From Vision in Australia, this is talking vision. And now here's your host, Sam Colley.

From Vision in Australia, this is talking vision. And now here's your host, Sam Colley.

Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness and low vision.

Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness and low vision.

What I know my father liked was the fact that he was hearing somebody who might have just lived down the street or might have lived in the next town. They were just ordinary people reading him the news without any sort of embellishment. And and it was bringing to life things that he was well aware of, and he knew they existed, but he could not access them himself. And it was that kind of access that Vision Australia radio gives to people. That is an essential service.

What I know my father liked was the fact that he was hearing somebody who might have just lived down the street or might have lived in the next town. They were just ordinary people reading him the news without any sort of embellishment. And and it was bringing to life things that he was well aware of, and he knew they existed, but he could not access them himself. And it was that kind of access that Vision Australia radio gives to people. That is an essential service.

Welcome to the program. That voice you just heard there was John Westland, a voice many of you I'm sure familiar with. If you're avid listeners of the morning paper around planes, trains and automobiles, or the last two editions of the Carols by Candlelight Audio described broadcast, I caught up with John to celebrate World Radio Day, which recently took place on Sunday, the 13th of February. And that interview is coming up shortly, so make sure to stick around. And then later on in the show, Tess Herbert catches up with Sarah Barlow dawn from the library to chat all about library lovers to find out about some upcoming events at the Vision Australia Library and share some Valentine's Day book recommendations. And finally, this week we wrap up with a little bit of news and information. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision. I start off by asking John about his involvement with World Radio Day, inaugurated in 2011 by UNESCO's to celebrate the medium of radio as one of the oldest and most widespread means of communication

Welcome to the program. That voice you just heard there was John Westland, a voice many of you I'm sure familiar with. If you're avid listeners of the morning paper around planes, trains and automobiles, or the last two editions of the Carols by Candlelight Audio described broadcast, I caught up with John to celebrate World Radio Day, which recently took place on Sunday, the 13th of February. And that interview is coming up shortly, so make sure to stick around. And then later on in the show, Tess Herbert catches up with Sarah Barlow dawn from the library to chat all about library lovers to find out about some upcoming events at the Vision Australia Library and share some Valentine's Day book recommendations. And finally, this week we wrap up with a little bit of news and information. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision. I start off by asking John about his involvement with World Radio Day, inaugurated in 2011 by UNESCO's to celebrate the medium of radio as one of the oldest and most widespread means of communication

in my past life, I worked extensively with Radio Australia, the ABC's International Radio Service, and as part of Just Generally, we had very good relations with many other radio stations throughout South East Asia and throughout the Pacific. We often train some of their journalists, their broadcasters, but on days like World Radio Day, we would always come together and exchange content as a way of trying to build relations between people in Australia and people within the region. Let me tell you about the Pacific in particular. Radio is critical and has been critical in the Pacific for a very long time, mainly because the newer, let's say, the newer medium of social media for for, for example and for television they have become. They came much later and radio was entrenched right throughout the region, and it's particularly important to get to the outer regions. Capital cities always have television services, but outer islands and smaller villages are more likely to just have radio, and that has proven time and time again in moments of crisis and in moments of whether it be natural crisis or whether it be political crisis as a means of communicating to everyone. And so we would with with International Radio Day, we would foster that and try to grow that. Part of the Australian aid organisations has always also been to to try to develop the radio services and strengthen the radio services to those people in our region.

in my past life, I worked extensively with Radio Australia, the ABC's International Radio Service, and as part of Just Generally, we had very good relations with many other radio stations throughout South East Asia and throughout the Pacific. We often train some of their journalists, their broadcasters, but on days like World Radio Day, we would always come together and exchange content as a way of trying to build relations between people in Australia and people within the region. Let me tell you about the Pacific in particular. Radio is critical and has been critical in the Pacific for a very long time, mainly because the newer, let's say, the newer medium of social media for for, for example and for television they have become. They came much later and radio was entrenched right throughout the region, and it's particularly important to get to the outer regions. Capital cities always have television services, but outer islands and smaller villages are more likely to just have radio, and that has proven time and time again in moments of crisis and in moments of whether it be natural crisis or whether it be political crisis as a means of communicating to everyone. And so we would with with International Radio Day, we would foster that and try to grow that. Part of the Australian aid organisations has always also been to to try to develop the radio services and strengthen the radio services to those people in our region.

Oh, absolutely. A lot of crucial services for shorter. So many people who, as you said, don't have perhaps the access to the mod cons that a lot of people do take for granted. Now we'll zoom in a little bit now on the radio topic into Vision Australia radio. So, John, why did you get involved with Vision Australia radio? I understand there's a family connection there.

