Agenda item: 3 (a) Share the Vision

Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 7 June 2011

Present: Mark Freeman (Acting Chair), Helen Brazier (Co-ordinator), Katie Lusty, Hilary McKenzie, Linda Robertson, Christine Ronaldson, Jerry Shillito

Apologies: Barry Cropper, Fazilet Hadi, Marion Ripley, Amina Shah, Alyson Tyler, Cathy Wright

Observers: Jane Gallagher, Dyslexia Action (items 1-6, 8a), Pat Beech, RNIB (items 7, 8b)

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies for absence

Mark Freeman welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were noted. Board members were sorry to hear that Amina was absent due to family illness and sent their best wishes.

2. Notification of any other business

3. Minutes of meeting 3 March 2011

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2011 were approved.

4. Matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda

(a) Meeting with Annie Mauger, Chief Executive, CILIP

Helen Brazier gave a report of her recent meeting with Annie Mauger which was very useful. AM said that, through herself or Mark Taylor, CILIP would be pleased to support STV with campaigning, using a variety of methods such as joint statements or tweets. AM also reinforced CILIP’s support for the Six Steps and offered to link to it and to publicise it. There was discussion about how to roll out and build on learning from the NEALIS project; how to promote issues around accessibility of ebooks (through Phil Bradley); and communications between CILIP and STV. AM offered to identify a replacement representative for STV’s Board at the appropriate time. Members observed that CILIP and the Society of Chief Librarians also now have closer relationships.

(b) Meeting with Ann Rossiter, Chief Executive, SCONUL

Linda Robertson gave a report of her recent very helpful meeting with Ann Rossiter which covered various topics affecting the accessibility of HE library services, such as funding, fees, electronic licensing, electronic records management and document supply. It was agreed that STV could contribute to SCONUL’s e-bulletin, Focus magazine and autumn conference. AR invited LR to participate in an e-licensing seminar and other discussions. LR requested funding from STV to cover expenses which the Board agreed. Action: LR.

It was agreed that HE issues would be a standing item on the agenda. Action: HB.

(c) Conference on the future of library services in the big society

MF had organised that STV (himself and HB) would deliver a workshop at this conference for local authority officers taking place on 21 June. There would be a good opportunity to showcase learning from NEALIS and to discuss how to move forward, topics highly relevant to the conference themes of shared services, volunteers and collaboration.

(d) Arts Council England

HB reported that she and Pat Beech had met Antonia Byatt, ACE, for a briefing. AB appeared to be very supportive of our issues. There are likely to be fewer national library roles and the focus is likely to be on reading and culture. Arrangements for transfer of responsibilities from MLA and ACE are taking place during 2011 so it would be timely to identify a new Board representative later in the year. Action: HB.

5. Library services for people with dyslexia

Jane Gallagher, Dyslexia Action, gave a very interesting presentation about dyslexia and the impact it has on people’s lives. Libraries are often seen as very scary places by people with dyslexia. Presentation slides are attached [appendix 1]. Board members cited evidence of local willingness in public and education libraries to support people with dyslexia, with various examples of good practice in schools and public libraries. It was agreed that audio books, ebooks and technology in general offer new opportunities especially for younger people. HB and colleague Wendy Taylor had gathered evidence via a literature search and lis-pub-libs of public library activities [appendices 2 and 3]. However there are no standards in place and therefore the outcomes are very inconsistent. In the current climate, there is a risk that the situation will get worse.

The extension of the copyright licence to cover people with dyslexia was considered an important step forward. Calibre now serves people with dyslexia and over half of their young readers have dyslexia. They would like to see young people with dyslexia included in Young Reading Lives (see agenda item 8b below). RNIB’s library service is not mandated to serve people with dyslexia. Many European libraries for blind people, with government support and funding, have widened their service to people with dyslexia. HB/JG commented on the major changes that had been seen at Nota, Denmark, when they began to serve people with dyslexia, reaching a much younger audience making wider use of digital delivery, requiring different types of content and new promotional techniques.

Board members recommended that Dyslexia Action make links with the Society of Chief Librarians and with ASCEL.

As STV’s remit is to support people with print disabilities, it was agreed that it should take more interest in this area informed by relevant experts, so Dyslexia Action was invited to join the Board. Some further consideration could be given to developing pilot projects. Action: HB/JG.

