German Center for Accessible Reading
| German Center for Barrier-Free Reading (read dzb) | |
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| founding | November 1894 |
| Duration | 72300 |
| Library type | Special library |
| place | Leipzig |
| ISIL | DE-L92 (German Center for Barrier-Free Reading (dzb read)) |
| Website | http://www.dzblesen.de/ |
The German Center for Barrier- Free Reading (in short: dzb read , until November 12, 2019: German Central Library for the Blind (DZB) ) offers blind, visually and print-impaired people a diverse selection of literature to borrow and buy.
The facility is primarily a production center for Braille books, audio books, magazines, reliefs, sheet music and, in the future, for large print and barrier-free e-books. In addition, the center provides a wide range of accessibility services. These services support institutions, clubs, museums, associations and facilities of the Free State of Saxony in creating barrier-free information and communication offers. As a state enterprise, the center belongs to the Saxon State Ministry for Science and Art .
production
Production of books in Braille
In reading DZB about 200 titles are produced in braille annually. Before the original text is translated into Braille using specially developed software, the structure and layout of the book must be determined. After the transfer, a test print is made, which is proofread by a blind and sighted employee. The text is now either embossed directly onto paper using a Braille printer or it is first punched (embossed) on matrices and then printed. The stencil printing is of better quality and can therefore be read longer, but it is also more complex and cost-intensive.
Every year around 32,000 tons of paper are processed for books and magazines. In the bookbindery the books get their final shape. The individual layers are stapled and bound. You will receive book covers, spines and lettering in Braille and black letters.
Production of audio books
In the studio, trained speakers, mostly actors and radio announcers, record books and articles for magazines under the direction of a recording manager , sometimes under their own direction. The audio books are fully recorded so that the blind listener receives the same information as the sighted reader.
Around 800 productions are made every year, including around 200 audio books, magazines and individual orders in DAISY format. At the same time, the existing analog inventory will be digitized.
Relief production
So that blind people can also capture images and graphic drawings, these are shown as reliefs.
For the production of a matrix, various materials that give the relief relevant outlines and surfaces are selected, cut to size and arranged in individual levels. In this way, a matrix with a palpable image is created in artistic fine work, which serves as the basis for reproduction. In the deep-drawing process, a film placed on the die is heated while a vacuum pump removes the air. The film hugs the shape of the die. By supplying compressed air, the film cools down quickly and then remains in this state. This creates transparent reliefs with a homogeneous color print underneath. The high-contrast colored reliefs are usually combined with Braille and large print, such as B. in children's books, atlases and calendars.
Library and sales
Holdings and users
Over 5,000 active users regularly use the library service. More than 72,000 media are available for you to borrow: Braille and audio books, Braille sheet music and reliefs.
The library's holdings include works of fiction, non-fiction and specialist literature, and children's and youth literature. Classics of world literature, contemporary literature and entertainment literature are made available. In addition to scientific specialist literature, popular scientific works from various areas of knowledge and books on professional development can be found. The library has around 18,500 books and magazines in Braille. In addition, there are relief representations of geographical maps, relief children's books, etc. More than 6,500 sheet music titles and music theory works are included in the library library.
In addition, the library has over 47,000 audio book titles in DAISY format available for loan. The Scientific Library of the Blind collects literature in black print on the subject of blindness and the visual impairment and makes it available to scientists, students and other interested parties.
The inventory includes almost 5,200 monographs and periodicals on the blind.
Library service via interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan is possible by e-mail, fax, letter or telephone. You will get the corresponding audio or braille books in CD boxes or book cases delivered to your home. The shipment for the blind is sent nationwide and abroad free of charge by post. After reading, the borrowed media are simply handed in at the nearest post office counter and sent back to the center for barrier-free reading. The next books will be sent automatically.
sale
The "German Center for Barrier-Free Reading" has over 5,000 titles available for sale. The spectrum of products ranges from Braille and audio books to magazines and relief products such as B. geographic maps, calendars, relief children's books and greeting and greeting cards. The goods can be ordered by phone, email, fax or letter. The dispatch to the customer is usually done by post.
Service on behalf of accessibility
In addition to its role as a production center and library, dzb read performs important service functions. The center supports institutions, clubs, museums and associations, but especially institutions of the Free State of Saxony, in creating barrier-free information and communication offers. The DACAPO note transfer service uses specially developed software to transfer notes in Braille and vice versa. For blind technology and computer users, the center provides advice on new technologies and aids for the blind.
history
On November 12, 1894, the Leipzig Association for the Procurement of Letterpresses for the Blind was founded as the sponsor of the first German public library for the blind . In 1901 Marie Lomnitz-Klamroth took over the management of the library and printer. She formulated the first principles of a systematic braille typography and used German Picht typewriters for the work of the association. After the outbreak of the First World War , which plunged the association and the library into a deep crisis, Marie Lomnitz-Klamroth demanded public funds from the city, Saxony and the Reich.
