Interview Highlight: Maureen O'Reilly - Vision Australia Library

Maureen O’Reilly, community engagement coordinator from the Vision Australia Library, tells Peter Greco about upcoming events - an "In Conversation”, author readings and more. Also an opportunity to send braille cards and letters to your braille loving friends.

more info: Vision Australia Library Services

or call 1300 654 656

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:13):
It's been wonderful throughout this year and it will continue
next year. Catching up with Maureen O'Reilly from the Australian Library. Maureen,
great to catch up a little early, but Merry Christmas.

S2 (00:22):
That's the first time I've said Merry Christmas, this time
this year. Merry Christmas Peter.

S1 (00:27):
I wanted to be first now. We spoke to you
last time and I believe Dave Steele, understandably, was an
absolute hit.

S2 (00:34):
Oh, look, he was just such an amazing person. And
it's a little bit like when, um, we interviewed Eric Weiner.
I just felt so inspired listening to what people can
achieve and also the the amazing advocacy work that they're
doing for other people, not just for themselves, but particularly those.

(00:57):
Interview was really different, though, because there was a big
focus on his writing for wellbeing. So it wasn't all
about his advocacy work, but really what he did for
himself in the midst of his, well, learning about his
impending eyesight loss and then progressively as his eyesight deteriorates
and how that engages with his family and his employment.

(01:22):
And oh, look, really, I encourage anyone that wasn't able
to join us to listen to the recording on the
access catalog because he really is just an inspiring person.

S1 (01:35):
I believe this isn't the last we'll hear from David.
Can you talk more about that, or is that a
bit sort of undercover at the moment?

S2 (01:41):
Oh, look, it's a secret. But I'll tell you, Peter,
because I favorites just you. But don't mention to anyone else.

S1 (01:48):
No, no.

S2 (01:49):
We are incredibly fortunate. We have secured Dave to come
back next year in July. And he is going to
do a five week poetry, uh, course for us. So
it's about writing poetry, but it's also got a really strong, um,
writing for wellbeing theme that goes through it. So it's

(02:12):
about channeling, I suppose, your grief, your sense of loss,
about vision loss. Um, maybe a bit of anger, maybe
a bit of fear. So many emotions that are in
there and channeling those into your writing for your own
mental health and your own personal wellbeing.

S1 (02:31):
Will be more relevant now than ever before in our history.
I'd say that sort of thing. Uh, Maureen, uh, we
were talking about how cold the weather's been in southern
Australia lately, but you're going to see the sunny side
of spring in a day later on in November.

S2 (02:44):
I'm the eternal optimist. I do believe it is going
to get warm. I have to believe it's going to
get warm. Otherwise, my life is very depressing and we
are going to have a sunny spring book chat with
the Vision Australia librarians. And on this particular occasion, which
will be the 25th of November, we are going to

(03:04):
have Siobhan Dennis join us. And that is always fun
because Siobhan has a very, very different, I suppose, reading
passion than I do. So she loves science fiction. She
loves dystopian fiction, and she just discusses really different books
than I would normally be talking about. So I'm really,

(03:25):
really looking forward to sitting down and listening to Siobhan
chat about a couple of new releases that she's been reading.
I'm then going to have a chat about a couple
of books that I've been reading, new releases for Vision
Australia events, and then anyone that wants to that joins
us can give a review of their most recent read

(03:48):
as well. So the idea is that everyone sits around,
they all get to share a book that they've just read.
Some people can just be the audience. Everyone needs an audience.
And then at the end of it, we've all got
this list of books that we may want to read,
or equally importantly, that we know we don't want to read.
And that way you can actually, instead of doing that

(04:11):
terrible thing where you go, oh, I don't know what
to read. What should I start with? You can actually go,
I've got this Is great list of books. And I
remember Siobhan was talking about this one and so on.

S1 (04:23):
It's the 25th, which is the Tuesday.

S2 (04:25):
It is indeed. And that's at 2 p.m. on Australian
Eastern Daylight Time. So you have to remember that us
strange people on the East Coast play with our clocks,
and we're all on daylight saving now.

S1 (04:38):
But, uh, Maureen, I know over the year I often
speak about the fact that, uh, members can have 360 pages, uh,
transcribed into their preferred format, I guess particularly with Christmas
coming up, that's important to remember if people would like
to do something a little bit special for someone in Braille.

S2 (04:54):
Definitely. All of our library members, as you say, have
360 pages of free transcription services that they can access
each year. And that can be for a heap of things.
I mean, you can use it for really practical things
like your television manual or your, uh, microwave manual, or

(05:14):
you may want to use it for letters that you
receive or maybe that you still love to cook, but
you can't read those recipe books so you can transcribe anything.
Perhaps your old diaries from when you were a child
and you just simply put them into the Vision Australia
transcription services, and they will transcribe them into whatever format

(05:39):
is your preferred accessible format, which may be large print, etext, audio, braille,
whatever is best suited to your needs. And it's a
wonderful service that not only can our members use, for example,
to transcribe documents or letters that they receive, but they

(06:01):
can also use it to transcribe Christmas cards and Christmas
letters that they're sending to their vision impaired and blind
friends and family members.

S3 (06:11):
You know, sort of give that personal.

S1 (06:13):
Touch, particularly if people love their brow. There's nothing like
receiving one like that, rather than, you know, either finding someone,
a reader, or you got to get your technology to
rate it if you can have it at your fingertips.
Pardon the pun. It's such a much more personal way.