6. Six steps to library services for blind and partially sighted people

MF/HB reported on progress with Six Steps. Since the last Board meeting, the initiative had been endorsed by SLIC, CyMAL and CILIP. MF had presented it at SCL’s AGM and the appeal to sign up had been cascaded throughout England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. So far, 79 authorities had signed up and the remainder were being chased. Leaflets will be sent out to the named champions shortly.

When the majority of authorities have signed up, the next stage will be to organise UK-wide publicity with the help of Elizabeth Elford, SCL’s Marketing Officer. Action: HB/MF.

The Board discussed the reaction from two library authorities who felt that they could not sign up to the blue print. Action: MF will follow up.

The champions’ names will provide a very useful mailing list although it was noted that there are a reduced number of specialist posts.

7. OCLC and FAB Libraries A report was received from Jon Hardisty, supplemented by an oral update from Pat Beech, who is a director of TCR. FAB Libraries will be a national database freely available to the public. Pat identified the key issues as ensuring that FAB Libraries is accessible and that records from specialist agencies are included. A risk is that there are also ambitions to make the database part of a library portal and this might delay the project.

The Board requested a regular report on progress. Action: JH/PB.

It was agreed that the specialist agencies (RNIB, Calibre, Torch, ClearVision, NBCS) should meet to agree how data would be contributed. Action: JH/PB.

8. Projects

(a) NEALIS

The project report was received from the project manager, Fiona Forsythe.

The Board discussed the valuable feedback from the recent consultation day which showed that overall there had been improvements in the region. Compared with 2009, there were more negative comments about staff support but less criticism about choice of books, although timeliness was still an issue. Readers showed an avid interest in ebooks and the demonstration of ebooks and other reading equipment was very much welcomed.

Project funding will cease in June so sustainability is an issue especially in the context of economic pressures. For example, the beacon AIRS service closed at the end of March despite protests from users, STV and others. Issues and ideas could be discussed at the conference (mentioned above) on 21 June.

MF reported the good news that the NEALIS project had been shortlisted for a CILIP Libraries Change Lives award, winner to be announced on 13 July.

(b) Reading Sight/Your Reading Choices/Young Reading Lives

Pat Beech presented the Reading Sight development plan 2011-12 and website usage statistics. She also showed a demonstration clip of Young Reading Lives. The site is being promoted in various ways such as a poster at Techshare and various journal articles. Board members were pleased with the content development.

Following the earlier discussion about libraries and dyslexia, it was felt that a priority for development should be to extend the scope of the tools to cover the reading needs of people with dyslexia. This would require input of funding and resources from organisations with specialist knowledge such as Dyslexia Action. Currently RNIB undertakes the majority of the management and development work but does not have the expertise or mandate to cover dyslexia. Action: It was agreed that PB would meet Dyslexia Action to formulate a way forward and report back to the next Board meeting. At that time the status of STV’s budget would be clearer and a funding request could be reconsidered in that context. It might then be useful and necessary to appoint a project steering group with representation from various stakeholders.

9. Right to Read Alliance

Minutes of the Right to Read Alliance Group Meeting, 29 March 2011 were not yet available and will follow [appendix 4]. HB reported that the main topics of discussion were ebooks, copyright, the London Book Fair, Make a Noise in Libraries and use of braille.

10. Workplan: progress review 2010-11 and plans for 2011-12 The workplan was reviewed and updated to reflect various discussions at this meeting. With limited resources, it was felt that STV should focus on a few key areas rather than try to do too much.

11. Recent and current consultations Members noted the recent responses to Libraries Inspire and Statutory duties. HB explained that due to the election process in Northern Ireland, she had been advised to wait to send feedback on the future of LISC: NI to the new minister. This had duly been done and the letter would be attached to the minutes as appendix 5.

12. Share the Vision news bulletin plus matters arising

Action: MF will check with Alison Bramley whether she is proactively distributing the bulletin to SCL members. This was considered preferable to asking members to seek it out on the website.

13. Finance report

HB reported that finances are in a reasonably healthy state. By 6 June, Calibre and 52 public libraries had made contributions (compared with 76 public libraries in total last year). Some more contributions could be expected but it was quite likely that income would be lower than last year.

A draft budget was presented which showed that the financial situation might be considerably more risky by this time next year. The Board agreed therefore that the budget should be kept under tight review and that spending should be prudent. The biggest area of spending is on the compilation of bulletins. Action: HB to add budget review to next agenda.

14. Communications

Website usage statistics were noted.

