As Saskatchewan celebrates the 40th anniversary of Library Week from October 16 to 22, the province’s public libraries are increasing support for library patrons experiencing print disabilities. This year’s Library Week theme is Explore and Discover Saskatchewan Libraries, and various activities are being held throughout the province’s public libraries to mark the Saskatchewan Library Week, which is celebrated annually since 1976.
“This provides opportunities to appreciate the contributions the province’s more than 1,200 libraries make to the cultural, economic, educational and recreational development of Saskatchewan people,” Deputy Premier and Education Minister Don Morgan said. “Through our local public libraries across the province, library patrons experiencing print disabilities can continue to enjoy reading thanks to assistive technologies and resources available in accessible formats.”
More than 400,000 resources including e-audio, braille and e-text formats are accessible to public library patrons with print disabilities. These resources are offered by the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) and the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) collections, as they have been added to the province-wide Saskatchewan Information and Library Services (SILS) catalogue.
CELA is a national not-for-profit organization established in 2014 by Canadian public libraries to champion the fundamental right of Canadians with print disabilities and give them access to media and reading materials in many different formats. NNELS is a collection of content provided by Canadian public libraries in collaboration with international libraries, partners, readers, and publishers to make copies of books in accessible formats available to Canadian readers experiencing print disabilities.
Currently, only about seven per cent of published materials are available in formats accessible to people with print disabilities.
With the addition of CELA and NNELS to the SILS catalogue, Saskatchewan library patrons experiencing difficulties reading conventional print books can access:
A broad choice of formats including audio, braille, e-text and described video;
A growing collection of more than 230,000 alternate format items including books, newspapers and magazines;
More than 160,000 books on Bookshare, the world’s largest online library of accessible reading materials that can be downloaded to personal computers or mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; and
A broad selection of genres covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s, young adult, business, self-help books and more.
