayed

Despite months of planning, an unexpected problem delayed the mailing of January 2001 issues of a number of popular magazines until the last days of the month. The change from disc to cassette for NLS magazines is now complete, however, and we anticipate "smooth sailing" ahead. Remember, only CHOICE and GUIDEPOSTS copies need to be returned; other magazines are yours to keep.

We also had a number of calls about book delays in January. Many readers' books go through four post offices, and when postoffices are shorthanded they must handle the first-class mail first, package mail like these recorded books second. Here in low-unemployment NH, the Postal Service was not able to hire all the extra holiday help it needed but has been doing its very best to handle a heavy workload.

How Does A Book Become a Talking Book?

Have you ever heard about a new book by a favorite author, called to request it - and been told it wasn't yet available? Disappointing, of course.

Jim Herndon, head of NLS' Collection Development Section, says that there are nearly seventy different individual steps in the path from print to RC. NLS produces around 2,400 special- format titles every year, and that's only two percent of what is published nationally. There must be a great deal of careful selection done.

First, the five Collection Development librarians meet weekly to select 40 to 60 titles from a pool of 200 or more. Each book considered must be currently in print, it must have at least two favorable reviews from major national review sources, and it cannot be highly technical or be dependent on illustrations - no photography collection or cartoon books.

Next, a short annotation must be written for each selected book. This is the information you read in each issue of Talking Book Topics and in the annual catalog. It must capture the content without expressing opinion.

Third, the books and annotations are sent to the NLS Production Control Section. This group administers contracts with about a dozen recording studios around the nation. It is in these studios that professional performers transform the author's words into the lively recordings that provide so many hours of listening pleasure. Their master recordings are carefully edited for accuracy and completeness before the

Fourth step, where production facilities with high-speed equipment copy, label, pack and ship the recorded books to regional libraries.

Thanks to a 1996 amendment to the copyright law, NLS can record "nondramatic literary works" without written permission from the copyright holder. This has shortened the time between step one and step four. Still, the process takes between six months and a year for all but the "blockbuster" best sellers.

NLS is working steadily to streamline the process. It also holds an annual meeting with the National Advisory Group on Collection-Building Activities to discuss ways to improve and strengthen the collection offered to readers around the nation.

Farewell!

I never expected to be able to complete this issue of "Granite Bits" before my retirement, but doing so gives me the opportunity to thank you for the pleasure of having been your librarian. I am grateful to have had 31+ years doing a job I've loved, with and for such a delightful group of people. Thank you for your kind words, support and encouragement during these years.

      Thanks for the memories!
      Fondly,
      Eileen Keim