For staff and volunteers working directly with visually impaired people

Summer 2012

Margaret Hemmings Calibre Audio Library member Margaret Hemmings started out as a bespoke tailor. She then ran her own business working as a florist but jettisoned her bouquet when she moved down to the West Country. She was looking for new challenges and wanted to “give something back” to the community. She found this new opportunity working as a caseworker and club leader. Margaret is Club Co-ordinator and Facilitator for the Wiltshire Blind Association (WBA) ‘Moving On’ workshops.

The ‘Moving On’ workshops help newly diagnosed people come to terms with their sight loss. Experienced staff deliver the sessions which give clients information, confidence and new skills. One of the speakers on a recent course came from Calibre and as many VIP’s have an avid love of reading, Calibre helps them continue enjoying literature.

With her artistic skill Margaret runs a craft group where people can try a variety of art including creating mosaics, beadwork and painting. She also organises the social club outings for lunches and visits to garden centres: always a perennial favourite.

Margaret, who is dyslexic, has been a member of Calibre Audio Library for

a year, listening to her books on her Graff Sapphire player. She particularly likes listening to her audio books to wind down in the evening and to help her drift off to sleep if she wakes in the middle of the night.

Margaret enjoys classic fiction from writers such as Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. She finds that even with such a popular book as A Tale of Two Cities (Catalogue no. 7936) one’s own interpretation of the plot and characters is expanded by the reader’s voice and nuances. She describes this further dimension as an “open box”.

With her love of books Margaret and a WBA colleague have set up a V.I. book group in Salisbury library where members use a variety of players including Kindle e-readers, Playaways and CDs. One of their innovative ideas is to get members to introduce their favourite childhood book. Margaret will choose Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories (15083) because she loves the tale of how the elephant got his trunk!

How can Calibre Audio Library help your team and the people you help?

The Calibre Publicity and Communications team, James Beston and Nicole Russell, travel around the UK attending exhibitions, conferences and giving talks to different audiences. They can deliver a bespoke workshop for your organisation that not only explains how Calibre Audio Library works but how our services can help your clients enjoy reading again. They also bring Calibre leaflets and demonstrate a range of players so you can keep abreast of the latest technology.

We try and combine workshops with other events to keep our costs to a minimum so please give us plenty of notice if you would like us to come and visit you. For more information please contact James or Nicole on 01296 432 339 or email James.Beston@calibre.org.uk.

Calibre representatives will be attending the following exhibition and eventsTuesday 17th & Wednesday 18th July Sight Village Exhibition Birmingham

Tuesday 7th August Camsight Low Vision Exhibition Cambridge

Wednesday 12th September Sight North East Exhibition Newcastle

Wednesday 10th October Solent Sight Day Southampton

Thursday 18th October Sight Support Expo Newport, Wales

Tuesday 6th & Wednesday 7th November Sight Village London

Thursday 22nd November Teeside Technology Day Exhibition Middlesborough

For staff and volunteers working directly with visually impaired people

Summer 2012

Margaret Hemmings Calibre Audio Library member Margaret Hemmings started out as a bespoke tailor. She then ran her own business working as a florist but jettisoned her bouquet when she moved down to the West Country. She was looking for new challenges and wanted to “give something back” to the community. She found this new opportunity working as a caseworker and club leader. Margaret is Club Co-ordinator and Facilitator for the Wiltshire Blind Association (WBA) ‘Moving On’ workshops.

The ‘Moving On’ workshops help newly diagnosed people come to terms with their sight loss. Experienced staff deliver the sessions which give clients information, confidence and new skills. One of the speakers on a recent course came from Calibre and as many VIP’s have an avid love of reading, Calibre helps them continue enjoying literature.

With her artistic skill Margaret runs a craft group where people can try a variety of art including creating mosaics, beadwork and painting. She also organises the social club outings for lunches and visits to garden centres: always a perennial favourite.

Margaret, who is dyslexic, has been a member of Calibre Audio Library for

a year, listening to her books on her Graff Sapphire player. She particularly likes listening to her audio books to wind down in the evening and to help her drift off to sleep if she wakes in the middle of the night.