Oh, absolutely. A lot of crucial services for shorter. So many people who, as you said, don't have perhaps the access to the mod cons that a lot of people do take for granted. Now we'll zoom in a little bit now on the radio topic into Vision Australia radio. So, John, why did you get involved with Vision Australia radio? I understand there's a family connection there.

My father, for the last ten years of his life, was functionally blind. He had severe macular degeneration in one eye and the other I had. I'm not sure what the disease was, but certainly it was a profoundly affected. He saw it couldn't read, couldn't watch television, but could find his way around his house. He lived in northern Victoria, lived on his own after my mother passed away and we would read every weekend, one one of the kids would go to his town and to home. And his first request was always to read the newspapers. And so we would pick the age and pick the eyes out of the newspapers, the local newspaper and the and the city newspapers, and read to him to get him up to speed with the information. Subsequently, I got one of the local electronics people to put in a special antenna a for those who are radio aficionados, it's a Yagi antenna, which is a high gain antenna. And we pointed it at the Bendigo ABH service to try to drag it in because we were just outside the the the broadcast area so that he could listen to Vision Australia. Then subsequent to that, after he passed away, I decided, Well, look, I've been working in radio for a long time. I've been reading to a blind person for a long time. Why do I not try to combine the two and and bring it to a wider audience here at Vision Australia Radio or IPH? And I mean, I'd always known about the station. The station has always been in the background of my my understanding because I've been a kind of a a radio fan for a very long time. So I was well aware of the stations across Melbourne. And so it seemed almost a natural fit for me to once I'd retired to to move into something like this to provide a wider service to those people with low vision.

My father, for the last ten years of his life, was functionally blind. He had severe macular degeneration in one eye and the other I had. I'm not sure what the disease was, but certainly it was a profoundly affected. He saw it couldn't read, couldn't watch television, but could find his way around his house. He lived in northern Victoria, lived on his own after my mother passed away and we would read every weekend, one one of the kids would go to his town and to home. And his first request was always to read the newspapers. And so we would pick the age and pick the eyes out of the newspapers, the local newspaper and the and the city newspapers, and read to him to get him up to speed with the information. Subsequently, I got one of the local electronics people to put in a special antenna a for those who are radio aficionados, it's a Yagi antenna, which is a high gain antenna. And we pointed it at the Bendigo ABH service to try to drag it in because we were just outside the the the broadcast area so that he could listen to Vision Australia. Then subsequent to that, after he passed away, I decided, Well, look, I've been working in radio for a long time. I've been reading to a blind person for a long time. Why do I not try to combine the two and and bring it to a wider audience here at Vision Australia Radio or IPH? And I mean, I'd always known about the station. The station has always been in the background of my my understanding because I've been a kind of a a radio fan for a very long time. So I was well aware of the stations across Melbourne. And so it seemed almost a natural fit for me to once I'd retired to to move into something like this to provide a wider service to those people with low vision.

That's right. Yeah, quite exciting to get involved there now. Why do you think, John, that Vision Australia radio is such an important service?

That's right. Yeah, quite exciting to get involved there now. Why do you think, John, that Vision Australia radio is such an important service?

Well, clearly for those people from from personal experience, for people like my father, they want the personal connection. They want ordinary people telling them the news. Of course, anybody can listen to any radio station. You'll get your music, you'll get your interviews and things like that. But they are presented by their eyesight. Long experience radio professionals and they've got a particular sound and they've got a particular way of doing things. But what? I know my father liked. Was the fact that he was hearing somebody who might have just lived down the street or might have lived in the next town, they were just ordinary people reading him the news without any sort of embellishment. And and it was bringing to life things that he was well aware of and he knew they existed, but he could not access them himself. And it was that kind of access that Vision Australia radio gives to people. That is an essential service.

Well, clearly for those people from from personal experience, for people like my father, they want the personal connection. They want ordinary people telling them the news. Of course, anybody can listen to any radio station. You'll get your music, you'll get your interviews and things like that. But they are presented by their eyesight. Long experience radio professionals and they've got a particular sound and they've got a particular way of doing things. But what? I know my father liked. Was the fact that he was hearing somebody who might have just lived down the street or might have lived in the next town, they were just ordinary people reading him the news without any sort of embellishment. And and it was bringing to life things that he was well aware of and he knew they existed, but he could not access them himself. And it was that kind of access that Vision Australia radio gives to people. That is an essential service.

Wonderful. Now, John, we've dug into this topic a little bit there. But also just finally, what do you love most about radio? What is the biggest highlight for you, either as a listener or a presenter?

Wonderful. Now, John, we've dug into this topic a little bit there. But also just finally, what do you love most about radio? What is the biggest highlight for you, either as a listener or a presenter?

