Library Friends donate $10,000

The Friends of the Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped presented Library Director Tracey Morsek with a $10,000 check last week, aimed primarily at increasing book production and helping with the transition to digital book format.

The Friends make a difference every year," Morsek said. "The work they do increases our ability to serve our patrons and grow our collection. We are grateful for their dedication to our program. I cannot praise the Friends board enough."

Friends President Louise Duvall said all the money raised through the group is generated completely through volunteer activity, and all of what they raise is donated to the library as a gift. There are no overhead costs. She praised the donations as going to pay for "real things that we can put our hands on."

Previous gifts have helped pay for a reading room, book production and a state-of-the-art audio recording studio, where more than 40 volunteers spend their time reading books aloud to create books on tape, and now, on digital flash cartridges.

This year's gift is separated into specified amounts toward several projects--the largest amounts going to the purchase and distribution of sacred texts and to the transition from analog to digital audio book format. The donation will pay for digital book cartridges to be played on the National Library Service digital talking book players, which the Iowa library has been piloting.

The digital books the library will produce will be stored on green digital cartridges, to differentiate them from the white cartridges produced by the National Library Service.

"Our transition to digital audio makes our books more accessible for our patrons," Morsek said. "Our ability to produce high-quality recordings augments the national collection, and the enhanced navigation allows our borrowers to read more independently. We are quite excited to have this Friends gift to buoy our efforts."

This was the third year in a row the Friends donated $10,000 to the library. Morsek acknowledged the gift as an important and exciting contribution to the library's ongoing effort to provide the public with accessible books and magazines.