Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "library"

Our writers' group is back in the library after meeting at the local pub and the attic room of an old work house - now a lovely little museum.
The library was originally the house of a worthy local family. Now their back garden is a pretty public open space.
The newly refurbished library is great, worth the long disruption to the high street. Inside it is spacious and bright; green downstairs, then purples and pinks leading upstairs to the light and airy community rooms.
I am glad to be back to our weekly writing group after the summer break. I came armed with the fourth draft of my third novel and handed it over to be read by one of our members.

This morning and every week day morning two volunteers will be trundling out of every library in the borough with a trolley load of orange plastic boxes full of books. This is 'Books On Wheels' run by the R.V.S. (Royal Voluntary Service)in collaboration with the council library service. The librarians have the difficult task of choosing a new selection of books every three weeks for the house bound. A rota of volunteers with private cars take the books out to people's homes.
The grateful recipients may have had an operation or be restricted by the frailties of old age; not always housebound, but unable to manage a long walk to the library and back with heavy books. All sorts of folk sharing a love of reading; the world of books is a wonderful escape and exercise for the brain when your horizons are limited.

'Books On Wheels' takes books to the housebound. Library staff choose the books and we, the volunteers from the Royal Voluntary Service, pack boxes full of books into car boots and set off on our rounds. All over the country similar schemes operate. Many of our customers are elderly, no longer driving and even if able to go out for a walk, could not manage to carry home a heavy bag of books or leap onto a bus with them. Others are disabled or have a chronic illness, but every person has a file with their interests and favourite authors to help the librarians make a selection. One lovely gentle lady has over twenty murder mysteries every three weeks; to her amusement, when her daughter took her to see Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' she didn't guess who did it. Other readers enjoy travel books or large colourfully illustrated craft books to give them ideas for hobbies they can do at home.
But it is not just paper books we bring. For the visually impaired or those whose sight is fading, the audio book is available on cassette tapes or CDs. Cassettes can easily be stopped and the place saved, unless the listener falls asleep. Some long novels can have a box of twelve cassettes and if one is missing it is mayhem. Anyone who has ever lost anything at home will know how easy it is for objects to disappear off the face of the earth.
Both tapes and CDs have now been superceded by audio downloads. As with Kindles and e-readers, the computer literate housebound now have the whole world of books at their finger tips. But audio books are also a boon to travellers. The commuter on the bus or train can plug in their earphones and listen to a good novel in peace. No more elbowing the person sitting next to them while reading a newspaper or standing in a crowded tube train hanging on to a pole with one hand and trying to hold open a paperback with the other.
Now I can listen to one of my own short stories. Audio Arcadia are holding monthly competitions for anthologies of short stories. My story, 'The Ambassadors', was one of four winning stories to be professionally recorded for Volume One 'A Good Brandy'.
Visit their website if you would like to download the book, or listen to a preview of the first story.

http://www.audioarcadia.com/product/a...