Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic

[Flyquail56]

Vinyldavid's thread below about working in theater reminded me of a good volunteer opportunity worth mentioning.

My college years back in the mid-70s is when I first got into hi-fi, recording, building tube amps, etc. I remember thinking at the time that this hobby, like most I suppose, mostly only benefited me, and that I wanted to find something that was related in some way, that I could do to benefit others. That led me to what was then called Recording for the Blind. Back then I would operate the tape recorders and monitor the reading. I got away from it for many years, but recently took up volunteering again from time to time, now reading instead. Of course they now record to a hard drive instead of a reel to reel :D, but it is a wonderful way to give something back for the pleasure we get from this hobby!

I would encourage anyone interested to check out RFBD, and see if they have a studio in your area.

http://www.rfbd.org/

Best regards,
Mike

[Des-Lab]

Thank you for sharing. The closest thing I ever did vís-a-vís charity/educational was about five years ago. There was a story in the Orange County Register about Cal State University at Fullerton (just a few miles away from me) and their 'archiving' project.

Apparently, they had the biggest (if not ONLY) archive of recorded tape in the county. It was everything from educational dissertations and lectures to political speeches to old PSA's. You name it. The library had literally thouands upon thousands of old tapes dating from the 40's through the 80's. Almost all of it was on 7" and smaller reels. They wanted to undertake the massive project of transferring it all to CD/MP3 for preservation and posterity. They too had learned the ills of 'sticky shed'. They, like all other such endeavors, were faced with a massive funding, equipment, and volunteer shortage.

I got in contact with the curator/professor there and offered my services. She invited me to attend a weekend seminar/lecture that they were hosting about tape, history of tape, tape storage, etc. That could be the subject of a discussion all its own. The guy didn't really say much that I didn't already know. Though many of the students there WERE learning a lot. I said that I could probably help out a bit with the transfer process. But my work hours at the time would severely limit me. So I decided to help the next best way I could.

I had an old, beat up Teac X-2000R laying around that I picked up on the cheap from Ebay. It was functional, but had some issues. As a serious, hi-fi recording deck, it needed some repairs and adjustments. But to use as strictly a playback deck for low fidelity tapes such as these, it was a Godsend. And having the (then) five other decks, I didn't feel it worthy to keep. So I decided to outright DONATE the deck to the University. It was greatly appreciated, to say the least.

I'd love to help out on something like this again. I'll definitely have to check out the site you provided.