I'll I'll start with one. I happen to be working in South Africa. This was in 1996. I think 1996 we were doing some training in South Africa. I was training South African journalists in a black radio station over there, and we were on holidays and we were in the app where I saw at the outback of South Africa, listening to Radio Australia, giving us the election results from from. I think it would have been in March, March 1996, when John Howard was first elected as prime minister of Australia. And that just that connection across half a globe to to actually get that information. That was because I knew Radio Australia and I knew to find it and those sort of things and that it is the connection. I think it's the warmth that radio can bring, the fact that I can go to bed at night and and be lying down with one ear open and and listening to whether it be someone like a dare I say to Phillip Adams or I it might. Whoever it is, their their head is where their voice is, two or three feet away from my head and they're just whispering in my ear and that sort of. And it's that personal connection that I get from that. And obviously, the the world is brought to me through it and things. But I find you can use your mind better with radio than you can with television. Television is a kind of a mindless exercise. In so many ways, it's grossly underutilized. They have lots of talking head programs, which are essentially radio programs with pictures. Mm-Hmm. I'd much prefer to make the pictures myself. Have the radio present the information and then and then imagine what's going on, and you can't do that with any other medium except radio.

I'll I'll start with one. I happen to be working in South Africa. This was in 1996. I think 1996 we were doing some training in South Africa. I was training South African journalists in a black radio station over there, and we were on holidays and we were in the app where I saw at the outback of South Africa, listening to Radio Australia, giving us the election results from from. I think it would have been in March, March 1996, when John Howard was first elected as prime minister of Australia. And that just that connection across half a globe to to actually get that information. That was because I knew Radio Australia and I knew to find it and those sort of things and that it is the connection. I think it's the warmth that radio can bring, the fact that I can go to bed at night and and be lying down with one ear open and and listening to whether it be someone like a dare I say to Phillip Adams or I it might. Whoever it is, their their head is where their voice is, two or three feet away from my head and they're just whispering in my ear and that sort of. And it's that personal connection that I get from that. And obviously, the the world is brought to me through it and things. But I find you can use your mind better with radio than you can with television. Television is a kind of a mindless exercise. In so many ways, it's grossly underutilized. They have lots of talking head programs, which are essentially radio programs with pictures. Mm-Hmm. I'd much prefer to make the pictures myself. Have the radio present the information and then and then imagine what's going on, and you can't do that with any other medium except radio.

And that's a perfect note to end on. Thank you very much, John. That was John Westland, the presenter of Planes, Trains, Automobiles and the morning paper round. Chatting to me today about World Radio Day on Talking Vision. I'm Sam Cully, and you're listening to talking vision on Vision Australia, radio associated stations of our heights and the community radio network. If you'd like to find out more about the program, like where to find your local radio frequency or listen to past programs, you can find all this and find more on the Talking Vision web page. Just stop talking vision into your search engine, or you can find the program on the podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia Library. And now here's Tess Herbert with Sarah from the library.

And that's a perfect note to end on. Thank you very much, John. That was John Westland, the presenter of Planes, Trains, Automobiles and the morning paper round. Chatting to me today about World Radio Day on Talking Vision. I'm Sam Cully, and you're listening to talking vision on Vision Australia, radio associated stations of our heights and the community radio network. If you'd like to find out more about the program, like where to find your local radio frequency or listen to past programs, you can find all this and find more on the Talking Vision web page. Just stop talking vision into your search engine, or you can find the program on the podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia Library. And now here's Tess Herbert with Sarah from the library.

