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Library Gets Gear For Vision And Hearing Impaired

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST NEWS

Ghelder Arriaga, youth services librarian at the New Port Richey Public Library, demonstrates how the ceiling-mounted viewing screens can swivel, adding to the library conference room's versatility in a wide variety of uses.

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: June 21, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Time was all a good library needed was a bunch of books, a rubber stamp and a staff who possessed a firm command of the Dewey Decimal System.

Then again, when libraries were invented, print was about the only medium around. Today's library is a multimedia center designed to meet the minds of its patrons in every way possible.

The New Port Richey Public Library recently acquired some technology that will help everyone get the most out of the digital audio-visual age. On Monday, the library introduced the newly installed equipment to the public with an open house and health fair.

The library bought the equipment with a $7,000 grant from the Area Agency on Aging of Pasco-Pinellas. Word that the grant was available came to library staff members via the city's Communities for a Lifetime Committee. The advisory panel's members are constantly on the lookout for ways to make the city more livable and accessible to seniors.

"The library has more than 350,000 visits a year and has encountered many individuals that are hearing and visually impaired," Library Director Susan Dillinger said. "Our goal is to make our facility more user-friendly."

The equipment included two extra-wide, high-definition monitors for the public computing area. The screens will allow people with weak eyesight to read online text more easily than they could on more common monitors. The screens will allow all library patrons to enjoy the full visual impact of documentary or art videos.

The library also purchased Braille signs that are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

One of the advantages library officials had in being able to make the most of the grant was that they didn't have to pay anyone to install the new equipment; they had all the expertise they needed on staff, Dillinger said. The library's conference room is where much of the grant money was spent, and Ghelder Arriaga, the youth services librarian, was responsible for the installation of the new equipment there.

A large L-shaped space on the second floor is a conference room. It can be used for everything from computer classes to foreign film nights to group presentations and, yes, even the occasional conference.

It is designed to be versatile. The sound system is capable of playing just about any kind of audio input that might be used, and there are two large movie screens on either end of the room. A partition makes it possible for the space to accommodate two events at once.

Arriaga described the two new major additions that make the room even more versatile, particularly for hearing- or visually impaired people.

The first is a pair of HD plasma screens. The ceiling mounted screens are strategically placed to ensure everyone in the room can see what's on the screen.

"It's very useful when we have computer instruction, or movies with subtitles," Arriaga said.

On the one hand, people who need to be near the screen don't have to race to get a front row seat. In other instances, particularly live presentations, many people tend to want to sit toward the back, away from the focus of everyone's attention, as a matter of personal comfort. With this they can do so but still see the presentation.

Likewise, new assistive listening devices will make sure everyone can hear clearly, regardless of where they are seated. A requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the new listening devices are replacing an older system that had broken down.

With the assistive listening devices, a person can adjust the volume just for themselves, and effectively tune in to what they want to hear. A transmitter is connected to the sound system. Individual listeners in the room pick up the sound with individual receivers that are just a bit larger than a deck of cards and can clip on to a shirt pocket or worn on a lanyard around the neck, as long as there is nothing impeding between the transmitter and receiver.

The library also got a remote transmitter. It allows the listening devices to be used when there are events in other parts of the library or offsite.

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or at klowry@suncoastnews.com

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