Open Book: October 2023

Open book
In this issue

Letter from CELA’s Executive Director

Information can make all the difference.

Recently Statistics Canada released the results of a survey they did to understand the reading needs of people with print disabilities in Canada. The information offered a few interesting insights into who uses alternative formats and how some segments of the population might still be underserved. We’ve done a quick summary of the report in our newsletter and on our blog, and the full summary is available online.

Statistics Canada isn’t the only one wanting to learn more about the needs of people with print disabilities. CELA launched its own survey of braille users this month. Our goal is to gather feedback and better understand the reading needs and preferences of our braille users. The information we gather will be used to help determine ways we can improve our services. The survey has been sent out to users who have accessed braille materials from CELA in the past year, and we will be calling some users who don’t have access to the online survey. As we launch this survey, we are also proud to announce that approximately 5000 National Library Service (NLS) braille titles have been added to our collection over the past few weeks, giving our braille readers plenty of books to read.

There is also another important survey being launched by our colleagues at Ebound about the usability of  accessibility metadata. Metadata helps readers identify and locate the books or resources they need. You can read more about their survey in our newsletter.

And in CELA news, we have welcomed new Board Directors to our organization while we have said goodbye to some of our longest standing and founding board members. We are grateful for the leadership and contributions of all our Board Directors, past and present. We wish Catherine Biss, our former Chair, and Jefferson Gilbert, former Treasurer, all the best as they move on from the CELA board.

And lastly, I wanted to note this newsletter is especially full of great books to read. With the awards season updates, new featured titles and our top 5 lists, there’s plenty of choice featured in our stories below. I hope you find a fabulous book to take you through these fall days.

Happy reading,
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director

Share your experiences on our braille survey!

The words Take Our Survey! appear written on a white notebook. There is a black pencil beside the notebook,Your opinion matters to us! We invite you to participate in our survey to gather feedback about CELA’s braille collection and services. Information gathered through this survey will help us learn more about our users’ current needs and preferences and will be used to improve our services.

The survey is open to any CELA user aged 18 and older who is a past, current or potential future user of CELA’s braille services. It’s also open to anyone who is simply interested in braille. We also welcome feedback from parents or guardians, educators and other professionals who access CELA braille services on behalf of someone else. 

Complete the CELA braille services survey

What CELA braille services are covered in the survey? 

We are curious about all aspects of our users’ experiences with CELA braille services including:

  • the depth and breadth of our collection;
  • the braille formats we offer such as embossed hard copy braille, printbraille, and electronic braille;
  • our various forms of support for braille users such as our Contact Centre, webinars, newsletters, and resources from our website.

Read more about the CELA survey on our blog.

Literary awards updates

Cover of the book A History of Burning by Janika Oza.There are a wealth of award nominated titles to read this month! 

The Governor General's Literary Award was announced in late October. Congratulations to the following authors whose books are in the running for the fiction award: 

The Governor General's Nonfiction nominees include 

And the 2024 list of nominees for the Evergreen Award was announced. Voting begins in September so there's plenty of time to read all the great books on this list.

Watch our Awards page for all the latest updates on these and other awards.

Canadian Children's Book Awards Announced

Cover of the Book Weird Rules to Follow by Kim Spencer.The Canadian Children’s Book Centre announced their awards in October. Weird Rules to Follow, written by Kim Spencer, was the big winner for the evening, garnering the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and the Jean Little First-Novel Award. 

Other winners include Mina, written and illustrated by Matthew Forsythe, which won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, written by Zoulfa Katouh, which won the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and Blood Scion, written by Deborah Falaye, which won the Arlene Barlin Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. 

The Governor General's Literary Awards also has a Young People's category and we're delighted to have all the nominated titles. Read them here in our collection.

Our Children's Book Awards page is a great place to read about award nominees and winners. 

Death of actor and author Matthew Perry

Book cover of Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry.We were all saddened to hear of the recent death of actor and author Matthew Perry. His memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, was published a year ago and delves into his battle against addiction and his hope for his legacy, as well as his acting career and time on the hit show Friends.

Our condolences go to his family, friends and fans.

Calling all printbraille readers

Hands on a printbraille book.We love our collection of more than 1500 printbraille books and we know our users do as well. Printbraille books, which are picture books with braille overlays, support literacy skills in blind or low vision kids as well as beginning adult braille readers. Our collection of printbraille is the only one which circulates to our users. And so as much as we know you love these books, we need you to send them back to us after six weeks so others can enjoy them! Beginning this fall, we will send out notices to those users who currently have overdue printbraille to ask them to return them. If you want to check to see when your printbraille books are due to be returned, you can find that date by logging into your CELA account and going into your history. To learn more about printbraille check out our short video or visit our printbraille page.