Today, I'm delighted to be chatting with the lovely Sarah Blue Dawn. Sarah is the one and only Sarah from the library because this week it's not only Valentine's Day, it's library lovers day to a libraries, librarians and people who love books. And I am all in favor of this day because I'm not a librarian, but I love books and think that libraries of the very best thing in the whole wide world. Sarah is here to talk to us about that library, about the services. It offers events and to give you some brilliant recommendations for Valentine's Day. Sarah, thank you for joining me today. Thanks for having me. That was my favourite introduction. Ever, I think. And so glad to hear you love the library as much as we do. That's amazing. I do. I do. And I I'll tell you why that is the reason that is sometimes you can get a lot of things with Audible or Kindle, but there are times when there are books that just cannot be found in accessible formats. And sometimes those gaps can't be filled. But quite a number of times those those those gaps have been filled by the Vision Australian Library. I've quite literally found books, and I've always wanted to read that I haven't been able to read previously because have been available through the regional Australia Library. And for someone who loves books as much as I do. That's a wonderful thing. So I think this day is just a great event. Now, Sarah, can you tell me a little bit about the services the library offers you the types of content and the accessible formats? Yeah, absolutely. So we're a public library service and we're a national service to anyone across Australia who has a print disability can join our service. What a print disability means is somebody that has a vision impairment or visual loss, but it also can include people that might have dyslexia or another neurological processing disorder. It could be somebody that's had a stroke or suffers from MS and can't hold a book. So there's a number of reasons that our clients come to our library, and a lot of them come for our audio collection because it is by far the bigger part of our library. We have about 50000 thousand audio books. As you mentioned, text is a huge range and we definitely do our best to kind of get in our library what people want to read, where a client driven library. So if someone gives us a call and says, I'd really like this book, I can't see it in your catalogue. Can you help me? The chances are we can and will definitely do our best, and we do this by either purchasing the audio and adding it to our library. And sometimes we actually use our amazing volunteer and the writers to narrate the books. So we have some content, some books that nobody really in the rest of the world has in audio, which is really wonderful to be able to offer. We also have a braille collection, which is a smaller collection but wonderful for our priorities. Who are some of the most voracious readers out there? They love their braille books so they can either learn physical braille that comes in the mail, or some people have an E Braille reader, so it's just a matter of downloading the file and reading away on your device. And of course, we love to inspire our kids to start reading young. So we have our wonderful Felix Library, which is a library specifically designed for our very young to develop early literacy skills. So from as little as a few months old, we can get our children to have braille under their fingertips and start to get a sense of the literacy that they might use as they grow up. And they also have a tactile element. So some of our kids that used to be like, say, might not learn braille. They might go on to use large print or to be audio uses, but they still can enjoy the tactile storybooks. What a wide variety of content. And as you said, the library. The library is so special in that it is so client driven and can can help people read books that they would otherwise not have access to at all. Because, I mean, hopefully one day old books are available widely in accessible formats. But until then, the library well and truly well and truly steps up to the plate. So as well as the services you offer, what kind of events are coming up in the next few months? Yeah, we've got some really exciting programming happening. I guess one of the few good things that I can say this about carbon is that a lot of us are more comfortable using steam and we're using Zoom in the library to offer our events to our clients across Australia, which is really wonderful. So our latest in conversation event is coming up soon. So every quarter we have an in conversation event where we invite a famous author to come and tell us about their stories, tell us about their craft. It's an opportunity for our clients to ask all those burning questions you might have of an author. They're always really great events. And this one, which is in two weeks time on February the twenty fourth is with Dick Smith, which will be really wonderful. I'm so excited to speak to Dick as a lot of people will know. He's recently released a book about his life, which is called My Adventurous Life, and it's exactly what it says on the cover of amazing and death defying stunts and craziness that he's done throughout his life. A lot of people know him from that and also from the business world. So we're really excited to speak to Dick and hear all about his adventures and how he's still standing. So that one is, I'll just say it again through Thursday, the twenty fourth of February. So it's going from 11 and 12. So great if you can have an early lunch and have a listen in and that's on Zoom. Registrations are free and you can just do that on our website, which is Vision Australia dot org and tastic. I bet people lots of people will want to come and hear that it's always wonderful hearing authors talk about their books. We hope so. And then I guess the next step in the process is writing your own story. So last year, we offered some writing workshops and that was super popular. So we're just about to roll out three series of amazing workshops with some of Australia's best writers as your guides. So there'll be two series of Write Your Life workshops where people can join in for a series of six sessions and you'll learn how to craft your memoir to create something that you and your family can enjoy for many years to come, and you can leave as a legacy. And we're also offering for the first time some writing workshops for our young people, which I'm really excited about. We've got some of Australia's best young adult authors jumping on board to help out young ones to get all their ideas on the page, learn how to put their plot together and build their characters. So all of our writing workshops are completely free. They do again require registration and we are keeping the numbers small just so it's a really nice environment and everybody can enjoy some peer support and share their stories in a comfortable space. And having said that, it is on Zoom again so you can join in from home wherever you are in Australia. I know you've got listeners everywhere, so please, if you'd be interested in doing any of our courses, I'll give you the library phone number now. But I can say it again at the end, but feel free to give the library a coal. We are one three hundred six five four six five six and we'll get you signed up for those fantastic. How exciting, and I think I'd be very much into that learning how to write better as an aspiring writer myself, so I'm quite sure it'll appeal to many people. So over the over your years of working in the library, Sarah, I know you've been doing the job for a little while. What have been some of the more popular books with both young people and adults? Have there been