4 ms·

My local dead tree library has no braille books. Should it be burned to the ground? Of course not!

• DanBC 10y ago
  Have you asked them? Because I'm willing to bet that your local library has braille books available.
  • mirimir 10y ago
    But is there a braille version of every book that they hold?
  • timthelion 10y ago
    I happen to know that they do not. In Prague we have special libraries for the blind. And there are unfortunately very few books available. Braille is supper inefficient, it is like 40 characters per line, 20-25 lines per page [1]. The pages are significantly larger than US letter. In order to print a book, say, a Harry Potter book, takes a number of volumes http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-72107-boston-ma-kristen-turgeon-reads-the-braille-version-of-harry-44279227.html http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-72107-boston-ma-kristen-tur... [1] http://www.brl.org/intro/session10/format.html http://www.brl.org/intro/session10/format.html
    • timthelion 10y ago
      The first volume weighs nearly 7.7 pounds and costs $70 http://www.braillebookstore.com/Harry-Potter-and-the-Sorcerer's-Stone.1 http://www.braillebookstore.com/Harry-Potter-and-the-Sorcere... and that is contracted Braille (which many blind people don't even know how to read, and which is ambiguous (many letters are left out), people understand it, but only because the human brain is cleaver). The uncontracted version weighs 9.2 pounds and costs $92.