Espa6nol

PATERSON RUNS

Senate Minority Leader Joins Spitzer Team

By Beth Guarino
New York state Sen. David Paterson (D-Dist. 30) has been chosen as the candidate for lieutenant governor to run with New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who hopes to be elected governor in November.
The demonstrators, including members of New York’s disability community and elected officials, protested a New Year’s Eve incident in which the club’s manager refused to admit a 21-yearold college student who uses a wheelchair. According to the student the manager said, “It is our policy not to admit people in wheelchairs.”
Elected to the state Senate in 1985 at the age of 31, Paterson was chosen in 2002 as the Senate Minority Leader. As such, he is an ex officio member of all Senate standing committees, and he guides policy and budget initiatives for the Senate Democratic Conference. He is also the ranking minority member of the Rules Committee. The state’s first non-white legislative leader, he represents the 30th District, which includes Harlem and the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Paterson, who is legally blind, did a report on the Medicaid crisis in New York state, offering ideas that would improve Medicaid’s efficiency. He suggested providing medications at a more reasonable cost through bulk buying, preferred medication lists and possible importing of medications from other countries.
Paterson has long supported transparency in government matters. Last year he proposed a $1 billion stem cell initiative to support research with the potential to cure such debilitating diseases.
“There will be no back-door borrowing,” he said. “This project will have the voters’ seal of approval.”
When he outlined oversight controls for the initiative, he said, “These oversight controls will ensure that the institute will not only operate for public benefit, but in open view of the public.”
In 2004, then Borough President C. Virginia Fields said of Paterson, who is a minority group member with a disability, “He is the type of person who can pull the different factions together. He understands…what needs to be done.”
Paterson belongs to the Achilles Track Club and has competed in the New York City marathon, which he completed in 1999. He is a member of the American Foundation for the Blind. He was educated at Columbia and Hofstra Law School.
The New York state lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four year term of office. His duties, are to serve as president of the state Senate, serve as acting governor in the absence of the governor from the state or the disability of the governor, or to become governor in the event of the governor’s death, impeachment or resignation.
Additional statutory duties of the lieutenant governor are to serve on the impeachment court, the state Defense Council and on the board of trustees of the College of Forestry.

75 YEARS

Library for the Blind and Handicapped
Has Anniversary

By Norman Smith
The month of March marks the 75th anniversary of the National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, but records indicate that library service for blind patrons began in the late 19th century.
As early as 1868, the Boston Public Library established a department for the blind after receiving eight embossed volumes. In 1882, the Pennsylvania Home Teaching Society and Free Circulating Library for the Blind was founded in Philadelphia and in 1899, was incorporated with the Free Library of Philadelphia.
The Chicago Library, in 1894, received a collection of embossed books from a local women’s club. The New York City Free Circulating Library for the Blind was organized in 1895, by a blind man who had a private collection of embossed books.
In 1903 this collection became the nucleus of the Library for the Blind of the New York Public Library. The Detroit Public Library placed 110 volumes on the shelves in 1896, and in the same year New York became the first state to create a department for the blind in a state library.
Other state libraries soon followed New York’s example. The concept of a national library for the blind was developed in 1897 by John Russell Young, the librarian of Congress, when he established a reading room for the blind with about 500 books and music items in raised characters.
In 1913, Congress provided that one copy of each book in raised characters made for educational purposes under government subsidy by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) was to be deposited in the Library of Congress.
In 1930, identical bills were introduced in Congress by Rep. Ruth Pratt and Sen. Reed Smoot to provide adequate service on a national scale through an appropriation to be expended under the direction of the Librarian of Congress
The Pratt-Smoot Act became law in March 1931, and soon afterward, nearly 20 libraries sprang up that year to loan Braille books. The first “talking book” started being developed in 1933, but the full production of these long playing records did not start until 1935. Books on cassette tape started to be produced in the early 1970’s, with “Roots” being the first title being recorded at 15/16 speed. It took five cassettes
Library services were expanded to the physically disabled in 1966 through another act of Congress. Up to that point, only nine more libraries for the blind had been established since 1931.
After 1966, most of the remaining states joined the system, with North Dakota being the last in 1995. For 30 years the Telephone Pioneers volunteers have assisted the NLS by maintaining the various talking book players.
The next change for the NLS will be to convert talking books to digital format. NLS has initiated a multi-year plan to make this change, which will have a great impact on readers and the entire system. A digital format means that books can be produced as needed or can be downloaded from the internet.