any ones that have particularly stood out? Yeah, it's really interesting people to ask this question a lot, and we certainly our readers have some specific genres that they just cannot get enough of. And every time we're purchasing a new lot of books, it's just probably 70 per cent crime books, I would say. I don't know what that tells us about our readers, but I do know that across the public library, well, people just can't get enough of crime. True crime, but also fiction. So we tend to have a lot of readers that enjoy that. We also have a lot of romance readers, which is wonderful when we're thinking about library lovers day and thinking about Valentine's Day. And I had a bit of. And today, just speaking to some of my colleagues and saying, what's your favorite love story? Because we all enjoy different ones. Some that I hadn't even thought about it, the love story, which was really kind of fun to kind of think of. You know, this beautiful picture books really that start with love and right up until, you know, we've got our William Shakespeare and we've got our classics like Pride and Prejudice and lots of modern ones as well. I don't know if you have a favorite test. They didn't ask you. Oh gosh, I do. I do have a few favorites. The one that is bringing to mind is probably Jane Eyre. I really love the picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Raw to give it a little bit more modern. I quite like the books by Stephen Fry and Elton and Dirty Pico. But it sounds like there's lots of different tastes and lots of things that are popular among among different, different groups of people who are members of the library. Is that right? Absolutely, yes. Some of the requests we get through, of course, like our popular authors like, for example, James Patterson is a very famous crime writer and people love him. So many people go back to the classics of Harry Potter. Even lots of adult readers are just loving Harry Potter still and lots of amazing content. I personally am a big reader of Australian content, and I'm always pretty excited to see some new Australian authors come across the will come across into the library. So, yeah, actually, we've got something for everyone. I really believe. What I love is that Harry Potter, which is so much a book of my generation, is now a classic and it's coming up. I'm going to say it. I'm allowed to go around. I feel like it is. I feel like it is. And the Steve and Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter. I mean, I can't go past it right away. So it's a dream. It is. And some we, your readers, revisit it because it really I'm probably a similar, maybe little bit older than you, but it's almost in a soldier already for our generation to kind of revisit it because we first learnt about Harry and his friends when we were kids and now as adults and then becoming parents. And but at the same token, my grandmother loved that book when she was in her eighties. So I just know it has such wide appeal. Especially narrated by Stephen Fry, who was like the god of audiobooks. You could read a catalogue and you'd be happy, right? Yes. So now we talk about romance novels and it is. It is a bit of a fact that there I mean, there there are there are still some romance novels, but there aren't as many of the classic romance novels these days. You know, not as many of you, Jane Austen's and George Eliot and all those kinds of novels. I mean, but I'm sure there are some great modern romance novels and Nazis coming up to Valentine's Day. Do you have any particular book recommendations? Yeah, absolutely. And it's a good point, because when you ask people your favourite love story, a lot of people go to those sweeping romances of Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre, I think you mentioned, which are also timeless, I guess. But it's really great to also kind of look at some modern romances. So a couple that were recommended, one of them. And this is a personal favorite of mine at the time Traveler's Wife. Yes, people might know it. There's also a movie, but it's it's a beautiful story and great also for science fiction readers because obviously the title gives it away. But it's about a couple who have a bit of a challenging situation because Henry, who is the then man and a couple, is a time traveler. So you just they navigate their life through different dimensions in different time as they try to kind of keep their love alive. So that's a really beautiful story. I know that that's a classic for a lot of people. I especially like it, and I thought Henry in the book is a librarian, so he gets an extra tick from me. It's a pretty cool, time traveling librarian. He's very sad. The ending is very sad, but very beautiful, and so many of these romance books and sadly, I've realized another one. And I have not read this for some time, but I remember needing a few days to recover. Was this the fault in our stars? So this is by John Green, and it's actually a young adult book, but a beautiful book and kind of, you know, I don't think that title requires you to limit it to our young people. I think anybody can enjoy it. It's about a young couple, Hazel, who is going through a cancer treatment and then she meets a boy, I guess a man, a cold Augustus, who's also being treated for cancer in a support group. And I feel like it's kind of a sweeping romance in a way, you know, it kind of changes both their lives. And even though it's not a very long book and it is kind of a young book, it's just a really beautiful story. So I don't know if anyone's tried it, but that's definitely one I would recommend. But definitely, you need the tissues to be ugly crying. It's a. Oh, no. Well, I haven't read that one, but I've read the Time Traveler's Wife and I sat smugly crying. I also must say just to just to plug the LGBTI angle as I do sit there in the the library has some great LGBTI romances, not not quite as modern, although I think there are a few modern ones around. So that's always good for our LGBTI ratings or also just for people who like to read about romances from lots of different perspectives. Actually, there's so many great ones, and I think the young adult genre is wonderful for that kind of representation as well. A favorite of mine is code words Deep Blue, which is by an amazing straight author called Cat Crowley. And it's just a gorgeous love story, I guess, without being too mushy and kind of, you know, not typically a really diverse range of characters. Really beautifully done. And it's really nice to kind of see that represented really well without being out of it. I kind of try to avoid the stupid, cheesy romance sometimes. Very it's going to make. Now, Sarah, finally, where can people go to find out more about the library and how to join? Yeah, absolutely. Sorry, our website is a Vision Australia dot org slash library, so heaps of information on there, and we also have our online membership form. I don't know if I did mention, but our library membership is completely free. It takes probably five or ten minutes to sign up and we'll get you started. So feel free to jump on there and shoot us through a membership form. But of course, if you'd rather have a chat with someone over the phone, please feel free to give us a call. We are open from Monday to Friday, 8:30 until 5:00, and one of our amazing library staff can talk you through everything from joining up. You can give us a call if you just like a romance recommendation or if you'd like to suggest a book, or maybe you'd like some help getting some braille or getting one of our accessible places. So our phone number is one three three six five four six five six. I'll just say that one again. One three hundred six five four six five six.