15. Board administration

(a) Membership

The Director of LISC: NI regretted that funding was not available to support a representative to attend STV Board meetings but was asking the membership whether one of them would support a representative. The Board felt that it would be regrettable to lose participation from LISC: NI as it had been so effective in the past. Alternative approaches would be to maintain LISC: NI as a corresponding member or to invite Libraries NI to nominate a representative. Action: HB to follow up with Linda Houston.

Dyslexia Action will be invited to join the Board (see agenda item 5).

(b) Observers

Action: HB to follow up ACE later in the year.

16. Board members’ activities relating to STV

(a) CyMAL Access Template Project: LR had agreed to participate in this project on behalf of STV. A consultant will be appointed during the summer with the development work and promotion to be completed during 2011-12.

(b) TechDis survey of HE/FE libraries' experiences obtaining digital files had been distributed through STV. Results not yet seen.

(c) Workshop, Netherlands: MF/HB reported on this useful meeting with libraries serving print disabled people in Netherlands and Flanders, a follow up to the one that took place last year. Key subjects were digital delivery, marketing to hard to reach customer segments and the legal framework. The UK participants learned a lot but there was also a great deal of interest in UK initiatives such as Make a Noise in Libraries, Reading Sight, Your Reading Choices, Six Steps and ebooks. A sensory tour of The Hague was very enjoyable and MF felt the idea could be replicated in the North East.

(d) Members reported on their activities planned for Make a Noise in Libraries fortnight. (e) Ealing schools’ second reading prize will be awarded this year by Alan Gibbons.

(f) BL work on non print legal deposit is moving into implementation phase and JS undertook to ensure that systems would be accessible.

(g) The 2012 conference of the IFLA Section for Libraries Serving Print Disabled People will be held in Tallinn and will focus on the needs of print disabled children. MF/HB had suggested some topics for the programme reflecting interesting work in the UK.

17. Any other business

(a) Agreed that important themes for the annual report would be cross sectoral co-operation, sharing expertise, getting more value from resources, the need for national co-ordination.

(b) Kelly Naulty has taken over from Chris Herring in providing administrative support to STV Board.

(g) Mark Freeman agreed to continue to act as Chair of the Board in Amina’s absence although he will be away on holiday at the time of the next Board meeting so a temporary replacement will be required. Action: HB/MF.

18. Next meetings

All meetings will be held at RNIB, Judd Street, London

7 September 2011, meeting room 6 1 December 2011, meeting room 2

Chair……………………………. Mark Freeman

Dated…………………………….

Appendix 1 - see separate PowerPoint document.

Appendix 2

Libraries and dyslexia: short reading list

Breaking down barriers, by Lucy Rosenthal and Briony Train. Public Library Journal, Spring 2007, p8-12

Dyslexia. CILIP. www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/policy/equalopps/dyslexia/pages/dyslexia.aspx

Dyslexia: challenges and opportunities for public libraries, by Hazel Rutledge. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2002, vol 34, p135-144

Dyslexia friendly libraries, by Abi James and Ian Litterick. Dyslexic.com www.dyslexic.com/library

Dyslexia friendly libraries: best practice for dyslexia friendly libraries, by Sheri Riddlesworth. Wikireadia. www.wikireadia.org.uk/index.php? title=Dyslexia_Friendly_Libraries

Guidelines for library services to persons with dyslexia, by Gyda Skat Nielsen & Birgitta Irvall. IFLA, 2001. (IFLA Professional Reports no. 70)

Libraries and disability. MLA www.mla.gov.uk/what/support/toolkits/libraries_disability

Supporting children and young people with special educational needs, by Anne Harding. Library & Information Update, Dec 2010, p 47-49 Appendix 3 Dyslexia and public libraries

Examples of activity provided by librarians in response to RNIB lis-pub-libs post and other information sources

Library Activity Contact

Bournemouth Libraries People with dyslexia have the same concessions as Rose Johnson VIPs with regard to large print and audiobooks, i.e. Area Manager: North no reservation charges and, in the case of Information, Community and Culture audiobooks, no loan charges. Borough logo - low res The Kinson Hub Tel: 01202 452786 Mob: 07902 231612 Rose.Johnson@BournemouthLibraries .org.uk

Croydon Work with Croydon Dyslexia Association. We have a Fiona collection of books for practitioners and parents Information Services and Resources which the CDA funded and can be borrowed from Manager the Central Library. We have Wordwise collections Tarn, Fiona in some of our Childrens Libraries and folders with [email protected] useful websites in all the libraries.

