The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-16
BLIND PRODUCE
STATE LIBRARY
BRAILLE BOOKS
WPA Project Employs Six
Women, Three of Whom
Are SiqhtIeSs.

Working patiently and gaining
skill day by day three blind women
and three women who can see have
transcribed 80 volumes of Braille at
the Indiana State Library.
Taken from relief rolls, these six
Works Progress Administration en-
ployes we're assigned to the task last
fall. A nonrelief blind man does all
the proofreading.
AS soon as the books are bound,
they are to be circulated to blind
readers IN the state through the ia
cilities of The state travelling library
Novel Makes 3 to S Volumes
Only 10 titles are included in the
collection, since full-length novels
require between three and five VOL
umes in Braille. More than 1000
pages have been completed, the av-
erage volume of Braille containing
from 100 to 125 pages.
The three blind women were
taught to operate the small Braille
machines. OF the two grades of
Braille, one for elementary readers
and one for mature readers, the
women were taught to use the latter.
The three women with sight work
with the blind women, reading them
the words they are to transcribe
into Braille. When the Braille
workers began, they could do only
three or four pages day. With
practice they have gained speed and
now often transcribe as many as
20 pages daily.
Compile Braille Cataiog
One of the most valuable pieces
of work done in the opinion of au-
thorities is the transcription of
Braille catalog of all books in the
library available to blind readers.
This is the first time such catalog
has been put into Braille.
Two copies have been completed
and additional prints are to be
made. In the 75-page Braille list,
the authors name is indented and
under it are listed the title of the
book and the number of volumes
in Braille.
The State Library purchase
three new Braille machines for
project use and is paying for the
binding of the completed books at
the American Red Cross headquar-
tiers in Washington. The pages are
shellacked, sewn together by a spe-
cial process and bound in buckram
with gold tooling.
First Project of Its Kind
Thousands of volumes of classics
and valuable modern books are not
accessible yet to blind readers, and
1t is these works that the WPA en-
ployes are attempting now to bring
to Indiana's blind.
The project is the first of it's kind
in the United States. 1t serves a
three-fold purpose: Provides read
ing for the blind, gives a living
wage to needy persons, and teaches
blind persons means of earning
livelihood in the future.
Because they took less time to
transcribe, and because there is a
scarcity of short stories available
to blind readers, the first work on
the project was done in this field
of literature. The stories are to
be bound in three volumes of ap-
proximately 100 pages each. The
following stories are included: Mar
riage a la Mode" Mansfield; "Ame-
thyst," Carole; Silent Grow the
Guns" Kantor; Gift of the Magi,"
o. Henry; "007," Kipling; The
Necklace" de Maupassant; Ghost |
Story" Mark Twain; Innocence"
Lane, and THE Party" Tarking-
ton.
Books Finished
Novels which have been COM
pleted are Goodbye, Mr. Chips"
Hilton, one volume; Passing the
Torch" Andrews, one volume; La