In 1916 the Association for the Promotion of the German Central Library for the Blind in Leipzig was founded. A year later, the library already had 5,000 volumes in Braille and 1,255 readers. While the number of Braille volumes and that of permanent readers rose sharply in the early 1920s (1926: 3500 readers, including 400 war blind, 50,000 volumes), the global economic crisis forced the library to pursue strict austerity measures. Layoffs and cuts in benefits, even short-term shutdowns were the result. In 1928 Marie Lomnitz-Klamroth became honorary senator of the University of Leipzig . In 1930 the DZB exceeded the annual loan of 100,000 volumes.
In 1935 the library for the blind moved to the second floor of the Klepzig printing house, Täubchenweg. This building was destroyed in the air raid on Leipzig in the night of December 3rd to 4th, 1943 and 30,000 books were destroyed. In 1944 an alternative point was set up in Döbeln. In Leipzig, Herta Fröhlich took over the continued operation in the premises of the district main team on Roßplatz and prevented the sale of the residual values of DZB after the end of the war.
In 1945 Max Schöffler took over the management of the DZB with provisional power of attorney from the People's Education Office in Leipzig. On November 7, 1946, the state administration of Saxony declared the DZB to be an institution under public law. As early as 1949 the library holdings again comprised 10,000 volumes. In 1955 the DZB had 33 employees. First relief books for teaching appeared.
In 1952 the library for the blind was subordinated to the Ministry of Public Education of the GDR, and in 1955 to the Ministry of Culture. In 1954 the rebuilt building at Gustav-Adolf-Straße 7, which housed the Israelite Higher School before the war, was moved and inaugurated . In 1955 Herbert Jakob replaced Max Schöffler as director. In this position he inaugurated the DZB audio library in March 1956. Martin Andersen Nexø's Der Lotterieschwede was the first audio book to be recorded. At that time, the facility contained around 16,000 braille volumes. The production and storage area was considerably enlarged in 1963 with two new buildings. On October 25, 1964, the first all-German blind conference took place in the culture hall of the DZB. At that time there were 101 employees working in the DZB. In 1964 Meyer's Lexicon appeared in one volume in dot print (34 volumes). In 1974 the DZB was awarded the Wilhelm Bracke Gold Medal from the German Booksellers Association in Leipzig.
In 1976 Siegfried Tschirner took over the management. The DZB published 16 journals in 1979, eight of them as audio journals. The DZB produced its first relief wall calendar in 1981, and in 1985 the production of the first multi-colored relief wall calendar began. In the following years DZB expanded the range of its relief production. In 1999 Thomas Kahlisch became director of the DZB.
After reunification , the Free State of Saxony took over the DZB, which has since been subordinate to the State Ministry for Science and Art . The final status of the library initially remained unclear. It was not until November 2002 that the Saxon state government decided to run DZB as a state enterprise from January 1, 2003. In 2002 the DZB started lending DAISY books.
On June 25, 2008, 95 years after its inauguration, the house at Gustav-Adolf-Straße 7 was given the name of its founder, Ephraim Carlebach . The rabbi had the house built in 1912/1913 to set up a school for Jewish children. Until 1935, when the racial laws of the Nazi state came into force, he was director of the Israelite Higher School.
In September 2009 the DZB organized the international conference DAISY 2009 , which was a meeting point for users and developers around the multifunctional information medium DAISY audio book . In the same year, the DZB Leipzig received the award of Selected Landmarks in the Land of Ideas from the federal government in the nationwide competition 365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas .
In 2009 the DaCapo project was successfully completed and the customer-oriented Braille music service was introduced. Since 2010 no more cassettes have been borrowed anywhere in Germany, instead only DAISY CDs. From September 27th to 30th, 2011, the World Congress Braille21 Innovations in Braille in the 21st Century took place in Leipzig with 400 participants from all over the world.
In 2010 the CD in DAISY format was introduced and cassette lending was ended.
From September 27th to 30th, 2011, the World Braille 21 Congress »Innovations in Braille in the 21st Century« took place in Leipzig: 400 participants from all over the world attended the congress. The organizer was the DZB.
On December 3, 2012, the Leibniz project - a DZB project for the preparation of specialist and non-fiction books for blind and visually impaired people - will come to an end with a closing event. In three years of project work, digital tools were developed that enable an automated layout analysis of structures.
In 2016, the lending of audio books by downloading from the Internet will be introduced. In 2017 the rental of audio films (soundtracks) begins.
On November 12, 2019, the celebratory name change from the German Central Library for the Blind (DZB) to the German Center for Barrier-Free Reading (dzb read) will take place.
Support association
The Friends of Barrier-Free Reading e. V. supports the institution's tasks of making literature accessible to blind and visually impaired and print-disabled people. Friends of accessible reading e. V. promotes innovative projects for the provision of barrier-free media and is dedicated to public relations in order to increase awareness and find sponsors.
literature
- Helmut Schiller: 100 years of the DZB. The checkered history of the first German library for the blind . German Central Library for the Blind in Leipzig. Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-7465-0056-7
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ Karl-Rudolf Böttger: New Leipzig pocket dictionary for locals and foreigners . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-933240-51-4 , p. 121.