The Ulverscroft Foundation and the IFLA Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section are pleased to announce the outcome of the bids for funding from the 2010 programme. Ulverscroft Foundation has again made 20,000 Pounds GB available for individual and organisation awards to assist the development of library services for print disabled people worldwide and to foster cooperation between library services serving these persons.
Individual awards have been offered to:
Mark Freeman, Libraries Manager, South Tyneside Library Service and Chair of Share The Vision, GB.
Mark as a public libraries manager wishes to extend his knowledge of how the specialist libraries for print disabled persons operate and to build on existing links between the libraries in the North East of England and the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Mark has been awarded 2,150 Pounds GB to visit the South African Library for the Blind and, especially, their Mini Libs service in local communities.
Kathy Teague and Wendy Taylor, Librarians, RNIB National Library Service, GB.
Kathy and Wendy are responsible for coordinating the Cataloguing Working Group of the IFLA LPD’s Global Library Project and are involved in the acquisition of a new library management system by RNIB NLS. They wish to visit the Celia Library in Helsinki, Finland to study their implementation of the new FRBR bibliographic model [Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records] which permits the assigning of relationships between different accessible formats of the same work. As Celia is the first specialist library in this field to implement this model this visit has clear potential to enhance RNIB’s services and worldwide developments. Ulverscroft has offered 2,700 Pounds GB to fund this visit. Teague & Taylor Report of their visit
Yasmine Youssef, Librarian at the Taha Hussein Library for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt.
Yasmine is the library’s specialist in the production of DAISY books and wishes to visit DAISY South Africa to provide expert assistance in their development of DAISY production and to understand the challenges posed by accommodating 11 official languages. This will also enhance her ability to develop services at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and to assist developments in other Arabic speaking countries. Yasmine has been awarded 2,550 Pounds GB to undertake this visit.
The organisation award for 2010 has been awarded to the Shanghai Pudong New Area Library, China. Since 2002 this library has provided a unit which offers extensive free ICT training for the local visually impaired community but the need and demand for this service exceeds their capacity. In April 2010 the library is moving to a new building which is six times the size of the current library and they wish to greatly expand their services for visually impaired people, including the employment of visually impaired people as trainers. They also intend to offer free training, lodging and travel to VIP’s from poorer provinces so they can develop services locally. This is a highly ambitious project to expand the life opportunities of VIP’s and has been awarded 12,500 Pounds GB as a contribution to the cost.
The judges for the award were Allan Leach, Chair of the Ulverscroft Foundation, Dick Tucker, formerly Deputy Director of the Force Foundation Worldwide and David Owen, a trustee of both the Ulverscroft Foundation and Force Foundation UK.
Allan Leach commented, “It was pleasing to receive such strong applications this year and to be able to offer all of the 20,000 Pounds GB funding available. We are confident that these awards will further the shared objectives of Ulverscroft and IFLA of promoting international cooperation and enhancing library services for print disabled people worldwide.”
For further details about the awards please contact
Joyce Sumner, Secretary, Ulverscroft Foundation j.sumner@ulverscroft.co.uk Jenny Craven, Information Officer IFLA: LPD Section j.craven@mmu.ac.uk
Background to the Ulverscroft/IFLA Awards
The Ulverscroft Foundation was established in 1973 by Dr Frederick Thorpe, OBE, the founder of Ulverscroft Large Print Books Limited, which he formed in 1964. ULPB is the major supplier of large print books to libraries in the UK and has expanded to become a major commercial supplier of a range of alternative format books in the UK and around the world. Having established a successful organisation for the supply of alternative format reading material Dr Thorpe was keen to address the other challenges faced by visually impaired people around the world by ploughing back the profits from his successful business enterprises. Consequently, the Ulverscroft Foundation has funded many hundreds of medical, social and library schemes/projects designed to serve the needs of visually impaired people world-wide.
The IFLA: Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section (LPD) is the international body which seeks to promote national and international co-operation to improve access to information and reading materials for blind and other print handicapped people. Established in 1983 it has 86 member organisations across the world. IFLA: LPD has published "Guidelines for Library Service to Braille Users", "The International Directory of Libraries for the Blind" and is currently finalising "Libraries for the Blind in the Information Age: Guidelines for Development". It holds a Conference every 2 years
Use this link to view Reports from Award winners
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