One of my friends who I met through facebook, who is Deaf, sent me the following message:
Dani wrote at 10:58pm:
Hey I went to the library to request your book (RALLY CAPS), and they said "We cannot order the book" I said, "Why?" and they said, "Because we don't advertise deafness." I'm like, "Well I need to speak with the mangaer because this happens to be a great book -I heard - and I would love to read it, because one of my buddies wrote it about her child." I'm so mad you have no idea...
... it's very hard over here.. bc in Long Island people don't really care about us deaf/hh people. I don't get it, but it would be a great book to have in the library...especially if it's a young adult book for young kids that are deaf/hh. Boy I tell you I'm so upset, so I'll order it through amazon. I had to tell you this.
Me: Confused and starting to get just a tiny bit pissed off:
Dani, give me the number of the library and I'll call, there must be some type of confusion...DON'T BUY THE BOOK, it's in other libraries, I don't see why this library shouldn't be able to order it...
Dani:
Hey thanks... I'll deafinitely buy the book, I don't have that problem just next week I can do it. It's West Hempstead Public Library. I was in the front where you logout the books.. and I just asked a general question. They didn't ask for my name, number - nothing...They aren't pleasant people. As of yesterday, it is a new library. Thanks for your help!
dani
Let me know what happens.
So, I call the library and speak to the director who was confused as to how such a thing could have happened. She wanted to know who Dani had spoken to, but I didn't have a name. I was then transferred to the woman working in the Children's Dept. who looked up the book and said she would look into ordering it. She then said, "I have to go now, I have another call." (Apparently the fact that I was calling from Italy was not enough for her to use proper manners.)
I told Dani to go back to speak to this woman. We'll see what happens- I'll keep you posted!
5 comments:
In defence of Long Island, when I lived there (Half Hollow Hills), I had a wonderful experience with the Library. People working at the Library realised my son was deaf when they saw me signing with him and approached me and asked me if I knew how to use a TTY. I did, so they asked me if I could train their personnel. I was thrilled to help. Then, they asked me if there were any books or DVD's that would help people learn more about deafness, or help me out as well, just to let them know and they would order them right away. They ordered a LOT of stuff and really increased the amount of stuff they had on deafness in their library. It was an incredible experience.
OM
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html
Jodi,
Can I suggest that you donate a copy of the book to Bookshare? Bookshare makes books available to people with visual or other print disabilities. They convert the book into whatever form the person needs -- Braille, large print, or digital formats for text to speech audio. Their services are free to American students k-12. For adults, they have a $50/year membership fee that allows the person to request as many books as they want. It's a wonderful organization, founded by Jim Fruchterman, a recent winner of a MacArthur fellowship, also known as a "genius grant."
jodi- I wrote back to what happened at the library on facebook. I got your message. You can post it here if youd like. Thanks for everything. Ps..what paula wrote sounds pretty interesting I never new that.I'm deafinitely going to join.
OM, thank you for your comment...
Paula, Hey Girl! A while ago another person told me to do that and I slacked. I will definitely take care of donating a book, thank you so much for reminding me!
Dani,
Thank you again for everything...hugs, Jodi
That doesn't sound right at all!
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