TONS OF BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 110, 5 November 1935, Page 16

TONS OF BOOKS

LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND

With the completion of its ,£22,000' rebuilding scheme the > National Library for the Blind now has space in its premises in Smith Street, "Westminster, for more than -250,000 volumes, says the "Daily Telegraph." Twelve hundred bulky books embossed in . Braille are circulated from the library every day to blind readers all over the country and in many parts of the Empire. Miss O. I. Prince, the librarian, told a representative of the "Daily Telegraph" that the reconstructed premises are now so spacious that it is hoped no further enlargement will be needed for another 30 years. During the building operations 70,000 volumes had to be temporarily moved into! a neighbouring warehouse and the work of distribution was carried on without serious interruption throughout the reconstruction".- The last of the 127 tons; of books have been "rearranged in their new home. Each-of the five floors of the lofty library contains hundreds of feet of steel shelves, while on ■ the ground floor there is spacious accommodation for office and packing work. The main entrance to: the reconstructed building, which faces on to Tufton Street, is through the Great Smith Street premises/where .the read-ing-room' and administrative'offices are situated. The architects ' were Messrs.; Tatchell and Wilson, and the general contractors Messrs. Halloway Bros. "One of the principal difficulties with which we are always faced is the great bulk of; a Braille volume," said Miss Prince. "An ordinary novel, when transcribed for the blind, fills five or six Braille volumes, each measuring 14 by llin and weighing 51b. Among our new books are Robert Graves's 'I Claudius,' in eight Braille volumes, and Zweig's 'Marie' Antoinette' in nine." v More than 500 voluntary workers spend their leisure transcribing new books into Braille. AH their work is carefully: examined at Great Smith j Street, and the pages are treated with a strengthening solution of shellac and methylated spirits before they are bound.