WINTER 2008

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has been renovating and reorganizing the public space in our building. We will no longer staff a public desk on the first floor, but we will still provide an accessible computer station with JAWS, a listening room, a CCTV, and a reading machine on the first floor just inside the 9th Street entrance. If you plan to come to the Public Library, call us and we will meet you or ask any staff in the building to call us and we will come to you.

On Saturday, February 2, the Public Library will be having an open house from 1pm until 4pm to dedicate the newly renovated building. We will be offering tours of our department and the Library will have a number of activities going on throughout the day. Please call us if you have questions about this open house. Activities are being added as we are printing this newsletter.

DIGITAL BOOK SERVICEWe have been talking about the new format for some time, but it will finally happen in 2008: the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped will begin producing and distributing the new digital machine and books. During the first wave of new machines, Ohio will not receive enough for all of our users so the State Library of Ohio Consumer Advisory Board has developed criteria that will determine priority for distribution. Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces will be the first to receive the new digital

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players. After that, members of the NLS 10 Squared Club for patrons 100 years of age and older will be able to receive a new digital machine followed by school students 18 years and younger and then distribution will open to anyone interested.

When the new machines are available we advise any heavy reader to keep their cassette machines also. Having both machines will give you the broadest possibilities.

DOWNLOADING DIGITAL NLS BOOKSNLS has begun offering downloads of digital recorded audio books to anyone who is an active reader in good standing, who has purchased a commercially available digital player, and who has an email address and a high-speed internet connection. There is an online application at http://www.nlstalkingbooks.org/dtb. This download project includes all of the currently produced audio books along with some magazines.

The commercially produced digital machine that will enable users to download digital books is Humanware’s Victor Reader Stream. The current price is $329. Library patrons wanting to download will also need to purchase a memory card. Contact Humanware at 1-800-722-3393 or email us.sales@humanware.com.

ADVENTURE BOOKSAlive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read (RC 54741, BR 2513)This is an account of the ordeal of sixteen young Uruguayan men who survived seventy days in the Andes after a plane crash in 1972. Facing starvation, they were forced to make an agonizing choice between cannibalism and death.

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Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks by Susan Casey (RC 60751)Account of the author’s journey to the Farallon Islands, twenty-seven miles from San Francisco, a renowned refuge of great white sharks. Casey, an editor, relates joining scientists Peter Pyle and Scot Anderson as they study the predators in their natural habitat. She describes shark attacks and the archipelago’s beauty.

In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (RC 50271)Relying mainly on the cabin boy’s journal discovered in 1960, the author recounts the disastrous 1819 voyage of the whaling ship “Essex.” He describes the attack of an eighty-five-foot bull sperm whale, and the ensuing starvation, dehydration, and cannibalism that befell the shipwrecked survivors. This true story was the inspiration for Moby Dick.

Into the Wild by John Krakauer (RC 41823)This bestseller grew from an article written for “Outside” magazine. It discusses a fatal trek by a young man named Chris McCandless. Graduated from college in 1990, McCandless abandoned his car, gave away his money, and cut off contact with his family. 112 days after he wandered into the Alaskan wild, he was found dead of starvation. The author looks for an explanation. This has just been released as a motion picture.

Lost Moon: the Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger (RC 40691)Apollo 13 was to have been the fifth mission to the moon. But two days into the trip, on April 13, 1970, the oxygen tank exploded in the command module, placing the three astronauts in grave danger. Lovell describes how the astronauts, contractors, and Mission Control struggled to bring Apollo 13 back to earth. Basis for the movie “Apollo 13.”

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Shadow Divers: The True Adventures of Two Americans who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson (RC 58650)Journalist chronicles scuba divers John Chatterton’s and Richie Kohler’s 1991 discovery of a sunken World War II German U-boat off the New Jersey coast. Describes their perilous six-year search in the 230-foot-deep sunken wreck for clues to identify the submarine and its crew. Strong language.

Snow Walker by Farley Mowat (RC 63002)Short narratives depicting the experiences of Arctic inhabitants as they struggle to survive, raise families, and maintain their culture. Includes the title piece and “Walk Well, My Brother,” an account of a downed pilot’s unlikely rescue by his passenger, a native woman dying of tuberculosis. Some strong language.

Soul of Nowhere: Traversing Grace in a Rugged Land by Craig Childs (RC 63294)Nature writer and author of The Secret Knowledge of Water (RC 52722) relates his adventures and personal discoveries exploring the cliffs, canyons, and caves of Arizona, Utah, and Mexico. Through observing ancient archaeological sites and remains of vanished cultures, Childs becomes part of a land of constant change and its “inalienable, voracious presence.”

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (RC57755)Mountain climber recounts his harrowing 1985 survival story of plunging off an Andean ice ledge, forcing his partner, Simon Yates, to cut the rope binding them. Describes Simpson’s grueling descent with a broken leg and Yates’s emotional turmoil believing his friend dead. Some strong language.

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Worldwalk by Steven Newman (RC 30230)In April 1983, Steven Newman left Ohio on a four-year journey around the world. Newman tells of the wonderful people who gave him food, shelter and love, but also of the difficulties-three arrests, violent snowstorms, and attacks by bandits and animals.

BOOK CLUBIn August, the book club read the Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio by Terry Ryan. Our group didn’t meet in September because of schedule conflicts but in October, we continued reading about Ohio related books. We read and discussed The Wrong Man: the Final Verdict of the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case by James Neff. In November, we left our Ohio theme to read Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen. In January, we will return to Ohio for Della’s Web by Aphrodite Jones. Della’s Web is about a local murder.

GIFTS

We want to thank the following people and groups for their donations

to the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped:

Crystal Davis

Barbara DeRosia

Dale and Elvan Nixon in Honor of Dale Nixon

Library for the Blind and FREEPhysically Handicapped Matter for800 Vine Street the BlindCincinnati, Ohio 45202-2071

You can contact us in the following ways:

PHONE: (800) 582-0335 FAX: 513 369-3111

(513) 369-6999 Email: lb@CincinnatiLibrary.org

The following people gave donations in honor of Helen Beiser:

Barbara and Gary Daughetee

Miller-Valentine Group

Russell and Marcia Fox

Thomas and Julie Nunlist

St. Gabriel School Teaching Staff

Mr. and Mrs. Mark A. Strayhorn

Bonnie and Hilda Trent