Edinburgh City Libraries Working very closely with Dyslexia Awareness Wendy Pearson, Service Development Edinburgh City Libraries is setting up a Dyslexia Leader - Learning, Edinburgh City Chatterbooks for children in the city. This would Libraries, on 0131 242 8022 or Library Activity Contact

offer exactly the same opportunities, benefits and [email protected] experiences as other Chatterbooks, but with members all sharing similar dyslexia challenges, their chances for enhanced enjoyment, participation and confidence-building could be increased.

Telford & Wrekin We have regularly attended Dyslexia Information Amy Jones Days (DID) run by the Dyslexic Dyslexia Consultant Senior Librarian - Adult Reading and from this we have developed our service for Development Library Services Telford dyslexic readers. Anybody who is dyslexic is entitled & Wrekin Council Customer and to concessionary membership which allows them to Leisure Services Telford Library borrow audiovisual material free of charge. Also in Telford Town Centre St Quentin Gate the children’s section we place green dots on books Telford more suited to dyslexics (eg Barrington Stoke TF3 4JG publications). This is following feedback from the 01952 382921 DID events. We also have an extensive range of [email protected] adult literacy material for all levels that may aid anybody with dyslexia who has had difficulty with reading.

Norfolk Libraries We have done some general staff awareness notes Jan Holden and are looking at: Assistant Head of Service * Bookstock - improving information for parents Norfolk County Council Library and in key libraries Information Service * Information sheets - for parents on the library Tel: 01603 774701 Library Activity Contact

website that can be printed off for parents on Holden, Janet - Libraries request. [email protected] * Community librarians- there are a number of things which the CLs are doing to promote this including making sure they talk to school about the services we offer, contacting the Children's services staff who are currently working in schools diagnosing and supporting children, and making sure that they have at least considered children with dyslexia when planning promotions etc. * Dyslexia Awareness week November 2011 - some libraries will be doing a promotion

Birmingham Libraries Produced online information pack about Jackie Mason Birmingham Libraries services to children with Children's and Youth Librarian dyslexia, a booklist and information about Birmingham Central Library Barrington Stoke. SCL (Society of Chief Librarians) 0121 303 2175 worked with Niace to develop a dyslexia moodle for [email protected] library staff The work kind of fizzled out, but Jackie Mason has taken on the task to promote the moodle with libraries in the UK. Manchester In VIP units we have some dyslexic service users Fran Devine who use Supernova software, which converts Co-ordinator: Access to Services standard text to audio and/or large print. We also MCC Library Services have Optelec machine readers in both these units, B4 F2 Universal Square and dyslexic people use them to change fonts and Manchester M12 6JH backgrounds and otherwise make text more legible. Telephone: 0161 234 1986 Library Activity Contact

We have a large stock of audio books in every Fax: 0161 236 6230 library, plus the Overdrive downloading service, so email: [email protected] that users can access books in audio easily. Of course this is limited by what is available and doesn't cover things like textbooks, which are in demand by students.

All libraries stock books from Barrington Stoke publishers, fiction books, which are aimed at dyslexic young people (cream paper, easily readable fonts etc) but could be read by people of any age.

Every year for Dylexia Awareness Week, we run a session in a library for dyslexic adults or for parents/carers of dyslexic children. People from either Manchester Adult Education Service or Education do the sessions, and they are usually popular.

Bath & North East Arranged for dyslexic people to be allowed to have Miss V. Bearne Somerset Libraries the membership category of visual impairment. This Community Engagement Manager gives them access to a range of concessions, Bath & North East Somerset including extra free time on PN computers, and free Customer Services: Tourism, Leisure spoken word books to borrow. & Culture Bath Central Library, 19 The Podium, Northgate St., Bath, BA1 5AN Library Activity Contact

01225 396304 or 787440 [email protected]

Kent Libraries and Have produced " Best Practice Guide: Dyslexia Liz Taylor Archives friendly libraries" and "Library Offer" pdf leaflet [I Service Development Librarian have files for these] [email protected] Tel: 01622 696426 Blackberry 07702973777

Havering Have provided a dyslexia support person who Ruth Gedalovitch chatted to people with dyslexia and offered [email protected] assessments. Through the 6 book challenge, we met a lady who has dyslexia and gave us advice as to what people with dyslexia experience when they enter one of our libraries - this has meant that we have ensured our Quick Reads are on display close to the entrance so they are not daunted by having to find them. We are meeting with her in the next week or so, to discuss setting up a support group and getting the members to assess our services and suggest improvements.

