- The Braille Spectator Summer 1987

National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, Inc.

Summer, 1987

The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, an affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind, is a non-profit organization of blind people whose purpose is to promote equal opportunities for the blind. We provide advocacy services for the blind, special training programs for parents of blind children, job referrals and placements for the blind, public education programs, scholarships to blind students, and help the newly blinded to acquire special techniques for maintaining productive lives.

Please address inquiries to:

NFB of Maryland

9736 Basket Ring Road Columbia, MD 21045

phone (301)992-9608

Please send donations to:

NFB of Maryland 11909 Coronada Place

Kensington, MD 20895

THE BRAILLE SPECTATOR

The Braille Spectator is published quarterly for members of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland and others who share an interest in the work of this organization. The recorded edition, available on cassette, can be obtained from the editor upon request. Cassettes may be returned to the National Center for the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230.

Changes of address and additions to the circulation list should be sent to the editor. Address all news items, articles and letters to the editor.

Althea Pittman, Editor The Braille Spectator 9736 Basket Ring Road Columbia, MD 21045

Officers:

Sharon Maneki, President Columbia, Maryland

Althea Pittman, First Vice President Baltimore, Maryland

Ronald Metenyi, Second Vice President Baltimore, Maryland

Mary Ellen Reihing, Secretary Baltimore, Maryland

Judy Rasmussen, Treasurer Kensington, Maryland

Members of the Board of Directors:

Leroy Bagwell, Salisbury, Maryland

Ronald Burns, Cumberland, Maryland

Al Carter, Annapolis, Maryland

Carleen McKenzie,

Frostburg, Maryland

Pat Winebrenner, Frostburg, Maryland

Brenda Williams, Baltimore, Maryland

Come TO THE STATE CONVENTION

by Sharon Maneki

The twenty-first annual State Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland will be held the weekend of October 2-4, at the Comfort Inn, Frostburg, Maryland. You should have already received your hotel reservation form in the mail. Plans are moving forward to make this convention interesting, lively and fun. It is a time to meet old friends and make new ones. It is also a time to plan our goals for the coming year.

I am pleased to announce that the national representative at this year's convention will be Reverend Frank Lee. Reverend Lee is a member of the National Board of Directors and winner of the 1987 National Associate contest. He sold over 500 associates. Reverend Lee wears many hats. He is Pastor of the Lake Side United Methodist Church and a doctoral candidate at the Gammon Theological Seminary. He is also Treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind of Alabama. He is also the president of the newly-formed Huntsville chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Alabama. I am sure that Reverend Lee will give an inspiring banquet address on Saturday evening.

See you in Frostburg!

LIBRARY SERVICES FOR THE BLIND AT A CROSSROADS

by Sharon Maneki

The Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (MLBPH) program is at a crossroads. The program has been stagnating for many years, surviving on the few crumbs that represented its share of the Maryland State Department of Education Budget. Will this trend continue, or will the program begin to grow and flourish? Will the MLBPH program expand so that it can adequately serve the 62,048 patrons the National Library Service says are eligible to use the service, or will the program muddle along providing minimal service to the 6,202 patrons who currently use the program?

We hope the state of Maryland will choose the road of growth and adequate service for the MLBPH program. The blind are tired of seeing this program on the back burner at the Maryland State Department of Education which has overall responsibility for this Library. We are tired of the second-class treatment we receive in this Department.

When the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland learned in late June that the Department of General Services planned to renew the lease at 1715 N. Charles Street, the library's current location, we took action. Action was necessary not only because of the deteriorating condition of the building, but also because plans called for a 3-year lease with an option to extend for an additional 2 years. We publicized these problems through the press, by writing to various state officials and by attending the Board of Public Works meeting on July 29th.

The Board of Public Works must approve all state leases. The members of this board are Governor William Donald Schaefer, Comptroller Louis Goldstein, and Treasurer Lucile Maurer. At the meeting we voiced our objections. The coverage by the media was excellent. Action was deferred on the lease until Governor Schaefer personally inspects the facility.

We are hopeful that a more satisfactory solution to the problems in the MLBPH program will be found now that high-level officials know the situation. The following three articles further illustrate why changes in the MLBPH program are essential.

LEASE AT CROWDED LIBRARY FOR BLIND DRAWS PROTEST

by Karen Youngblood

(Reprinted from THE BALTIMORE SUN, July 10, 1987.)

The building housing the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped is so cramped that the library has to give thousands of its books away each year just to make room.

Yet state officials just renewed a three-year lease on the building at 1715 N. Charles St., readily admitting that the collection needs to be moved to bigger and better quarters.

Hal Bleakley, a Baltimore businessman and library patron, described why. "When I came to Maryland from Pennsylvania in 1978, I asked the library for cassettes or disks on Maryland History--I asked them to send me everything they had," he said. "I got one on crabs and one on political history. I called them about three months later and asked for more, and they were sure that they had more. I think I made another call three months later than that, and they were still digging around."

Mr. Bleakley said he has received no other history book since 1978.