S2 (06:26):
So it also means that you can you can have
your Christmas cards or your Christmas letters, and you can
pop them on the mantelpiece whenever you want to read them.
You can go back to them. You're not reliant on
somebody else reading it to you, that you can actually
keep your Christmas cards for January. And just, I don't know,
I think there's something very special about having received an

(06:49):
actual hard copy letter from someone. So it's lovely to
be able to go back and reread it in whatever
format is most accessible to you.

S3 (06:58):
Terrific.

S1 (06:58):
Alright, well people, can we'll give you contact details before
we wrap up so people can access that if they choose.
And you know, they can do that every year to
360 pages each year and free. So that's very, very, uh, very,
very inviting. Now, speaking about Braille, we're getting, as I say,
closer to Christmas. What about people who love their Braille
books over Christmas and New Year?

S2 (07:19):
Oh, well, the last thing we want them to do
is to sit around and run out of reading materials.
So we have an extra allocation that we put out
because the Vision Australia Library does close down for a
small period of time over Christmas and New Year. So
all of our readers are welcome to borrow an additional

(07:40):
five books over the holiday season, and they'll be mailed
out anytime between November 19th, which is coming up shortly
and December 12th. So I really encourage all of our
readers to take advantage of this opportunity. We never know
if the weather's going to be horrendous over Christmas, and

(08:01):
you may want that extra reading material to be able
to either sit in front of the air conditioner if
it's very, very hot, or conversely, wrap yourself in a
bit of a blanket and keep warm if it persists
raining like it tends to do in Melbourne.

S1 (08:17):
I was going to say if you live in Melbourne,
you might be doing both on the same day at
different times.

S4 (08:21):
You could indeed.

S1 (08:23):
And I mean, when you talk about five, that's five titles,
not necessarily five volleys, but actually five different titles. Is
that right?

S2 (08:29):
That's correct. Yes.

S1 (08:30):
Yeah. That's great. All right. Now is there something in
December also that you wanted to chat about.

S2 (08:36):
We do. We have our final events of the year.
We have our author reading with Barbara Hannay. So the
author readings were a new introduction this year. When we
do our in conversations, such as we had with Dave Steele,
there definitively our most popular events that we run. And

(08:56):
we often get the feedback that people would have loved
to hear the author actually read some of their book,
but there literally isn't time. I always run over time
because I like the sound of my own voice anyway.
But our author readings have much less, I suppose, interviewing
questions and instead include a 20 minute, um, live reading

(09:21):
by the author of their favorite part of that book.
Or sometimes it might actually be two different sections of
the book. So some of them will choose the introductory
chapters because it sets the picture for what's going to
happen in the book. Some will choose a really intense, um,
suspense filled section. It's really up to them. Sometimes they

(09:43):
choose a section which has a beautiful exposition of a
key character in there. It's very much up to the author.
So we will have Barbara Hannay with us. And I
would go so far as to say that Barbara is
one of the favorite authors in the Vision Australia library.
She has many, many books with us. From memory, I

(10:04):
think there's over 22 in the catalogue, and it's a beautiful, just, um,
a lot of outback romance type stories. Really lovely holiday reading,
not too stressful, nothing that's going to keep you awake
at night having nightmares. Just nice, relaxing holiday reading.

S3 (10:23):
Terrific. Uh, what's.

S1 (10:24):
The date of that, Maureen?

S2 (10:25):
The date data that is on the 4th of December
at 1 p.m..

S3 (10:31):
Terrific.

S1 (10:32):
All right. Hey, Maureen. Oh, we'll give you contact details
in a second. So if people want to grab a
pen and a paper or something to record the contact details,
do that this minute. But thank you so, so much. Yeah,
we've had a great relationship with you throughout the year.
You brighten up our program with your bubbly personality. Thank
you so much for that. And Will you'll certainly be
back next year. And we'll be back next year with

(10:53):
a little bit of a break over Christmas and New
Year and come back bright eyed and bushy tailed, as
I like to say, towards the end of January. So
to you and all the staff at Vision Australia, very
merry and happy Christmas and happy reading as well. Now
if people do want to find out more, how can
they get in touch?

S4 (11:08):
Oh well.

S2 (11:09):
I will say as well as the Merry Christmas, I'll
say Happy Hanukkah and a happy day. Or if you're
so inclined, I hope you enjoy the summer solstice.

S3 (11:20):
How can we get in touch?

S2 (11:21):
You need to cover all bases, Peter.

S4 (11:22):
Yeah, well, you know.

S2 (11:24):
I would encourage everyone to go on the Vision Australia website,
which is Vision Australia dot forward slash library. And on
that home page which is Vision Australia Forward slash library,
you will find all the details of our upcoming events,
whether that's the Sunny Spring Book Chat, whether it's the

(11:48):
author reading with Barbara Heaney, or whether it's the Christmas
cheer spreading with family and friends through the transcription services. Alternatively,
you can phone the library. We're always very happy to
chat to people, and we're on 1300 654 656.

S1 (12:08):
Maureen, enjoy your well-deserved break and we'll catch up next year.

S2 (12:12):
Have a wonderful Christmas.

S1 (12:13):
Peter Marino there from the Vision Australia Library. And certainly
if you're in the hunt for a book or two,
contact the library. You'll be able to fill in your
break with a lot of enjoyment, and do that with
a big smile on your face and all those details
up with our show notes.