Introducing Services for Visually Impaired Persons – Experience of the University Library "Nikola Tesla", Niš

Providing library and information services to persons with disabilities has always been an extremely important segment of work in libraries, and it is especially challenging nowadays, in the digital age. This paper describes the process of introducing services for blind and visually impaired users a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inČitalište no. 35; p. 38
Main Author Jančić, Snežana
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Russian
Published Pancevo Gradska Biblioteka Pancevo 01.11.2019
Subjects
Academic libraries
Adaptive technology
Blindness
Copyright
Information services
Legislation
People with disabilities
User services
Visual impairment
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Summary:Providing library and information services to persons with disabilities has always been an extremely important segment of work in libraries, and it is especially challenging nowadays, in the digital age. This paper describes the process of introducing services for blind and visually impaired users at the University Library Nikola Tesla in Niš, which improves their studying conditions. By joining the TEMPUS project entitled Equal Access for All: Strengthening the Social Dimension for a Stronger European Higher Education Area in 2013, during which the University Library was equipped with the assistive technology for visually impaired students of the Niš University (Braille printer, magnifying glass, computers and corresponding software), it started to deal with the needs of this category of users in an organized manner and developed specialized library and information services to meet their requirements. This goal was reached by analyzing their needs, gaining knowledge in the field of legal regulations such as international and Serbian copyright laws and treaties, establishing cooperation with other institutions with experience in providing such services, composing necessary instruction manuals, and training of the library staff . Since then, the services for blind and visually impaired students, among which the most important one is producing specially-adapted books in accessible formats, which are hosted at the University Library local repository, have become a part of the standard library services.
ISSN:2217-5555
2217-5563
DOI:10.19090/cit.2019.35.38-43