Birmingham Libraries Formed a partnership with Dyslexia Association of Geoff Mills Library Activity Contact

Birmingham in 2005, and has maintained Head of Central Library subscriptions since. Produced a couple of summary Birmingham Library & Archive documents and the half-day staff training agenda, Services which has been repeated on quite a few occasions 0121 303 2985 since 2005. [I have files for these] [email protected] The initiative resulted in a small work group within the Society of Chief Librarians and the subsequent best practice chart was produced (and is still on the website) in 2008. Hampshire County Services described at Council www3.hants.gov.uk/library/library-access/library- dyslexia.htm Leicestershire Libraries “Libraries become more dyslexia friendly” press release www.leics.gov.uk/pressrelease.htm? id=189468 Appendix 4 Notes of Right to Read Alliance Members Meeting Held at RNIB, Judd Street, London on 29 March 2011

1. Welcome, roll call and apologies The Chair, Pete Osborne, welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked everyone for electing him as the new Chair of the Alliance.

Roll call and apologies Present in London were: Chair: Pete Osborne, UKAFF (UK Association for Accessible Formats) Richard Orme, RNIB Mike Lewington, Calibre Penni Thorne, Visionary Barry Symonds, Talking News Federation Mike Townsend, Torch Trust Anna Tylor, Dyslexia Action Sue Flohr, British Dyslexia Association Ian Litterick, British Dyslexia Association new technologies committee and Iansyst Ltd Marion Ripley, Clearvision Nigel Betts, National Blind Children's Society Kelly Bambury, National Blind Children's Society Hans Cohn, National Federation of the Blind Helen Gunesekera, RNIB Helen Brazier, Share the Vision Guy White, Co-opted member Janice Evans, notetaker Stacey Temperley, notetaker elect

Present on the telephone: Jane Gallagher, Dyslexia Action (for first hour of meeting only)

Apologies: Paul Nisbet, CALL (Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning), Scotland 2. Minutes and actions from last meeting 2.1 The minutes were agreed with the following amendments: Under item 3 Gutenburg to be amended to Gutenberg. Under item 10 Books Vision to be amended to Bucks Vision.

2.2 Actions – most were completed, with the following carried forward: Action Pete: gather information on the AfB issue relating to the Alliance to bring back to the strategy group. Action Pete: As Julianne had now left RNIB, Pete to enquire of the RNIB Campaigns team whether they felt the CLA would have a positive or negative impact. Actions arising: Action Pete: agenda for next meeting to include an item about CLA reporting Action Janice/Pete/Stacey: to use first names in future notes of meetings. Action Janice: to send members the link to the Department for Education report

Pete noted the comment from Hans that the Alliance should demand a cast iron assurance from the relevant Minister that any purchaser of the Post Office must protect the Articles for the Blind post.

3. Chairperson’s report (previously circulated) It was Pete’s intention to produce this report for each Alliance meeting, to highlight key issues. This was welcomed by members. Pete is happy to receive comments from members on all the issues noted in his report. Regarding membership of the Alliance, Mike Lewington and Richard agreed to assist Pete in revisiting the membership list. Action Richard and Mike Lewington: assist Pete in revisiting membership and bring back further proposal to next meeting of this group.

Marion asked for information about the event celebrating 10 years of the Alliance. Helen Gunesekera advised that it would be a small event for the industry, to mark how far the work of the Alliance and publishers had come. Apple had offered to host the event. Anna said the event would provide an opportunity to talk informally and take the opportunity to feed into important changes coming up in the publishing industry. Anna thanked Helen and Shannon Saise- Marshall for their work on organising the event. Pete formally thanked Anna for the huge amount of work she has put in on behalf of the Alliance.

4. Publishing industries relationships working group report. Helen Guneskera updated the group with some extra information relating to text to speech. In January 2011 only half of ebooks had text to speech enabled. In early March 2011 that had changed significantly with marked increase of text to speech. There had been no official statement on this, so a check would be made shortly to see if this was a one-off.

Richard thought Helen was being unduly modest about the work that had gone into bringing about this increase. The Alliance had worked hard and this needed to be recognised at the London Book Fair and the event with publishers. He felt the UK was a lot further forward than the USA.

Members noted that some publishers were happy to issue digital files whilst others wouldn’t consider it. Mike Townsend raised the question of litigation. Anna said she felt it would be more productive to not go down the litigation route and her preference was for understanding and mutuality.