Margaret enjoys classic fiction from writers such as Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. She finds that even with such a popular book as A Tale of Two Cities (Catalogue no. 7936) one’s own interpretation of the plot and characters is expanded by the reader’s voice and nuances. She describes this further dimension as an “open box”.

With her love of books Margaret and a WBA colleague have set up a V.I. book group in Salisbury library where members use a variety of players including Kindle e-readers, Playaways and CDs. One of their innovative ideas is to get members to introduce their favourite childhood book. Margaret will choose Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories (15083) because she loves the tale of how the elephant got his trunk!

How can Calibre Audio Library help your team and the people you help?

The Calibre Publicity and Communications team, James Beston and Nicole Russell, travel around the UK attending exhibitions, conferences and giving talks to different audiences. They can deliver a bespoke workshop for your organisation that not only explains how Calibre Audio Library works but how our services can help your clients enjoy reading again. They also bring Calibre leaflets and demonstrate a range of players so you can keep abreast of the latest technology.

We try and combine workshops with other events to keep our costs to a minimum so please give us plenty of notice if you would like us to come and visit you. For more information please contact James or Nicole on 01296 432 339 or email James.Beston@calibre.org.uk.

Calibre representatives will be attending the following exhibition and eventsTuesday 17th & Wednesday 18th July Sight Village Exhibition Birmingham

Tuesday 7th August Camsight Low Vision Exhibition Cambridge

Wednesday 12th September Sight North East Exhibition Newcastle

Wednesday 10th October Solent Sight Day Southampton

Thursday 18th October Sight Support Expo Newport, Wales

Tuesday 6th & Wednesday 7th November Sight Village London

Thursday 22nd November Teeside Technology Day Exhibition Middlesborough

Registered Charity No 286614

NewsSummer 2012

For staff and volunteers working directly with young people who have sight problems, dyslexia or other disabilities

Social MediaCalibre Audio Library is not immune to the constant march of social media as a way to communicate. It has proved itself to be an invaluable tool, improving our connections with other charities, supporters and those members caught in the social whirlpool. At present we are focusing our attention on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google+ and Flickr.

Facebook has been a backbone to our social media for a while now and very little has changed. We have changed a few of the sections and continue to try and keep the timeline up to date and relevant. A key example of Facebook’s help has been a member who is doing a sponsored swim for us. Through Facebook we have been able to promote this and help raise sponsorship.

Twitter has grown from around 100 followers at the beginning of the year to 240. The numbers themselves are not important but it shows a natural growth which allows us to reach more potential supporters and members. We have even sorted out a few issues for members via this service.

Foursquare has been introduced as a way of highlighting events and talks which then feed directly into Twitter and Facebook.

LinkedIn, Google+ and Flickr are the latest additions and are being used much like Foursquare as a support to the mainstays of Twitter and Facebook.

The possibilities of social media are nascent and will slowly become clearer as time moves on, but we can already see how it helps us as a charity to get our message out to more people than ever before.

Two Young Calibre members who have dyslexia, Joshua (9) and Matthew (6) from Stirling, are so happy with their Calibre books that they have written to the Prime Minister about it.

The boys have written to 100 important people including David Cameron, Lady Gaga, Elmo, the Duchess of Cambridge and their favourite authors. Mind you they do have an ulterior motive: they want to try and earn a Blue Peter badge!

The famous Blue badges are awarded for a mixture of projects including sending interesting letters, emails, stories, pictures and poems.

They have already received encouraging replies from: Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond; Bill and Melinda Gates; Julia Donaldson, the Children’s Laureate and TV presenter, Lorraine Kelly. Their letter and replies can be found on our website www.calibre.org.uk

Calibre Audio Library has 1,800 children’s titles available on MP3CDs and USB memory sticks in Key Stages 1 to 4. Joshua loves his J.K. Rowling Harry Potter stories and classics such

as Clive King’s Stig of the Dump (Catalogue no. 15062). Matthew enjoys Key Stage 1 books such as E.J. Taylor’s The Thorn Witch (16787).

