ANAHEIM : Library for Blind Triples Its Capacity

When avid reader Jun Sugimoto lost his sight to diabetes a year ago, he didn’t have to give up his beloved pastime. He has the Braille Institute of Orange County library.

And because of a recent expansion that tripled the library’s capacity, the Los Alamitos computer programmer and 2,700 other residents of Orange and southern Los Angeles counties will eventually have instant access to 15,000 books on tape.

(The library has a few books in Braille, the raised dot alphabet that the blind read with their fingers. But because only about 10% of the blind read Braille and the books are so thick--the Bible takes up 20 volumes and almost six feet of shelf space--fewer than 100 Braille books are kept at the library, although others can be ordered.)

The library serves not only the blind, but also those with physical disabilities such as tremors and dyslexia that make it difficult or impossible to read.

“This library is a major source of information for blind people,” Sugimoto, 36, said. He currently has checked out audio books on Spanish, diabetes and government assistance for the blind. Without the library, he said, “access to all of these books would be shut off to you.”

The library had since 1980 been tucked into a converted 450-square-foot garage on the Braille Institute campus. The institute is on three residential lots that have been combined, using some structures that were there before the Braille Institute acquired the property.

Earlier this month, the library moved into a new 1,550-square-foot building that looks very much like a high school facility, except that the “books” are audio tapes. The library now has about 5,000 titles and will slowly expand its collection over the next few years, librarian John Tyrrellsaid.

The library can order from 150,000 books on tape in Braille libraries nationwide. The tapes can either be checked out at the library or mailed to the clients. They cover all kinds of subjects--from biographies of retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Malcolm X and game show hostess Vanna White to histories of the Civil War and American Indians to mysteries and romance novels.

These are not the three-hour condensed “books-on-tape” sold to the sighted, but rather contain a book’s every word, including its dedication and foreword. Some book tapes are 30 hours long, Tyrrell said.

“We usually get a book about a year after it is published,” Tyrrell said. “ ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ we got in about two months. ‘Scarlett,’ the Gone With the Wind sequel, we got in two years. But anything you’ll find in a public library, you’ll likely find it here.”

The library also has several magazines, such as U.S. News and World Report, Reader’s Digest and National Geographic, on floppy records. These are flexible, thin plastic records played on a turntable. They are issued by the publishers on the same day the magazine is printed.

“There are things here for any taste and educational level,” said Mary Hernandez, a Tustin resident and a retired UC Irvine analyst who has been blind three years. “I think the service we get here is as good or maybe even better than what is available to the general population at the public libraries.”