Reviewers of Children's Books needed!

CCBC logo.Do you love books for kids and teens? Our colleagues at the Canadian Children’s Book News and the Bibliovideo Accessible Books Project are looking for experienced readers who identify as print disabled who would be interested in reviewing books for kids and teens in accessible formats including braille, large font, ebooks, decodable books or audiobooks.

Selected reviewers would contribute as guest columnists to the Canadian Children Book Centre's newsletter. If this opportunity interests you, please send an email to janis@bibliovideo.ca. This is a paid opportunity.

Newspaper updates

There have been some recent changes made to the way some of our newspapers organize their content, and we’ve heard that some patrons find this new layout challenging.

While this particular issue is beyond our control, we have passed on the feedback we have received to our newspaper vendors. We hope that these newspapers will consider the needs of people with print disabilities in any future changes, and we apologize for the frustration.

Take the eBOUND Survey

eBOUND logo.CELA collaborates with eBOUND, a nonprofit organization which works to advancing the digital engagement of Canadian publishers. eBOUND is currently conducting a survey and would appreciate the input from users with print disabilities. 

While CELA is not collaborating with eBOUND on this specific project, the information gathered in this survey will help libraries like us better serve our users. We encourage you to fill out the survey.

eBOUND Canada says:

"eBOUND Canada wants ebook accessibility and usability information displayed in a way that works best for you — and that means we need you to tell us what you want!

We're working on a set of recommendations for retailers, libraries and publishers. We've used what we learned from previous research, including the How Do You Read? report, to build a test website that displays accessibility metadata. We need people to test the website and answer some questions about it. Your answers will power our recommendations.

The test website is the Canadian Accessible Title Database (CAT-DB). Play around with it and then answer our questions in this survey. The survey has three parts. Parts one and two will take approximately five minutes. Part three will take around fifteen minutes. If you complete part three, you'll be entered into a draw to win one of twenty $250 Amazon gift cards."

Visit the test site and take the survey before November 13th 2023.

Envoy Connect Video now available

The Envoy Connect is a small rectangular blue device with 6 buttons on the face and a round speaker area above the buttons.The Envoy Connect is an easy to use, low cost audiobook player that’s been a hit with CELA users since it’s launch earlier this year. If you are interested in learning more about the Envoy Connect, our webinar Envoy Connect: A New Accessible and Affordable Audiobook Player, is now available on our YouTube channel and the transcript and link to the videos are available on our website.

Survey on Accessible Print Material released

Statistics Canada recently issued a report on Print material accessibility in Canada in 2023.  The report, which is available on the Statistics Canada website, revealed some interesting information about accessible reading materials and the people who use them.Various charts are displayed alongside a magnifying glass.

From the study:

Among the 5.2 million Canadians who indicated they had a difficulty with print material:

  • 77.4% had difficulty seeing words in print,
  • 25.0% had difficulty holding or turning pages of print material,
  • and 42.2% had difficulty reading or understanding words in print.

Over one-third (35.8%) of those who had difficulties with print materials use reading materials in at least one alternate format.

New faces at CELA

Hands hold up a sign saying Welcome Aboard.CELA has recently welcomed new staff and new Board Directors.

Welcome to Technical Services Assistant Tim Sullivan. We are also delighted that Tara Thompson, Okanagan Regional Library’s Community Engagement Coordinator, and Brian Harding, CEO and Chief Librarian of the Greater Sudbury Public Library, have joined our Board. We look forward to their guidance and leadership. 

You can read more about these new additions to CELA on our About Us page.

Webinars for you

We host a series of webinars to help users access CELA services, to stay up to date on new technologies and to learn more about accessible reading.

On the Webinars for you page, you will find upcoming webinars, including CELA’s collection for young readers with print disabilities. On that same page you will find links to other CELA video resources available on our YouTube channel.

Navigating the CELA website with JAWS or NVDA

This webinar will provide participants with a comprehensive guided tour of the CELA webpage using screen reader navigation with JAWS or NVDA. Through a live, described demonstration, participants will learn helpful tips and strategies regardless of whether they are beginners, or advanced users of the website. 

The demonstration will show: 

  • Essential JAWS/NVDA hotkeys used for quicker or more efficient navigation.
  • How to conduct a simple and advanced search, refine the search results, and then how to get a title from that search.
  • How to browse the collection using links such as New titles, Recommended reading, Top 5 picks and Awards.
  • Set search preferences and much more.

Select the link below to register for this webinar:

Mon, Nov 6 1:00-2:00pm EST

Navigating the CELA website for mouse users

This webinar will provide participants with a comprehensive guided tour of the CELA webpage by using a computer mouse. Through a live, described demonstration, participants will learn helpful tips and strategies regardless of whether they are beginners, or advanced users of the website.

The demonstration will show: 

  • How to log in and view your book requests, history and other patron functions of your library service.
  • How to conduct a simple and advanced search, refine the search results, and then how to get a title from that search.
  • How to browse the collection using links such as New titles, Recommended reading, Top 5 picks and Awards.
  • Set search preferences and much more.

Select the link below to register for this webinar:

Tuesday, Dec 5 1:00-2:00pm EST

Featured title for adults: The Defector (The Apollo Murders Series #2) by Chris Hadfield

Cover of the book The Defector by Chris Hadfield.Israel, October 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-of-the-art Soviet MiG fighter is racing at breakneck speed over the arid scrublands below . . . and promptly disappears.

NASA Flight Controller and former top US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches the scene from the ground—and is quickly pulled into a dizzying, high-stakes game of spies, lies and a possible high-level defection that plays out across three continents. The prize is beyond value: the secrets of the Soviets’ mythical "Foxbat" MiG-25, the fastest, highest-flying fighter plane in the world and the key to Cold War air supremacy. But every defection is double-edged with risk, and Kaz needs to tread a careful line between trust and suspicion. Ultimately, he must invite the fox into the henhouse—bringing the defector into the heart of the United States’ most secret test site—and hope that, with skill and cunning, the game plays out his way. For Chris Hadfield’s second heart-stopping thriller, we move from Space to another rich and exciting part of Chris’s CV: his time as a top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and as an RCAF fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. Full of insider detail, excitement and political intrigue drawn from real events, The Defector brings us the nerve-shredding rush of aerial combat, as told by one of the world's top fighter pilots.

Read The Defector (The Apollo Murders Series #2) by Chris Hadfield.

Top five books

Cover of the book The Wager by David Grann.Most popular with our readers this month:

  1. The Whispers: A Novel by Ashley Audrain, Suspense and thrillers
  2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, European history
  3. Reykjavík: A Crime Story by Ragnar Jónasson, Mysteries and crime stories
  4. Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page, Biography
  5. Nineteen Steps: A Novel by Millie Bobby Brown, Family stories

Featured title for children: The Portal Keeper: The Misewa Saga, Book Four by David A. Robertson

Cover of the book The Portal Keeper by David A. Robertson.Eli and Morgan experience life-changing revelations in this new adventure in the award-winning, Narnia-inspired Indigenous middle-grade fantasy series. While exploring World’s End, an area in Aski they've just discovered, Morgan and Emily delight in their developing relationship, while Eli struggles to understand his new-found power: the ability to locate a portal. A shocking turn of events leads them to a new village, Ministik, where the animal beings who live there are going missing.

Horrified to discover who is responsible, the children vow to help and turn to friends, old and new. But it's getting harder and harder to keep the two worlds separate, especially when details of a traditional legend change everything. Forever.

Read The Portal Keeper: The Misewa Saga, Book Four by David A. Robertson.

Top five for kids

Cover of the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling.Most popular with kids this month:

  1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J. K. Rowling, Fantasy
  2. Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1) by L. M. Montgomery, Canadian fiction
  3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) by J. K. Rowling, Fantasy
  4. The City of Ember: The First Book Of Ember (The City of Ember #1) by Jeanne Duprau, Science fiction
  5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Fantasy

Top five for teens

Cover of the book Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys.Most popular with teens this month:

  1. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, Adventure stories
  2. Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer, Romance
  3. Finale: A Caraval Novel (Caraval #3) by Stephanie Garber, Family stories
  4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins, Adventure stories
  5. Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, General fiction

Service Tip: Reporting a problem with a book

Readers can report any problems they may encounter with CELA books, such as missing or out of order content, on our Damaged Book Form, which can be found at the very bottom of the CELA website. We appreciate your help!

Stay connected!

Facebook and twitter logos.Visit CELA's social media, including Twitter, Facebook and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.