Happy 75th birthday Pratt-Smoot Act, and N L S Program

Friday we attended a great reception celebrating 75 years of the Library of Congress braille and talking book program, and the congressional act responsible for it. It’s funny thinking back to when you began receiving library services. Maybe it was when you were very young. You subconsiously started learning about other geographic locations. That is, each time you heard on a talking book where it was recorded, you soon knew about New York, or Louisville, Kentucky. And if you read braille books and magazines, you learned they were from Louisville, Philadelphia, or Cincinnati. And you learned the recitations of the announcements, (but maybe you didn’t know what they meant). Things like “special distribution made by act of Congress under public Law 89–522”. Or, in the days when books were on records of various sizes, we learned at an early age to “pleas be careful not to scratch, or otherwise damage these records. Remember that many other people wish to read them.” And then, when you finished a book or part of a book, you were politely reminded to “please replace this record in its envelope and container”. Hmmmm. I always worried and pondered whether the book police would ring the doorbell if I didn’t comply before going downstairs for lunch when called to the table. (smile)

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