"I know the building is inadequate--we have every intention of finding them a new building," said Constance Lieder, secretary of the Department of State Planning. "The reason for the extension of the lease is that it'll take that much time to get that done, and we need an interim facility. The lease is not meant to be permanent."

But advocates for the blind say they service and have heard the same line before. to see something done now.

are tired of poor They say they want

We've been complaining for years, and said years ago that the library is too small and the collection is too little--that it's so small it's almost insignificant," said Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind headquartered in Baltimore. "We're most unhappy with the response we've gotten."

The lease was renewed, because the state did not plan ahead for an alternative, said K. P. Heinemeyer, director of the real estate office in the State Department of General Services. He said his department started negotiating a new lease last fall with the building's landlord and found out just as it was to be finalized that the state legislature had appropriated money for construction of a new library building.

Mr. Heinemeyer said he then sought to reduce the lease period from five years to a monthly basis, but the landlord would only agree to three years for $20,000 more rent annually while picking up utilities. The lease had expired, and the department had no time to look for a better deal.

The state did not want another temporary building for the library anyway, because two moves in a few years would be costly, he said.

But Mr. Heinemeyer said the lease oversight may not have been completely the state's fault, because administrators were unaware that patrons had a problem with the building.

"The impression we've always had is that it was a suitable location for them," he said. "We felt as long as they were satisfied with it there was no reason to move them."

Yet, the library has had to give away 3,000 to 6,000 "talking books"--tapes or disk recordings of literary works--a year to other states because there is no place in the Charles Street building to store them, said Lance C. Finney, director of the library.

"If we have something that doesn't move in a year, gone," he said. "We have to do that or we'd have stacks of on the floor. Our shelf space is limited, and it's already We are now at a no-growth point."

it's books full.

The library also has 45 volunteers willing to do such work as repair broken tape recorders or check tape and record collections to see that they are in good shape, but only about three can work at the library at a time, because there is nowhere for them to sit, he said.

Nor can the library provide special programs for the blind-­ such as tax preparation service provided by many public libraries--because there's simply no space, he said.

Sharon Maneki, president of the Maryland chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, said she is angry with the state's handling of the lease, and doesn't believe official promises of a new building.

"We have complained, but it's just not a priority," she said. "We have been discussing these things with everybody we could find for the past two years, and they say, 'Yeah, we're going to get you a new building,' in the usual bureaucratic way. I think things could move a lot faster if someone wanted them to.

MARYLAND LAGGING IN RESOURCES ALLOCATED TO LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, collects annual data on the resources allocated by the states for their library for the blind programs. We reprint below, the 1985 data, (latest year available), for Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Connecticut--states having similar-size readerships as Maryland. While Maryland is in the middle of these states for number of patrons, Maryland trails these states in all resource categories--number of staff, number of books, and budget. While number of staff, number of books, and budget do not by themselves make a good library program, with more of these, the potential is greater.

NUMBER OF PATRONS (in 1985):

 

NUMBER OF STAFF (in 1985):

NUMBER OF BOOKS (in 1985):

 

BUDGET (in 1985):

 

REPAIRS INCLUDED IN NEW LEASE FOR MARYLAND STATE LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND

Seventeen items of repair or improvement are included in the proposed new lease negotiated by the Maryland State Department of General Services and the owner of the building housing the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, located at 1715, 1725, 1727 North Charles Street, Baltimore. This list is reproduced below, to show the neglect which the library has suffered. Even if these repairs and improvements are carried out, the library's overall problem of lack of space will not be solved. Any new lease, regardless of the terms, for the library at this location, is unacceptable. We seriously doubt that these items would have been included if it were not for the

efforts of the members of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland.

1. Construction of a new rear dock loading entrance door to provide improved security and operating facilities.

2. Provide an interior trash dumpster pier.

3. Construction of a new, secure storage room at front of 1727 Charles Street building.

4. Repair and paint all of the interior painted surfaces in the demised area, including the damaged panelling and duct covering in front area of the 1727 Charles Street building.

5. New carpet in the 1715 Charles Street building from the front ramp to the rear of the east/west ramp.

6. Furnish and install a new heating and air conditioning system in the 1727 Charles Street building that will provide the state acceptable standards of heating and cooling temperatures.

7. Furnish and install new, matching venetian blinds for all of the windows fronting on Charles Street.

8. Remodel the restrooms (both mens' and ladies') in 1727 Charles Street building to conform to the Handicapped Code and to include the placement of the room light switches to an easy access location within the room.

9. Repair or replace any inoperative fluorescent light fixtures in the demised premises and provide diffusing lenses or plastic sleeves for protection from exploding fluorescent tubes.

10. Furnish and install a water cut off value for the main water line in the demised premises, so that in the event of a major water leak, the water supply may be turned off.

11. Install an emergency "exit only" push-bar door, opening onto the front lobby at 1727 Charles Street building.

12. Replace the metal stripping seal around the double fire doors between the 1715 and 1727 Charles Street building.

13. Restore the doorbell at the entrance to 1715 Charles Street to a working condition.