Pete advised that the Chair of WIPO was due to speak at the R2R and Publisher seminar at the London Book Fair and it would be interesting to see what he said. Helen Gunesekera would be recording the seminar and it should also be available on the London Book Fair website. If members wished to help at the stand they should contact her. Action All: contact Helen Gunesekera re attending the Fair or assisting at the stand.

5. E-book issues - report from Richard Orme Kindle - Amazon is the biggest producer of eBooks in the world, with 700,000 titles available in the US and smaller number in the UK. There is a platform to enable Kindle books to be read on other devices and on PC's and MAC's. These devices provide reasonable support for low vision with regard to fonts and colour. Kindle device has text to speech on the actual device. Screenreader users haven't been able to read Kindle but Amazon in the United States has released a plug-in so it can be used. Richard happy to send the link for this to anyone who wants it. This plug-in ignores any text to speech order from the publisher. The Alliance is in discussion with Amazon to have this plug-in released in the UK and they (Amazon) are indicating that it may be available at the forthcoming London Book Fair.

Adobe E-edition - People may not have heard of this, but electronic books available from libraries, Waterstones, iTunes etc all use the Adobe digital edition. The first version had very poor accessibility support and the Alliance took this issue up with Adobe. As a result some Alliance members have been testing out a newer version at a very early stage of its development. It looks to be giving much better accessibility than the Kindle plug-in. The Alliance are pushing Adobe for a release date, June has been mentioned but not confirmed. Richard advised that this software would be free.

Apple iBooks - this is a third system for reading ebooks. It's only available for use on Apple products. Richard sees a fifty/fifty usage split between Kindle and Apple. The big news is that Random House is the last of the big publishers to put their books into the iBook store. RNIB is passing information through to Apple about any bugs or issues for them to take onboard and deal with in later editions of equipment.

London Book Fair - discussed under other items

Videos - There is a responsibility within the Alliance to make sure constituents are aware of these developments with ebooks etc. There are different ways to communicate the developments in this area to people. One way RNIB is dealing with this is to produce some videos, showing and explaining how people use ebooks.

Pete said there was a need to encourage people to use ebooks, but a skill set had to be developed. Mike Townsend agreed, but said first of all people needed to learn how to use the things that read ebooks. Richard agreed, and also said that lots of people rely on other ways of reading but there are benefits to these coming out of the ebook files. Obtaining ebook files will make it much easer to produce other formats.

In answer to questions raised about transcribing commercially bought books and format shifting, Pete said this was something the Alliance should explore more. Action Pete: coordinate what is and isn't possible re format shifting.

Helen Brazier said at the moment the library ebook market is dominated by Overdrive. RNIB was doing a piece of work around influencing ebooks in libraries, including producing some guidelines. Ebooks would also be a theme for making a noise in libraries week in June. Whilst rejoicing about the increased availability of up to date books on demand, Marion flagged up the Braille position - at the moment children are told that it is worth learning Braille, but there is a need now to be completing confident of this, bearing in mind that the choice could be waiting years for books in Braille or obtaining ebooks much earlier. This engendered further discussion about quality and accessing of Braille, but it was decided that the specific Braille issues should be discussed at another forum rather than this meeting.

6. Curriculum issues - report from Richard Orme Richard advised that the Department for Education had finally released the report of the pilot work around accessible curriculum items. He was happy to provide a link to this report to anyone who wished to have it.

Richard also mentioned a curriculum conference which Paul had organised in Scotland. Between 100 and 150 people had attended this and there had been good presentations about resourcing accessible information, with lots of people passing resources around to one another. However there was a lot of confusion around differing versions of information and the practices that people want to do not yet reflected in agreements or licences.

In Northern Ireland the Government contract for production of accessible materials has been awarded to Jordonstown School.

Richard reported that people were working hard in the States to ensure a mainstream solution to the production of complex books which were difficult to transcribe. The US government has funded a programme entitled DIAGRAM, which is just starting up, and Richard hopes that the UK can learn from this work and any developments that arise.

Whilst in the States Richard visited RF&BD in Princeton. They use volunteers to record readings. Interesting to see how they are moving forward and using text with human related audio. They are planning to launch this service in the summer. RF&BD and also Bookshare are developing their own apps.

7. International aspects - paper previously circulated by Dan Pescod of RNIB. By way of an update to Dan's paper, Pete raised what for him were key things: the perception that certain international rights organisations hold off or stop the legal instrument. The World Blind Union feels it is important to make a statement - this led to a suspension of dialogue. Pete understood why the decision had been reached but it was a more adversarial stance than the Alliance has adopted.

