Machine Services occupies about half of the second floor of the library. Staff in this section includes the machine agent, Sherry Austin, her assistant, Nickie Guerra, and Bob Anderson who splits his time between the Machine and Technical Services Sections. Dick Bailey, Alta Holler and Blanche Duggan are the three volunteers who regularly assist in this section. Dick tests and prepares new machines to ship to libraries and packs machines that are still under warranty and must be returned to Minnesota for repair. Alta cleans and boxes machines for patron exchanges.
Blanche sends machine retrieval letters.
If a patron no longer uses the library service but has not returned the talking book machine, the library is required by NLS to make three attempts to retrieve that machine. The largest group of volunteers at the library is also part of this section. These are our machine repair volunteers. Many but not all of these volunteers are members of the Telephone Pioneers of America. Half of the total volunteer hours annually are given by the 61 men and 4 women who work in the repair groups.