We recently had the opportunity to visit the new home of the Talking Book Repair Group in Fort Wayne. The group, which repairs all of the digital talking book players used by patrons of the Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library, recently found themselves looking for a new home when the old General Electric plant in Fort Wayne closed its doors. The group, which was originally one of many Elfun Societies around the county made of of GE retirees, reached out to the Allen County Public Library about a possible new space for their work. Generously, the library found space in the library services center.

With a grant from the Indiana State Library Foundation, a space was created for the Talking Book Repair Group. The space needed plumbing for cleaning machines and lots of outlets to charge batteries and test players before sending them back out to patrons around the state.

The maintenance of talking book machines is an integral part of our ability to provide the best service possible to our patrons. Already in their new home they have repaired hundreds of players for us and for other Talking Book libraries in the country. We look forward to them repairing thousands more players for us in the future.

Here is a video produced by Access Fort Wayne detailing the Talking Book Repair volunteers’ move from GE to the Allen County Public Library.