[Dtb-talk] More on NLS and International Interlibrary loan

[Greg Kearney]

We got this rather short additional reply back from the NLS/LOC on international interlibrary loan request my comments follow:

Hi [name removed],

Your e-mail to NLS was forwarded to me for reply.

NLS does not loan digital books.  But we will continue to loan cassette and braille books.

Cordially,

Y. Rathan Raj
Overseas Librarian
National Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542

Now this brings up several interesting questions which I have posed to Mr. Raj. 

Given that the NLS will at some point stop making tapes does this mean that over time the list of books which can be made loaned by international interlibrary loan will just shrink away to nothing? Or will they just make up tapes when we ask for something?

Given that we are switching to DAISY we are going to have to take the NLS/LOC tape and convert it to digital here before sending it out which seems rather crazy when you think about it there being a digital version sitting in the U.S. but we can't get it rather we have to generate one ourselves from the tapes.




Gregory Kearney
Manager - Accessible Media
Association for the Blind of Western Australia
61 Kitchener Avenue, PO Box 101
Victoria Park 6979, WA Australia

Telephone: +61 (08) 9311 8202
Telephone: +1 (307) 224-4022 (North America)
Fax: +61 (08) 9361 8696
Toll free: 1800 658 388 (Australia only)
Email: gkearney at gmail.com

Gregory Kearney
Manager - Accessible Media
Association for the Blind of Western Australia
61 Kitchener Avenue, PO Box 101
Victoria Park 6979, WA Australia

Telephone: +61 (08) 9311 8202
Telephone: +1 (307) 224-4022 (North America)
Fax: +61 (08) 9361 8696
Toll free: 1800 658 388 (Australia only)
Email: gkearney at gmail.com