Mum Sara says she noticed Joshua’s interest in books began to wane a couple of years ago but since receiving his audio books he has come on leaps and bounds, particularly his vocabulary. Matthew used to come home and tell his parents about what everyone else was doing but now he can chat to his friends about the books he reads. He was inspired by a comment from another Young Calibre member who said he had become the best read child in his class.

Children up to 16yrs can join Young Calibre for a one-off payment of £20.

Calibre can also provide a school membership where groups can borrow up to eight books at a time for an annual fee of £60. An application form can be downloaded and further information about Young Calibre can be found at www.youngcalibre.co.uk

Books

Young Calibre has 1,800 audio books for visually impaired and dyslexic children arranged into educational Key Stages 1-4. These are some of new titles recently added to the library.

Key Stage 1

16991 Emily’s Legs by Dick King-Smith

Key Stage 2

17062 The Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Key Stage 3

16863 The Saga of Erik the Viking by Terry Jones

Key Stage 4

17048 Double Cross by Malorie Blackman

Registered Charity No 286614

NewsSummer 2012

For staff and volunteers working directly with young people who have sight problems, dyslexia or other disabilities

Social MediaCalibre Audio Library is not immune to the constant march of social media as a way to communicate. It has proved itself to be an invaluable tool, improving our connections with other charities, supporters and those members caught in the social whirlpool. At present we are focusing our attention on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google+ and Flickr.

Facebook has been a backbone to our social media for a while now and very little has changed. We have changed a few of the sections and continue to try and keep the timeline up to date and relevant. A key example of Facebook’s help has been a member who is doing a sponsored swim for us. Through Facebook we have been able to promote this and help raise sponsorship.

Twitter has grown from around 100 followers at the beginning of the year to 240. The numbers themselves are not important but it shows a natural growth which allows us to reach more potential supporters and members. We have even sorted out a few issues for members via this service.

Foursquare has been introduced as a way of highlighting events and talks which then feed directly into Twitter and Facebook.

LinkedIn, Google+ and Flickr are the latest additions and are being used much like Foursquare as a support to the mainstays of Twitter and Facebook.

The possibilities of social media are nascent and will slowly become clearer as time moves on, but we can already see how it helps us as a charity to get our message out to more people than ever before.

Two Young Calibre members who have dyslexia, Joshua (9) and Matthew (6) from Stirling, are so happy with their Calibre books that they have written to the Prime Minister about it.

The boys have written to 100 important people including David Cameron, Lady Gaga, Elmo, the Duchess of Cambridge and their favourite authors. Mind you they do have an ulterior motive: they want to try and earn a Blue Peter badge!

The famous Blue badges are awarded for a mixture of projects including sending interesting letters, emails, stories, pictures and poems.

They have already received encouraging replies from: Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond; Bill and Melinda Gates; Julia Donaldson, the Children’s Laureate and TV presenter, Lorraine Kelly. Their letter and replies can be found on our website www.calibre.org.uk

Calibre Audio Library has 1,800 children’s titles available on MP3CDs and USB memory sticks in Key Stages 1 to 4. Joshua loves his J.K. Rowling Harry Potter stories and classics such

as Clive King’s Stig of the Dump (Catalogue no. 15062). Matthew enjoys Key Stage 1 books such as E.J. Taylor’s The Thorn Witch (16787).

Mum Sara says she noticed Joshua’s interest in books began to wane a couple of years ago but since receiving his audio books he has come on leaps and bounds, particularly his vocabulary. Matthew used to come home and tell his parents about what everyone else was doing but now he can chat to his friends about the books he reads. He was inspired by a comment from another Young Calibre member who said he had become the best read child in his class.

Children up to 16yrs can join Young Calibre for a one-off payment of £20.

Calibre can also provide a school membership where groups can borrow up to eight books at a time for an annual fee of £60. An application form can be downloaded and further information about Young Calibre can be found at www.youngcalibre.co.uk

Books

Young Calibre has 1,800 audio books for visually impaired and dyslexic children arranged into educational Key Stages 1-4. These are some of new titles recently added to the library.

Key Stage 1

16991 Emily’s Legs by Dick King-Smith

Key Stage 2

17062 The Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Key Stage 3

16863 The Saga of Erik the Viking by Terry Jones

Key Stage 4

17048 Double Cross by Malorie Blackman