Listening Books is a UK charity devoted to making audiobooks available to people who find it challenging or impossible to read due to illness or disability. The organisation offers opportunities to both younger and older people to get access to thousands of titles, covering various areas including education, fiction and nonfiction. We caught up with Claire Bell, Membership and PR Officer at Listening Books, to find out more about the organisation whose offices are in London, its activities and its social impact.
Welcome to e-Books India Claire! We’re very happy to have you join us for this interview. Could you please start off by telling us a bit about Listening Books? When was the organisation formed and why was it created?
The charity was founded in 1959 by Norma Skemp, after a serious car accident in 1954 caused her to virtually lose her sight. When she applied to another charity for help, she found that they could not help her because she could still ‘see something’. Norma immediately recognised a gap in provision for people with disabilities and she set up Listening Books. Since then the charity has grown and now supplies audiobooks to people with the full range of print impairments.
What is your role at Listening Books?
I work as the Membership and PR Officer. My role is varied, so each day can be quite different. I make sure the website is up to date, promote the service to appropriate charities, arrange author interviews for our member’s newsletter Connect, choose titles for our Sound Learning programme for school aged children, as well as recruit and support our volunteers, who help us to run the service.
Can you please tell us about the core activities of Listening Books? What services does Listening Books offer and how do these work?
We offer an audiobook library service to anyone in the UK with an illness, disability, learning or mental health difficulty that prevents them from reading or holding a book. Members can borrow our audiobooks in 3 main formats. As MP3 CDs that we send to members via Royal Mail and as internet streams and as downloads available through our website. We also provide a mini library service to hospices, hospitals and care homes.
We have over 6000 titles in our library for both adults and children. This also includes titles for our Sound Learning programme, which enables us to record educational titles for school aged children that are unavailable elsewhere in the audio format.
Can you please tell us a bit about the impact Listening Books has had on the lives of people with illnesses and disabilities?
For many of our members who cannot hold or read a book, our service is a lifeline, particular if they have previously been avid readers. For others, the service also provides friendship and comfort, as well as relief from the isolation that many experience due to their illness or disability. For younger members with dyslexia, for example, we can help with their fear of the printed word and provide access to books that are appropriate to their intellectual age rather than their reading age.
Is there any particular example of work Listening Books has done with an individual, or group of people that you’re particularly proud of?
Our mini library service I feel is something that we are particularly proud of. We launched it in 2010, as we felt we could be reaching people under hospice care in a more structured and effective way. For many people, dealing with the day to day of their illness is exhausting, especially if they are resident in a hospice and can’t get out and about easily or visiting as a day patient for treatment or relief. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to access our books, and placing a selection of books in the hospice meant that they were readily available when they were needed. There is no waiting for a post delivery, members can listen to great titles as and when they want to. We also provide some CD players and other equipment to the hospices, so that patients don’t necessarily have to have their own. It’s a complete package and the feedback we have received has been overwhelming positive.
In what ways can people get involved with the activities of Listening Books and support your organisation?
We welcome donations towards our work, or if people want to be more actively involved, we have a range of volunteer roles. The support of our volunteers is invaluable, so if anyone would be interested, they can contact me at cbell@listening-books.org.uk
How can people find out more about Listening Books?
We have a great library team who are happy to answer any questions, and they can be contacted on 0207 2340 522 or at library@listening-books.org.uk. Alternatively people can visit our website at www.listening-books.org.uk to view our catalogue or they can find out about the work of the charity in more detail.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]