FOSEL: Friends of the South End Library

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Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library

The Tremont Street window installation of services and materials offered by the Perkins Braille and Talking Books Library  

South End branch of the Boston Public library can assist you in obtaining the many free services and materials available for free from the Perkins Braille and Talking Books Library. Located on the campus of the Perkins School for the Blind, the Perkins Library is part of the National  Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped which, in turn,is part of the Library of Congress. The Perkins Library is the main Massachusetts NLS Library. As Erin Fragola, the Outreach Coordinator for Perkins will tell you, you can have good vision but still qualify for all the Perkins library services because it is difficult for you to hold a book or because you have a medically certified reading disability, such as dyslexia, that prevents you from reading standard text.

Materials can be picked up for qualified users from the South End library or be delivered to your home. The South End branch's head librarian, Anne Smart, has application forms for anyone who would like to get the qualification process going. A wide range of free library services and materials are available for reading, playing games, playing music and other resources, such as museum passes. Each year, the Perkins Library circulates more than a half million accessible books, newspapers and publications in braille, large print and digital audio formats  to thousands of registered patrons in New England and beyond. 

The library staff has also displayed a number of items for children in the Library Park side window, including books in braille and those that explore images sensorily, by touching the pages. 

A corner of the Library Park side window includes books about blindness for children