[Greater-Baltimore] The recording studio at State Library

Mon Mar 28 18:11:54 UTC 2016

Gentlemen,

I share the frustration expressed about the Library for the Blind &
Physically Handicapped but have a polar opposite take on the problem.
As was pointed out by my friend and colleague, Mr. Chris Danielsen,
the LBPH has been woefully underfunded and under staffed for years and
this problem has only grown worse with time, not better. Instead of
pointing fingers and castigating these overworked and frankly, under
paid public servants, we should all of us rally behind and support
them and the heroic work that they do with so few resources. For
example, a huge portion of the tremendous work performed by the LBPH
is done by volunteers who are not financially compensated at all. When
we've brought to the attention of law makers in Annapolis the
financial and staffing crisis at the Library for the Blind &
Physically Handicapped, many of the delegates and senators and their
staff barely knew the facility existed let alone possess an informed
understanding of the crisis. Marylanders have the benefit of a
statewide public library network of services, many of which are
located in their own communities. The blind, on the other hand, are
relegated to just one central library with perhaps one or two other
satellite locations for the entire state.

Let's consider collective and productive ways to support this critical
resource for Marylanders who are blind or who have other print
disabilities instead of casting aspersions upon those doing the real
work.

Thanks for everyone's efforts to keep this invaluable service going
and for imagining even greater service with the help and support of
the Maryland legislature.

Maurice Peret

On 3/28/16, Danielsen, Chris via Greater-Baltimore
<greater-baltimore at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Dear Mr. Innes:
>
> Thank you for posting to the list. As list moderator, I approved your post
> based on its subject line. Had I read it more carefully, I might not have.
>
> It is of course entirely proper for you to raise concerns about how an
> agency that serves blind Marylanders is being run. I believe, however, that
> you could have done so without name-calling and gratuitous nastiness,
> sticking to the facts of your case rather than characterizing employees at
> the library as nerds, buffoons, charity cases, etc. I will therefore monitor
> future attempts to post to this list from you more carefully for the
> foreseeable future. If you cannot or will not moderate your tone, you will
> be blocked from the list.
>
> All of us experience frustration with various state entities. The library,
> in particular, is known to be understaffed and under-resourced. No doubt the
> performance of its current staff can be improved in some areas. However, as
> it is we are routinely obliged to fight for the library's mere survival and
> occupancy of its current facilities. It is not helpful when individuals who
> are dissatisfied with some aspect or other of the services provided engage
> in name-calling and accusations about mismanagement which appear to be based
> only on personal experience.
>
> Again, we welcome serious discussion of problems on this list and other NFB
> lists, but name-calling and insults are unhelpful and uncalled-for.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Chris Danielsen
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greater-Baltimore [mailto:greater-baltimore-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Charles Innes via Greater-Baltimore
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 12:18 PM
> To: Greater Baltimore Chapter NFB
> Cc: Charles Innes
> Subject: [Greater-Baltimore] The recording studio at State Library
> Importance: High
>
>      Madam President
>
> It has come to our attention that the recording studio at the State Library
> for The Blind at 415 Park Avenue  in Baltimore has recorded only one book in
> three years and has a back-log of sixty books of interest to be recorded at
> unspecified future times.This was as of late January.
>
>  This appears to be a remarkably dysfunctional agency .  the responsible
> persons, Wilhelmina and the recording  technician are completely incapable
> of fixit.
> I've talked to the people in charge. Some are individually clueless and
> beyond  correction.
> Neither  one have any idea of how to manage volunteer readers or how to deal
> with the technical problems.
> They'll tell you its about a lack of money to buy new recording equipment,
> but it isn't 1. The State Library is using volunteer readers.
> No one in their right mind relies upon volunteer readers to do any important
> jobs of any kind for blind persons.
> Volunteers show up if and when they wish to.
> 2. Studio employees only utilize a volunteer reader for one hour at a time
> in therecording booth.   Wilhelmina has made this judgment.
> There are between two and four complete soundproof recording studios, built
> at great cost to taxpayers, but their use is *insignificant.
> This is government waste at its worst.
> 3.   The technician is a nice young man who understands all about the  new
> National Library Service recording protocols and software, but who has NO
> social skills or concept of how to manage readers.
> He has misguidedly decided  to undertake "teaching the NLS recording
> software ... to the readers".
> Its not going to happen.
> This genius won't even run the recording equipment for them. Its not in his
> job description.
> Plus it is unfair and completely impractical to ask any reader, voluntary or
> paid, to master  placing beep-tones etc.
> He's there to operate the recording equipment and he won't do it.
> And of course, none of these dedicated state-employees will sit down and
> read a book into a microphone.
>
> 4.   The  laboriously built MARYLANDIA collection  of recordings and lots of
> other valuable materials are  WASTING while the house nerds fool around with
> re-mastering on new digital media.
> This is a **dysfunctional agency, which has lost sight of its mission to
> serve blind and disabled patrons.
>
> 5.  I have an overwhelming sense of  lethargy, laziness and greed from the
> responsible  Library employees.
> Their salaries  are more important to them than any of us blind persons.
> Ken Jernigan tried to warn us: Given a lack of oversight and supervision,
> State agencies sometimes utilize 95% of available budgets  on their own
> salaries and employee perquisites, and pass-through only 5%, if we are
> lucky, in direct benefits to blind clients.
>
> 6. it would cost little  to hire readers or solicit high-profile reputable
> actors or librarians to read these books, as (*all other libraries in the
> NLS cooperating system do.
>  This library presently has a staff of 13 to 15 persons.   None of them read
> to the blind?
> If someone cleared the dead wood out of this agency, I am certain that the
> annual budget would have enough money to  accommodate a couple of readers.
>  Plus Many published books will never become available in accessible
> technologies like I text or Kindle.
> Even Recording For the Blind seldom takes more than six months to produce a
> desirable book.
>
> 7.  These buffoons have  made a simple process very complicated, laborious
> and improbable.
> For instance, There must be *two volunteers present at any one time and two
> copies of the book to be read for any recording to take place "so that one
> can check the other for accuracy".
> THEN the recording must be checked *again by someone listening to the
> recording and reading the book at the same time!
> Neither of the Library employees will do that, of course, its too much
> *work.
> These folks have lost their way. They have failed to deliver useful
> recordings in  a timely manner.
>
> 8.  So these discussions have been going on between myself and various
> librarians for over 36 months.
> As requested, I  got the book cleared with NLS and locally, then found two
> copies of it and brought them to the library in March 2013.  Nothing has
> happened.
>
>  Back in the day, thirty years ago  I handed  the library two expensive
> copies of the textbook  MARYLAND AND AMERICA: 1940 to 1980 by Professor
> Callcott.  It was used by high school and college students studying local
> political history. four months later  we received 22 cassettes containing
> the entire book. Nothing complicated and was the default textbook on
> Maryland state history at the time.
>
> ** We blind people are being *chumped by these bureaucrat tape-worms.
> I think its time for the Major media to take a careful look at  the
> Library's annual  BUDGET.    An official audit  by the Governor's  office
> might throw some light on what they all are doing with our money.
> Yes, I am a blind  TAX PAYER, not a charity case like some of these sad
> sack state employees who consider their paychecks an entitlement.
> We blind people aren't supposed to know what's going on anyway, are we?
>
> Yours respectfully
> Charles H. Innes
> phone 410 235 6272;
> email   chinnes2@ gmail.com
>
>
> CC President Mark Riccobono
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-- 
Maurice Peret, NOMCT
***
National Orientation & Mobility Certified Trainer
MOBILE/TEXT: 804.928.4015
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