Pete asked for members views of the role of the Alliance. His own view was that work can continue in the international arena but the Alliance should focus on its own strategy, although retaining an understanding of what is happening internationally. Guy was concerned that if two issues started to align he wouldn't want the work being done by the Alliance being undermined. Hans didn't see a problem and asked why we didn't forget about WIPO and let them take us to court if necessary. Anna concurred with Hans and said that the Alliance was not an international player and what the Alliance was doing was bringing results. She felt the Alliance should stick with what was working for its members. Helen Brazier asked if there was an interface between the international and UK publishing scene. Pete said yes there could be an issue, which was why the Alliance needed to be aware of any problems. With the relatively short time to the next WIPO meeting in June he was firmly of the view that less is more at the moment. Pete said that this work should be kept under review and he tasked the strategy working group with reviewing this position. Helen Gunesekera asked how the Alliance's position should be presented to anyone who asks, for example if publishers asked. Pete said that our stance should be that discussions with WIPO were taking place at an international level and the R2R Alliance is a national concern, so not engaging in these discussions at the moment. Marion commented that she felt the Alliance should be more passionate about this and offered to work with Pete and Anna to draw up a statement. Action Pete, Anna and Marion: agree a form of words to be used in relation to international matters.

8. Headline updates Share the Vision - Helen Brazier reported that Share the Vision, RNIB and dyslexic communities were working to influence public libraries. Helen will produce a paper for the next Alliance meeting. Action Helen B: produce paper for next Alliance meeting, on influencing public libraries.

National Blind Children's Society - Kelly advised that this would be the last Alliance meeting she is attending and that Nigel Betts would represent NBCS at future meetings. Nigel has been Book Production Manager at NBCS for just over a year, mostly internal work but had spent the last couple of months trying to obtain electronic files for publishing.

Visionary - Penni Thorne had nothing to report from Visionary but did advise that the family conference on reading she had mentioned at a previous meeting had unfortunately had to be postponed due to the Royal wedding.

Talking News Federation - Barry reported that the march to digital was progressing with fifty percent of talking newspapers putting out digital editions. The TNF had a new website www.tnf.org.uk

RNIB - Helen Gunesekera advised that work for the London Book Fair was progressing well. She referred to her regular publishing update e-mails, and said that if anyone else wished to receive them they should contact her. RNIB had now produced an information leaflet entitled E-books what can they offer me? Helen is happy to provide a copy to anyone who wishes to have it. RNIB has also added accessible publishing pages for industry onto its website. In response to a question from Anna about having the opportunity to link these with the dyslexic organisations, Helen offered to check Action HG: check about linking dyslexic organisations website to the accessible publishing pages on RNIB's website. Marion asked if the guidelines for publishers relating to illustrations were still available. Helen offered to check. Action HG: check to see if RNIB's guidelines for publishers re illustrations still available. Finally, Helen reported that Julianne Marriott had sent a note of thanks and said how much she had enjoyed work with the Alliance.

Ian Litterick advised that he had put together lots of information leaflets and reviews of kit etc and he would send the relevant link to members. He also reported that he was now a council member of the British Assistive Technology Association. He would circulate the URL for this organisation to members. Action IL: send link to information leaflets and kit review information and circulate the URL for the BATA.

UKAAF - Pete announced that UKAAF is about to release the last of the guidance documents. Work on standards for large print was progressing. The Braille group was doing some work around the discussion about unified English Braille. Finally, UKAAF hoped to launch a member's forum at its AGM in June.

Torch Trust - Mike Townsend reported that the online supported liturgy project was going quite well. Investigations were being made about the setting up of a network of Braille embossers. The USB stick pilot had started and the Trust would monitor feedback. The Trust had published a Daisy edition of the King James Bible. The Trust was looking into loaning ebooks appropriate to their users. It had managed to extract material from ebooks to create large print and Braille and was finding that more and more (fifty percent) of books available in audio form.

Calibre - Mike Lewington advised that Calibre had launched its USB stick service last January and it had been difficult to keep up with demand. It is expensive but there was a massive demand for it. He noted that approximately five percent of the sticks were lost, but that the expectation was that eighty percent of these would be returned after a reminder chase up.

Clearvision - Marion reported that they were busy with Olympic and Paralympic work. They were designing a new fabric book and downloadable book about nine paralympic sports, launching worldwide on 20 September 2011.

