Library service gets word out to visually impaired patrons

The library system reaches out to those who can't visit its branches.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- For Mike Bosela and Jean Duffett, a local service that sends library materials to their homes offers a major life enhancement.
That local mail and phone-order library, known as Special Outgoing Services, mails books and all other circulating library materials free of charge to visually impaired and homebound people.
"I enjoy ... listening to books. So it's a quality-of-life issue for me," said Bosela, of Youngstown, who is blind and receives talking books and descriptive videos by mail. "It enriches my life by reading those books and listening to those movies."
Bosela, who enjoys mysteries, biographies, adventures and all kinds of movies, said the service allows him "to keep in touch with the mainstream." Descriptive videos offer narration for visually impaired people without interfering with a movie's dialogue. The concept is similar to closed captioning for hearing-impaired people.
Bosela is coordinator of Youngstown Radio Reading Service, a special radio station over which newspapers, magazines and books are read for the visually impaired. An SOS patron for more than a decade, he is also president of the board of trustees of the Western Reserve Transit Authority.
Filling 'real void'
"It's a wonderful service because, when you can't read the books that you've read all your life, there's a real void," said Jean Duffett, 75, of Boardman, former executive director of the American Heart Association's Mahoning County Chapter. She enjoys biographies and historical novels. SOS "keeps me abreast of books," she said. "They're putting more and more books on tape," often very soon after they're printed, she observed.
Duffett and her mother, Wilma Bradley, 95, who resides with her and enjoys romance novels, obtain books on tape from SOS. Both have macular degeneration, an age-related visual impairment caused by inadequate blood supply to the eyes.
"These are the people that really need the library service. The library basically comes to them, and they're so appreciative," said Mona Pocatko, SOS supervisor.
SOS, which can be reached at (330) 792-3869 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, is based at the West Side Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. The recently approved strategic plan for the library system calls for SOS to move to the North Side Branch, where it might accommodate visits by scheduled groups.
What's available
Besides items from its own collection of large-print books and magazines, descriptive videos and regular-print magazines and paperback books, SOS mails out regular- and large-print books, books on cassette tapes, books on CDs, videocassettes, DVDs and music CDs from all of the library system's 19 branches upon request. A complete catalog of the library system's holdings can be found on the Internet at www.libraryvisit.org. SOS also can mail out a list of available descriptive videos and a catalog of large-print materials.
SOS mails out library materials in zippered blue vinyl pouches with a transparent pocket containing a reversible address tag, with the recipient's address on one side and the library's return address on the other side. Items for visually impaired people are postage-free, and the library system pays the postage for other items. Recipients never pay outgoing or return postage, or any other fees for the service.
To allow for mailing time, SOS extends circulation periods from the usual three weeks to two months for printed materials and from the usual one week to three weeks for other library materials.
SOS also lends special machines for listening to talking books for the visually impaired, but talking books and Braille materials come from the Cleveland Library for the Blind or the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Bosela said he gets the National Football League schedule in Braille from the Cleveland library.
To qualify
To be eligible for SOS, one must be a Mahoning County resident and live in an institutional setting or be visually impaired or homebound because of a physical disability. Institutional settings include nursing homes, assisted living facilities and group homes.
Prospective patrons apply in a 20-minute phone interview with SOS staff. A written confirmation from a doctor of one's homebound or disabled status is also required. There are no income or asset limits.
"It's a very personalized service. The personal touch is so important because a lot of these people are isolated," said Janet S. Loew, the library system's communications and public-relations director.
"We really get very good at knowing books, authors and the clientele," Pocatko said. SOS will also answer telephoned reference questions and mail out enlarged photocopies or computer printouts with requested information free to patrons, Pocatko said.
Total items circulated by SOS grew from 22,659 in 2001 to 25,424 in 2002 and 34,703 last year. Last year, SOS served 369 homebound people and 30 more for whom SOS gathered library materials and deposited them for pickup at a branch near the recipient's home.
"The program's growing, but not as fast as we would like. We think there are more than 369 people out there that really need the books by mail service," Loew said.