Today, I'm delighted to be chatting with the lovely Sarah Blue Dawn. Sarah is the one and only Sarah from the library because this week it's not only Valentine's Day, it's library lovers day to a libraries, librarians and people who love books. And I am all in favor of this day because I'm not a librarian, but I love books and think that libraries of the very best thing in the whole wide world. Sarah is here to talk to us about that library, about the services. It offers events and to give you some brilliant recommendations for Valentine's Day. Sarah, thank you for joining me today. Thanks for having me. That was my favourite introduction. Ever, I think. And so glad to hear you love the library as much as we do. That's amazing. I do. I do. And I I'll tell you why that is the reason that is sometimes you can get a lot of things with Audible or Kindle, but there are times when there are books that just cannot be found in accessible formats. And sometimes those gaps can't be filled. But quite a number of times those those those gaps have been filled by the Vision Australian Library. I've quite literally found books, and I've always wanted to read that I haven't been able to read previously because have been available through the regional Australia Library. And for someone who loves books as much as I do. That's a wonderful thing. So I think this day is just a great event. Now, Sarah, can you tell me a little bit about the services the library offers you the types of content and the accessible formats? Yeah, absolutely. So we're a public library service and we're a national service to anyone across Australia who has a print disability can join our service. What a print disability means is somebody that has a vision impairment or visual loss, but it also can include people that might have dyslexia or another neurological processing disorder. It could be somebody that's had a stroke or suffers from MS and can't hold a book. So there's a number of reasons that our clients come to our library, and a lot of them come for our audio collection because it is by far the bigger part of our library. We have about 50000 thousand audio books. As you mentioned, text is a huge range and we definitely do our best to kind of get in our library what people want to read, where a client driven library. So if someone gives us a call and says, I'd really like this book, I can't see it in your catalogue. Can you help me? The chances are we can and will definitely do our best, and we do this by either purchasing the audio and adding it to our library. And sometimes we actually use our amazing volunteer and the writers to narrate the books. So we have some content, some books that nobody really in the rest of the world has in audio, which is really wonderful to be able to offer. We also have a braille collection, which is a smaller collection but wonderful for our priorities. Who are some of the most voracious readers out there? They love their braille books so they can either learn physical braille that comes in the mail, or some people have an E Braille reader, so it's just a matter of downloading the file and reading away on your device. And of course, we love to inspire our kids to start reading young. So we have our wonderful Felix Library, which is a library specifically designed for our very young to develop early literacy skills. So from as little as a few months old, we can get our children to have braille under their fingertips and start to get a sense of the literacy that they might use as they grow up. And they also have a tactile element. So some of our kids that used to be like, say, might not learn braille. They might go on to use large print or to be audio uses, but they still can enjoy the tactile storybooks. What a wide variety of content. And as you said, the library. The library is so special in that it is so client driven and can can help people read books that they would otherwise not have access to at all. Because, I mean, hopefully one day old books are available widely in accessible formats. But until then, the library well and truly well and truly steps up to the plate. So as well as the services you offer, what kind of events are coming up in the next few months? Yeah, we've got some really exciting programming happening. I guess one of the few good things that I can say this about carbon is that a lot of us are more comfortable using steam and we're using Zoom in the library to offer our events to our clients across Australia, which is really wonderful. So our latest in conversation event is coming up soon. So every quarter we have an in conversation event where we invite a famous author to come and tell us about their stories, tell us about their craft. It's an opportunity for our clients to ask all those burning questions you might have of an author. They're always really great events. And this one, which is in two weeks time on February the twenty fourth is with Dick Smith, which will be really wonderful. I'm so excited to speak to Dick as a lot of people will know. He's recently released a book about his life, which is called My Adventurous Life, and it's exactly what it says on the cover of amazing and death defying stunts and craziness that he's done throughout his life. A lot of people know him from that and also from the business world. So we're really excited to speak to Dick and hear all about his adventures and how he's still standing. So that one is, I'll just say it again through Thursday, the twenty fourth of February. So it's going from 11 and 12. So great if you can have an early lunch and have a listen in and that's on Zoom. Registrations are free and you can just do that on our website, which is Vision Australia dot org and tastic. I bet people lots of people will want to come and hear that it's always wonderful hearing authors talk about their books. We hope so. And then I guess the next step in the process is writing your own story. So last year, we offered some writing workshops and that was super popular. So we're just about to roll out three series of amazing workshops with some of Australia's best writers as your guides. So there'll be two series of Write Your Life workshops where people can join in for a series of six sessions and you'll learn how to craft your memoir to create something that you and your family can enjoy for many years to come, and you can leave as a legacy. And we're also offering for the first time some writing workshops for our young people, which I'm really excited about. We've got some of Australia's best young adult authors jumping on board to help out young ones to get all their ideas on the page, learn how to put their plot together and build their characters. So all of our writing workshops are completely free. They do again require registration and we are keeping the numbers small just so it's a really nice environment and everybody can enjoy some peer support and share their stories in a comfortable space. And having said that, it is on Zoom again so you can join in from home wherever you are in Australia. I know you've got listeners everywhere, so please, if you'd be interested in doing any of our courses, I'll give you the library phone number now. But I can say it again at the end, but feel free to give the library a coal. We are one three hundred six five four six five six and we'll get you signed up for those fantastic. How exciting, and I think I'd be very much into that learning how to write better as an aspiring writer myself, so I'm quite sure it'll appeal to many people. So over the over your years of working in the library, Sarah, I know you've been doing the job for a little while. What have been some of the more popular books with both young people and adults? Have there been