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NLS on the Move

August 30, 2018

The latest on our new initiatives

 

Making the promise of Marrakesh a reality

NLS Director Karen Keninger has been in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this week for a meeting of the Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities (LPD) section of IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

Keninger is the section’s liaison for matters related to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, and is administered by WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. The treaty requires countries that ratify it to add provisions in their copyright laws to permit the reproduction and distribution of books in accessible formats. It also provides for the exchange of these books across borders by organizations that serve people who are blind, visually impaired, and print disabled.

So far, 43 countries have ratified the treaty. The United States signed the treaty in Marrakesh and the Senate OK’d the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act earlier this summer. The legislation is now with the House Judiciary Committee. (You can track the bill, S.2559, on www.congress.gov.)

“Over 300 million people worldwide have print disabilities,” Keninger said in remarks prepared for her LPD presentation. “But only the smallest percent of texts are provided in accessible formats. People with visual, physical, or perceptual disabilities who cannot use standard print struggle day in and day out reaching for that elusive key to information. Without it they cannot grasp the opportunities to be full and productive members of society.

“Literacy—the kind of literacy that will lead to successful education, work, and full participation in society—requires first and foremost meaningful access.”

One point Keninger made for her international audience in Kuala Lumpur readily applies to NLS and its nationwide library network, too: the importance of spreading the word about technological advances and creating a “web of resources.”

“How will we share what we know?” she said. “How will we all stay current on developments around the world? We must reach out to our neighbors not only across international borders, but within our countries, to learn and share. We must listen to the people we serve, asking them what they need and finding ways to provide it.”

A web of resources among organizations that serve people with print disabilities “must have all levels of connections and nodes of all sizes,” she said. “This web must be modeled on the World Wide Web, with connectivity across, among, between, all players, and finding mechanisms to locate and transmit digital files—so if a particular text on macroeconomics has been made accessible at the University of Toronto, a librarian in Malaysia can readily locate that title, download it, and provide it to a student in Kuala Lumpur.”

Finding ways to share resources and information, and to stay connected with its partners here and similar organizations abroad, is just another way that NLS is staying on the move!

Watch for the next issue of On the Move in your inbox on September 27!