READER'S ROCK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE VOL 2 ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2014 Vol. 1 Issue 4 October 2013 | Page 51

Blind Oceanographer
Sets Sail With
Downloaded Books

(NewsUSA) - Once or twice a
year, oceanographer Amy
Bower of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution puts
on her sea legs and leads a
research expedition to track
ocean currents around the
globe. In addition to a glittering
array of highly technical moors,
buoys, sensors, trackers and the
like, Bower packs a digital
audio player filled with books
downloaded from the National
Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped
(NLS), the Library of Congress.
"When I go on my research
cruises, I'll take five to ten
books and magazines," says
Bower, who lost her sight in
1993 because of macular
degeneration. Even if she is in
water too deep to anchor or
nowhere near a harbor, her
books are always within reach.
NLS provides audio and braille

books and
magazines
free of charge
to U.S.
residents and
citizens living
abroad who
are blind, have
low vision, or cannot hold a
book because of a physical
disability. NLS also loans the
portable playback equipment
needed to read its audiobooks.
Bower prefers to download
books through the NLS online
service, but eligible readers can
also receive books through the
mail on digital cartridges or in
braille.
The NLS collection includes
fiction by popular
contemporary authors, such as
Clive Cussler, Patricia
Cornwell and Toni Morrison,
and timeless favorites such as
Ernest Hemingway, Mark
Twain and James Joyce. It also
has thousands of nonfiction
titles on a variety of subjects -science, foreign policy,
biographies and much more.
Two of Bower's favorite writers
are well-represented in the

collection: novelist, essayist
and poet Barbara Kingsolver
("The Poisonwood Bible") and
historian and novelist Wallace
Stegner ("Angle of Repose").
NLS audiobooks are
professionally narrated, and
that's one thing Bower
appreciates about the service.
"Real voices add drama and
depth to the story, like theater,"
she says.
If Bower isn't poring over data
or spending time with her
family, she's probably inspiring
visually impaired students with
her passion and fervor. But
anyone can tell she relishes
being at sea. Compared to her
Cape Cod home, where her
husband and 10-year-old
daughter occasionally leave
things on the floor that Bower
can't see, "Sometimes it's
actually safer on ship!" she says
with a laugh.
To learn more about how the
NLS program can help you, a
loved one, or a friend, go online
to www.loc.gov/nls or call 1888-NLS-READ.