any ones that have particularly stood out? Yeah, it's really interesting people to ask this question a lot, and we certainly our readers have some specific genres that they just cannot get enough of. And every time we're purchasing a new lot of books, it's just probably 70 per cent crime books, I would say. I don't know what that tells us about our readers, but I do know that across the public library, well, people just can't get enough of crime. True crime, but also fiction. So we tend to have a lot of readers that enjoy that. We also have a lot of romance readers, which is wonderful when we're thinking about library lovers day and thinking about Valentine's Day. And I had a bit of. And today, just speaking to some of my colleagues and saying, what's your favorite love story? Because we all enjoy different ones. Some that I hadn't even thought about it, the love story, which was really kind of fun to kind of think of. You know, this beautiful picture books really that start with love and right up until, you know, we've got our William Shakespeare and we've got our classics like Pride and Prejudice and lots of modern ones as well. I don't know if you have a favorite test. They didn't ask you. Oh gosh, I do. I do have a few favorites. The one that is bringing to mind is probably Jane Eyre. I really love the picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Raw to give it a little bit more modern. I quite like the books by Stephen Fry and Elton and Dirty Pico. But it sounds like there's lots of different tastes and lots of things that are popular among among different, different groups of people who are members of the library. Is that right? Absolutely, yes. Some of the requests we get through, of course, like our popular authors like, for example, James Patterson is a very famous crime writer and people love him. So many people go back to the classics of Harry Potter. Even lots of adult readers are just loving Harry Potter still and lots of amazing content. I personally am a big reader of Australian content, and I'm always pretty excited to see some new Australian authors come across the will come across into the library. So, yeah, actually, we've got something for everyone. I really believe. What I love is that Harry Potter, which is so much a book of my generation, is now a classic and it's coming up. I'm going to say it. I'm allowed to go around. I feel like it is. I feel like it is. And the Steve and Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter. I mean, I can't go past it right away. So it's a dream. It is. And some we, your readers, revisit it because it really I'm probably a similar, maybe little bit older than you, but it's almost in a soldier already for our generation to kind of revisit it because we first learnt about Harry and his friends when we were kids and now as adults and then becoming parents. And but at the same token, my grandmother loved that book when she was in her eighties. So I just know it has such wide appeal. Especially narrated by Stephen Fry, who was like the god of audiobooks. You could read a catalogue and you'd be happy, right? Yes. So now we talk about romance novels and it is. It is a bit of a fact that there I mean, there there are there are still some romance novels, but there aren't as many of the classic romance novels these days. You know, not as many of you, Jane Austen's and George Eliot and all those kinds of novels. I mean, but I'm sure there are some great modern romance novels and Nazis coming up to Valentine's Day. Do you have any particular book recommendations? Yeah, absolutely. And it's a good point, because when you ask people your favourite love story, a lot of people go to those sweeping romances of Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre, I think you mentioned, which are also timeless, I guess. But it's really great to also kind of look at some modern romances. So a couple that were recommended, one of them. And this is a personal favorite of mine at the time Traveler's Wife. Yes, people might know it. There's also a movie, but it's it's a beautiful story and great also for science fiction readers because obviously the title gives it away. But it's about a couple who have a bit of a challenging situation because Henry, who is the then man and a couple, is a time traveler. So you just they navigate their life through different dimensions in different time as they try to kind of keep their love alive. So that's a really beautiful story. I know that that's a classic for a lot of people. I especially like it, and I thought Henry in the book is a librarian, so he gets an extra tick from me. It's a pretty cool, time traveling librarian. He's very sad. The ending is very sad, but very beautiful, and so many of these romance books and sadly, I've realized another one. And I have not read this for some time, but I remember needing a few days to recover. Was this the fault in our stars? So this is by John Green, and it's actually a young adult book, but a beautiful book and kind of, you know, I don't think that title requires you to limit it to our young people. I think anybody can enjoy it. It's about a young couple, Hazel, who is going through a cancer treatment and then she meets a boy, I guess a man, a cold Augustus, who's also being treated for cancer in a support group. And I feel like it's kind of a sweeping romance in a way, you know, it kind of changes both their lives. And even though it's not a very long book and it is kind of a young book, it's just a really beautiful story. So I don't know if anyone's tried it, but that's definitely one I would recommend. But definitely, you need the tissues to be ugly crying. It's a. Oh, no. Well, I haven't read that one, but I've read the Time Traveler's Wife and I sat smugly crying. I also must say just to just to plug the LGBTI angle as I do sit there in the the library has some great LGBTI romances, not not quite as modern, although I think there are a few modern ones around. So that's always good for our LGBTI ratings or also just for people who like to read about romances from lots of different perspectives. Actually, there's so many great ones, and I think the young adult genre is wonderful for that kind of representation as well. A favorite of mine is code words Deep Blue, which is by an amazing straight author called Cat Crowley. And it's just a gorgeous love story, I guess, without being too mushy and kind of, you know, not typically a really diverse range of characters. Really beautifully done. And it's really nice to kind of see that represented really well without being out of it. I kind of try to avoid the stupid, cheesy romance sometimes. Very it's going to make. Now, Sarah, finally, where can people go to find out more about the library and how to join? Yeah, absolutely. Sorry, our website is a Vision Australia dot org slash library, so heaps of information on there, and we also have our online membership form. I don't know if I did mention, but our library membership is completely free. It takes probably five or ten minutes to sign up and we'll get you started. So feel free to jump on there and shoot us through a membership form. But of course, if you'd rather have a chat with someone over the phone, please feel free to give us a call. We are open from Monday to Friday, 8:30 until 5:00, and one of our amazing library staff can talk you through everything from joining up. You can give us a call if you just like a romance recommendation or if you'd like to suggest a book, or maybe you'd like some help getting some braille or getting one of our accessible places. So our phone number is one three three six five four six five six. I'll just say that one again. One three hundred six five four six five six.

