South Dakota Braillist Association Newsletter
South Dakota State Library
Braille and Talking Book Library
Spring 2001, Volume 2,Issue 2
Connie Sullivan, Newsletter Editor
Spring Conference is just around the Corner, March 26-27th 2001
Boy, how time flies when you're having fun! Again, my apologies go out to all of you for being slow writing this newsletter. But, as the saying goes, "better late than never." I wonder who said that.

It's that time of year to start thinking about attending the Annual Spring Conference. This year the dates have been moved to March 26th and 27th. The conference, to be held in Yankton, will be about "Tactile Graphics".

The trainers are professional staff from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), Louisville, Kentucky. This will be an opportunity for dialogue between Braillist's, Educators, and the APH staff. Together we will learn how to produce needed graphics and explore ways APH can further assist in meeting the tactile graphic needs of the field.


DOE Credit sought for Workshop
By: Marje Kaiser, Superintendent SDSBVJ.
The SDSBVJ and Braille & Talking Book Library will be submitting an application to the Department of Education for one (1) DOE renewal credit for the "Tactile Graphics" training. This would be used in the same way college credit or CEUs are used for renewal.


There are no Boundaries with Tomorrow's future!


Free Matter
Postal Regulations
Postage must be used when sending in students print copy of textbooks, for the school year 2001-2002.

Free mailing is a priviledge. Network librarians and eligible individuals gain the greatest benefits under these regulations when they comply with them. The following will help you understand these regulations as they apply to their day-to-day work with readers and postal officials.

Items Mailable Free. Books, magazines, musical scores, and other reading matter in braille, large-print, and recorded form, as well as certain equipment can be mailed free of postage when such material is being mailed specifically for the use of a blind or visually handicapped person. This includes mailing to agencies or organizations serving the blind or other physically handicapped persons when such materials are for the use of a blind or visually impared person.

For the purposes of free matter, large print is comprised of upper- and lower-case characters 14 printer's points or higher. The entire document, except for the address itself, must be in large print whenever printed words are used. Handwriting or hand printing is unacceptable, no matter how large the letters or how dark the ink.

Commercial and noncommercial musical or other sound recordings that may be usable by the disabled, but are not specifically designed for their use, cannot be mailed postage free.

Produced Materials. Conventionally printed musical scores and books, magazines, and other reading material in a print size less than 14-point type cannot be mailed postage-free, either by Blind or Visually Impaired individuals or by organizations, even though the intent is to transcribe or record such matter for the use of blind and handicapped persons.

Postage must be paid when mailing regular printed books to the library for duplication.

So, please remember the textbooks that you send in must bear the full applicable postage.

When mailing printed books to the BTBL and you have any questions, please call 1-800-423-6665 and ask for the Braille and Talking Book area.


"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information you get." -- William Feather


Job opportunity:
Jane Lyons, Director of ATIC (Accessible Textbook Initiative and Collaboration), writes:
The ATIC Division is a busy place these days and we are reaching out to you for some help.

We recently added an editor to our staff but we need one or two more.

This position adapts the print material before it goes to the transcriber. This is an effort to make all ATIC textbooks consistent in their format and quality.

Do you know of anyone, anywhere, who would be good at adapting text materials for blind or visually impaired students?

They don't have to want to move to Louisville (althought that would be great), they don't have to be NLS certified (although some Braille knowledge would be helpful). We would like for them to have taught blind or visually impaired students.

Even if you don't think of them as an APH employee, perhaps they would be a candidate to do a training class for us in our effort to make braille transcription appealing as a career.

If you have any ideas, please contact me at jlyons@aph.org or give me a call. Thanks so much for your time and interest.

The Ten Most Powerful Two-Letter Words: "If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me."


HOMEWORK CENTRAL
The McGraw-Hill Companies have brought top-quality Textbooks to America's schools for over a century--and are today the nation's #1 educational publishers for grades k-12. This trusted company's newest initiative is the McGraw-Hill Consumer Products Division, which brings educational workbooks and educational software to the home and homeschool markets direct to the consumer and via retail outlets. By adapting the top-quality curriculum used in schools for home use, McGraw-Hill is able to offer "a true school-home connection."


All I really needed to know I learned from Noah's Ark
 Author unknown.
  1. Don't miss the boat.
  2. We're all in the same boat.
  3. Plan ahead.
  4. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
  5. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something.
  6. Don't listen to critics. Just get on with what has to be done.
  7. Build your future on high ground.
  8. For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
  9. Two heads are better than one.
  10. Speed isn't always an advantage; the snails were on board with the cheetahs.
  11. When you're stressed, float awhile.
  12. Remember that the ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
  13. Remember that woodpeckers inside are a larger threat than the storm outside.