9. Any other Business 9.1 Guy asked if anyone knew how the work on scanning and public libraries producing alternative formats was going. Helen Brazier said her paper for the next Alliance meeting should cover this.

9.2 Hargreaves report - Pete advised that RNIB had responded to the Hargreaves report and he felt the Alliance should too. Key areas are around whether current regulations and legislation are sufficiently permissive. The Publishers Association had responded to say that they didn't want to alter anything. Pete felt the Alliance may wish to highlight issues such as format shifting and he was happy to coordinate if everyone agreed. Action PO: send strategy working group suggestions re response to Hargreaves.

10. Date of next meeting The next meeting is scheduled for 28 September but Pete advised that this date clashed with a World Braille meeting. He would circulate other possible dates. Action PO/ST: circulate alternative dates for next meeting of Alliance. Appendix 5

Share The Vision [STV] wishes to comment upon the decision by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure [DCAL] to cut its grant to the Library and Information Services Commission: Northern Ireland [LISC: NI] by 50% in 2011/12 and cease funding from April 2012.

STV is a UK wide partnership of the main voluntary sector bodies that produce and lend alternative format reading materials for print disabled people and the main bodies for publicly funded libraries. Founded in 1989, STV’s objective is to enhance library and information services for visually impaired and other print disabled people via enhanced partnership working within and between the voluntary and public sectors. LISC: NI has therefore been the representative of Northern Ireland on the STV Board from the outset and has been a very active member.

Indeed, it is worth pointing out that Northern Ireland has been instrumental in the formation, development and achievements of STV. In 1985, research by Peter Craddock of Queens University, Belfast, resulted in the publication of the British Library report "The public library and blind people". Peter Craddock was subsequently commissioned by RNIB to address how services for blind people could be improved and the outcome was the establishment of STV in 1989. Peter Craddock served as its first Director, based in Northern Ireland, until 1997.

LISC: NI has continued this tradition of having a forward looking, positive approach to addressing the needs of print disabled people. Some years ago, LISC: NI established its own Vision Panel to enhance partnership working with other bodies, especially RNIB Northern Ireland. The Vision Panel produced an excellent booklet, "Carry on Reading", which is designed to support visually impaired people, library staff and other staff who assist them to find out how they can obtain reading materials appropriate for their individual needs and circumstances. The Vision Panel also put a considerable amount of time into training library staff across Northern Ireland in the provision of these services, especially the use of assistive technology to enhance access to content for print disabled people. As DCAL will appreciate, the provision of such services in Northern Ireland’s public libraries has greatly contributed to the social and digital inclusion of print disabled people.

It is also important to acknowledge that LISC: NI’s cross border co- operation with An Chomhairle Leabharlanna [The Library Council] extended to address the needs of print disabled people. This resulted in Share The Vision being invited to address the Annual Joint Conference of the Library Association of Ireland and CILIP Northern Ireland in County Wicklow in 2004 and the Reading Better Ireland Conference in Dundalk in 2005.The latter event was part of the “Seeing Better Ireland” initiative jointly organised by the former Blind Centre for Northern Ireland and St Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired, Dublin.

We fully appreciate that the Northern Ireland Government, including DCAL, has had to address substantial grant reductions and the need to make difficult budget savings. We have noted that DCAL’s total revenue budget reduces by 9% over the period 2010/11 to 2014/15 which represents a reduction of 18% allowing for estimated inflation over that period. We have also noted that DCAL has attempted to provide some level of protection to Libraries Northern Ireland at a crucial time for the comparatively new single authority. We welcome this but find it hard to comprehend why DCAL has made such severe cuts in its grant to LISC: NI for such a small saving. The only logical conclusion is that DCAL envisages that LISC: NI will cease to exist from 1st April 2012.

We believe that the cessation of the independent expert advice provided to the Northern Ireland Government by LISC: NI would be a great loss for the comparatively small amount of £43,000 per annum. Not only will DCAL lose its source of independent advice, it will also endanger the co-operative partnership between different types of libraries in Northern Ireland and the cross border co- operation which LISC: NI has fostered so successfully. That would not be in the interests of visually impaired people or any other section of society which needs access to library services in Northern Ireland.

Therefore, we would respectfully request DCAL to reconsider its decision before potentially irreparable damage is done to the ecology of library services in Northern Ireland.

Mark Freeman Acting Chair Share the Vision [email protected]