Through the
Library of Congress,
The National Library Service (NLS) uses to the Talking Books Program to assist people who are unable to read standard print material due to visual and/or physical impairments.
NLS provides Braille and recorded books and magazines that can be borrowed, free of charge, or delivered by postage-free mail to those in need.
Our volunteers help NLS and their patrons by repairing and refurbishing the cassette and record players used in the Talking Book Program.
A Spotlight on AT&T Talking Book Pioneers
AT&T Pioneers have been repairing Talking Books since the call to action in 1960.
Lois Bricker, of Houston, Texas, was one of the first Pioneers to step up to the plate and start a repair program in its infancy. At that time, the “best sellers of the day” were played back on a record player. The repair group in Houston has repaired record machines, cassette machines and is now working on the digital machines. The workforce continues repairs on a weekly basis at the 1714 Ashland building in Houston’s “Heights Area”. The senior member of the group, Ken Hammond, is 90 years old.
The Mountain Home Repair Group in Arkansas began repairing machines in 1990 and since that time has refurbished over 13,000 machines and volunteered approximately 19,500 hours. Based on the Library of Congress’ estimate of $60/machine repaired, this group alone has saved taxpayers approximately $780,000 over the years. The group was started by Frank Eiter, Western Electric and Clare Usack, Illinois Bell. CenturyLink has continued to give this group a space to work all these years for which the group is extremely thankful. “It’s a most rewarding type of volunteer work and there are people in our own Pioneers club who use the Talking Book machine on a regular basis,” quoted one of the group’s members.
Hazel Day has been involved with Talking books for thirteen yeas, and for ten of those as the Regional Coordinator for Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Hazel said, “of all the volunteer work I have been involved with throughout my life, refurbishing talking book machines has been the most rewarding. It gives me a great sense of pride when a machine has been cleaned, repaired and tested to meet all requirements so that a blind or handicapped person will derive pleasure from using that machine.” In 2009, Talking Book volunteers across “Hazel’s states” repaired over 9,900 machines and logged 15,270 volunteer hours. Based on the Independent Sector’s rate of a volunteer hour for 2009, at $20.85, Pioneers in this geographic area volunteered $318,379.50 worth of service to their communities.
In Mabank, Texas, the Pioneers club has been working on machines for 8 years. The group started with 11 volunteers, but is now down to 2. John Groves is a Pioneers Partner and Betty Daniel is a friend of a Pioneer. These two obviously inherited the “spirit of service” from the Pioneers they previously worked with. Betty shared that the reason she wanted to work on machines was because her mom got many hours of pleasure from them. She shared a story about a widowed lady at her church that lives by herself and really needs the machines to keep her quality of life up. Betty also explained how the lady would call her and say she was having problems with a machine and Betty would “make a house call” to fix the machine so that she wouldn’t have to be without that comfort.
Any Talking Book volunteer you meet will tell you that they love what they do. “You never know what you will find in the machines,” said Betty. Once I found a quarter and a penny. Guess that was my pay for the day.” Maybe she’ll add that to the group’s doughnut and coffee fund.
If you would like to help ensure that an ample supply of playback machines are available for Talking Book patrons and be a part of the longest running Pioneers project in the organization’s 100 year history, please contact your local Pioneers unit or the Pioneers Members Resource Center at 800-976-1914 or info@pioneersvolunteer.org.
NLS serves residents of the United States and eligible U.S. citizens living abroad, who are unable to read or use standard print materials because of visual or physical handicaps. For more information about NLS, visit its website at http://www.loc.gov/nls/.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds nearly 145 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov
