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Centre for Equitable Library Access Collection

Logo for the CELA

The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) is Canada’s most comprehensive accessible reading service, providing books and other materials to Canadians with print disabilities in the formats of their choice.

A national not-for-profit organization, CELA serves 90% of the estimated 3 million Canadians with print disabilities in partnership with member public libraries. CELA provides access to more than 500,000 professionally produced titles to provide people with print disabilities with a quality library experience.

The Haldimand County Public Library maintains an on-site collection of DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) audiobook titles.  DAISY  is an international format standard developed by libraries for the blind.

CELA

Choose from a Wide Variety of Books

Haldimand County Public Library offers a collection of over 230,000 books, magazines, newspapers and described videos in a choice of formats for people with a print disability.

Choices include:

  • Current bestsellers
  • Award-winners
  • Classics
  • Fiction
  • Non-fiction
  • Self-help
  • Business
  • Titles covering an array of subjects

Children’s, teen and adult-level materials are available, as are numerous formats including audio, braille and accessible e-books. Users can download books or receive home delivery by mail.

Eligibility

Access to the CELA collection is available to people who are unable to read conventional print due to a disability, which includes:

  • Learning disability: An impairment relating to comprehension
  • Physical disability: The inability to hold or manipulate a book
  • Visual disability: Severe or total impairment of sight or the inability to focus or move one’s eyes

Daisy Audiobooks

DAISY Audiobooks

DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) is an international format standard developed by libraries for the blind. DAISY audiobooks have superior sound quality and functionality compared to other audio formats and  DAISY titles fit on a single compact disc.

Special features include:

  • Chapter, paragraph, phrase and word navigation
  • Bookmarking
  • Skimming
  • Sleep modes and
  • Reading speed control

DAISY titles fit on a single compact disc. These discs are meant to be played in special DAISY-compatible machines such as VictorReaders. For a list of player vendors, visit the DAISY marketplace. Because of their special formatting, DAISY discs cannot be played on standard CD players unless those players are MP3-compatible. If your CD player was manufactured in the last five years, there’s a good chance it is MP3-compatible and will also play DAISY audiobooks, although many of the special navigation features will not be available. At present, the Haldimand County Public Library owns one VictorReader DAISY playback device. Upon request, this unit can be made available at any branch for in-library use.

DAISY titles can also be listened to on your computer, using DAISY playback software.

DAISY Audiobook Collection at your library

The library maintains an on-site collection of over 2,000 DAISY audiobook titles. Genres include thrillers, detective and mysteries, westerns, science fiction, romance, historical fiction, biographies, true crime, travel, history and so much more.

For a complete listing of titles, search the library catalogue for Daisy audiobooks.

Borrowing Period: 4 weeks

Renewals: 1 renewal per title

Register for access to the CELA collection by providing your name in the online email request form below. Be sure to include in your message that you wish to register for CELA.

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