Thanks very much to Test and Sara there. And now before we go a little bit of news and information, we're heading to South Australia first, where South Australian company Psyonix Bio is advancing the new glaucoma test developed by a world leading research team comprising experts from Flinders Uni. The Kumar Birkhoff, a medical research institute. The essay Local Health Network within SA Health and the University of Tasmania. If you'd like to find out more, you can visit Newstalk's Flinders Edu ayear and search for a new glaucoma test set to roll out and in a bit of COVID related news. Vision 2020 Australia is working closely with its members to inform the federal government that rapid antigen tests or rats are inaccessible to people who are blind or vision impaired and is proposing potential solutions. Vision 2020 Australia is calling for increased national access to PCR tests at home, similar to the call to test system currently available in Victoria, as well as a mail out system to provide free rates for people with disabilities, including vision loss. And if you'd like to find out more about that story, you can head to Insight News all one word dot com that a year and search for tactile rats. And that's all we have time for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking Vision is a production of Vision Australia radio. Thanks to all involved with putting the program together. And remember, we love your feedback and comments. You can contact us at Toking Vision at Vision Australia dot org that's talking vision all one word at Business Shire dot org. But until next week, it's bye for now.

Thanks very much to Test and Sara there. And now before we go a little bit of news and information, we're heading to South Australia first, where South Australian company Psyonix Bio is advancing the new glaucoma test developed by a world leading research team comprising experts from Flinders Uni. The Kumar Birkhoff, a medical research institute. The essay Local Health Network within SA Health and the University of Tasmania. If you'd like to find out more, you can visit Newstalk's Flinders Edu ayear and search for a new glaucoma test set to roll out and in a bit of COVID related news. Vision 2020 Australia is working closely with its members to inform the federal government that rapid antigen tests or rats are inaccessible to people who are blind or vision impaired and is proposing potential solutions. Vision 2020 Australia is calling for increased national access to PCR tests at home, similar to the call to test system currently available in Victoria, as well as a mail out system to provide free rates for people with disabilities, including vision loss. And if you'd like to find out more about that story, you can head to Insight News all one word dot com that a year and search for tactile rats. And that's all we have time for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking Vision is a production of Vision Australia radio. Thanks to all involved with putting the program together. And remember, we love your feedback and comments. You can contact us at Toking Vision at Vision Australia dot org that's talking vision all one word at Business Shire dot org. But until next week, it's bye for now.

You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on 103000 eight four seven four six. That's one three eight four seven four double six or by visiting Vision Australia dot org. That's Vision Australia dot all.

You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on 103000 eight four seven four six. That's one three eight four seven four double six or by visiting Vision Australia dot org. That's Vision Australia dot all.