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A Home Is Needed For 'Talking Books'

Since 1978, dedicated volunteers have quietly made their way to a tiny studio in the Raymond Memorial Library in East Hartford and performed a marvelous service for their fellow citizens who are blind or otherwise unable to read. The volunteers have meticulously recorded books — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, even a book about chess.

Now the group is being asked to leave, to go someplace else. The town says they have to be out by the end of the month. It's not totally clear why.

The volunteers are from the Greater Hartford unit of the Connecticut Talking Books program, part of a national program begun by the Library of Congress in the 1930s. Connecticut has five units, with four in the western part of the state. Together they have recorded more than 3,000 works since the organization was founded in 1974. The books are available through the state Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped in Rocky Hill. As of early this year, the program had nearly 7,000 active audio readers, by its count.

The Hartford unit was founded at Aetna in 1974 and moved to the East Hartford library four years later. Program volunteers raised $30,000 to build a studio in the library. Though there has been a great increase in recorded books since the 1970s, Talking Books coordinator Gerry Cohen said her taped books are still in demand because they are free, are exceptionally clear recordings — no turning of pages, mispronunciations or fumbles — and because they include local books that otherwise don't get recorded.

Space

The East Hartford library is small, too small for the population it serves, and officials for years have wanted to expand it. When plans were announced for a 14,000-square-foot expansion several years ago, the Talking Books studio was in the preliminary design sketches. But earlier this year, the group was informed that they were out and would have to leave.

Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc said in a telephone interview Thursday that the Talking Books space was needed for the library's rare book collection. "Quite frankly, we don't have the space for them. It's nothing more than that," she said.

The town has offered the program space in the town's cultural center, where the library will go during the upcoming renovation. But Ms. Cohen said the space offered was unusable because it blocked access to emergency and electrical systems. The town also offered up to $5,000 for moving expenses, but Talking Books volunteer Wilson H. Faude said the studio cannot be moved and cannot be replaced for less than $30,000.

Location

Utilization appears to be an issue. Mayor Leclerc said no books had been recorded for the past 14 months because of software issues. Mr. Faude said that is not the case, that 15 had been done by June, and more since. That should be easy to check, if it's important.

This is a great service, done for almost no money. Such things should be encouraged. East Hartford has generously hosted it for 35 years. Though space is a problem in East Hartford, the studio is just over 200 square feet, an "oversized closet," Mr. Faude called it. East Hartford is centrally located for the volunteers, who come from many different towns. It would be great if something could be worked out to keep them there; indeed, state Rep. John Larson's staff is trying to broker such an agreement.

If it proves impossible, perhaps another area library would agree to host the program. "Most librarians like to have us," Ms. Cohen said.

Copyright © 2018, Sun Sentinel
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