Access Services and the Talking Books library have reopened in a limited fashion. We are working remotely, so we’re not open for walk-in service, but you can call, send us mail, or email.

We are also sending out new machines as needed. There may be delays, as 60 of the 97 nationwide Talking Books Libraries have experienced closures, limiting our supplies. Rest assured that we are filling requests as quickly as we can.

During our closure we’ve partnered with the Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Richmond to send a limited number of books to fill requests. This partnership brought us nationwide attention from the National Library Service of the Library of Congress--it was humbling, and wouldn’t have been possible without your support. So thank you for receiving Talking Books!

Additional updates about our status, including the phased reopening of the library, will be announced at librarypoint.org.

We’re proud to announce that we now have a blog! You can find it on our website, librarypoint.org/access-services, or reach it directly by clicking here.

There's still time to participate in CRRL’s Summer Reading Challenge! It will run this summer until August 31. This year’s theme is “Dig Deeper: Read, Investigate, Discover.” Talking Books members with CRRL library cards are welcome to participate, as Talking Books count as part of the challenge.

Participants can enter into raffle drawings for weekly drawings and end-of-summer grand prizes, earning tickets with each book logged. Visit librarypoint.org/summer to register or call Babak at (540) 372-1144, extension 7054, for assistance.

If you live in CRRL’s service area, or a county with which we have a reciprocal borrowing agreement and do not have a CRRL library card, you can apply for one at librarypoint.org/card.

Your library card barcode will be emailed to you, and once branches reopen, your physical card will be mailed to you.

The library is expanding curbside pickup, which is now available at nearly every location. The ability to place new holds has been reinstated. Items can be returned to bookdrops during curbside pickup hours.

You can check the status of your holds under On Hold in your online account. To ensure you get the materials you really want, you can manage your holds.

Customers with holds will receive an email once their hold is available for pickup at their branch. They can then head to the Curbside Pickup Zone during their branch’s Curbside Pickup hours. Branches are otherwise closed until further notice.

The U.S. Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on September 30, a month sooner than previously announced. This includes door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone, and by mail.

Participating in the census is important because the results are used to determine how much funding local communities receive for key public services and how many seats each state gets in Congress. State and local officials also use census counts to draw boundaries for congressional, state legislative, and school districts.

For more information on the census, including ways you can complete your census, visit librarypoint.org/2020census.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. It's easy to register to vote--just make sure you do it in time for the next election. To register to vote in Virginia, visit elections.virginia.gov/registration/how-to-register.

Important Dates to Remember:

Think you are already registered? To check the status of your registration and change details, such as your address or name, visit:

Another handy online option is registering for an absentee ballot. To request an absentee ballot, visit elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal.

Visit librarypoint.org/voting-answers for more information, and for a Facts for Voters brochure prepared in partnership with the League of Women Voters of the Fredericksburg Area.

I am currently tasked with rating audiobooks. Each month I receive a small list of books. I download and listen to them through BARD, which is accessible with JAWS, my screen reader, and voiceover. These narrators do an amazing job of keeping me engaged! One of my favorite stories is Across the Void, about a woman who awakens alone on her ship in the middle of space. I am greatly honored to help out in this way, and to help customers choose their next books.

All Talking Book Libraries run on a July-June calendar, so now that we’re in our new year we wanted to remind you about four things to do to keep your Talking Books account in good shape:

We hope knowing this will help you stay in control of your books.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes (DB 96907) is about Alice Wright, a woman who leaves her stifling life in England when she marries a handsome American and moves to small-town Kentucky. But life there quickly proves equally claustrophobic. When a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on. She joins four other women, including Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who has never asked a man's permission for anything. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or convention. Though they face danger in a brutal landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, they’re committed to their mission of bringing books and life-changing information to people who have never had either.

Based on the true story of the Pack Librarians of Kentucky, The Giver of Stars is a New York Times Bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon “Hello Sunshine” Book Club choice. If you want a more detailed description of the book, you can read Access Services Assistant Katie Neal’s write-up about it in our blog, which can be found at librarypoint.org/access-services.

This Book Group reading will also see the return of our group meeting! We will be using Google Meet, which has been recommended by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virtual Sightlines Book Group will be held on Wednesday, September 16, from 11-12:30 pm. To join the webinar visit meet.google.com/mrp-gpsq-csi or call 1-385-645-6919‬ and dial the following PIN number: 986 300 976#‬

By Chuck Gray

As we’ve shifted to working from home, virtual meetings via Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, and other platforms have become the norm. Thankfully, all of these services include some accessibility features for the blind or vision-impaired.

Zoom has by far the most thorough documentation on how many accessibility features they provide and how they test them. More concise and focused instructions about Zoom are available from Indiana University.

Google Meet and Hangouts boast similar features, though I was unable to find an overt statement in their accessibility documentation as to what screen readers they support. Fortunately, this article from the Perkins School for the Blind eLearning documents relatively good support for screen readers.

Other products like Skype, Slack, and Microsoft Teams also support screen readers and other accessibility technologies. The only outlier in the services I researched is GoToMeeting, which makes no mention at all of screen readers, only high contrast color schemes and adjustable fonts.

Eventually, many of us will return to the office. It’s not unreasonable to predict that others will continue to work from home. In that event, it’s good to see companies paying attention to these features.

For book reservations, to share a review, or for more information, contact Access Services Librarian Babak Zarin at 540-372-1144 extension 7054, Toll Free: 1-800-628-4807, or

babak.zarin@crrl.org.