Special Needs
We are committed to providing services to all members of
the community.
Unable to visit the library?
The Doorstep Library Service visits borrowers once
every four weeks for people who are unable to visit the
library. Records are kept of reading preferences, any special
needs, and of titles read so that staff can best tailor stock
selection to the needs of our customers. The Doorstep Library
van is on the road every day of the week visiting customers.
Additionally, we lend books to nursing homes for the use of
residents.
If you think that you, or someone else, would find this service
helpful, please contact us.
Blind and visually-impaired people
Large print and talking books
Large print books are available in all the
libraries in the Rochdale borough area. The collections include
fiction by most popular authors and a range of non-fiction
titles.
Talking books are available at the Central
Library in the Special Services Unit. These are unabridged cassette
and CD collections. The whole book is read word for word and
each set contains something between two and as many as eighteen
cassettes.
The three main libraries - Heywood, Middleton and the
Central Library - the Special Services Unit and Milnrow
Library stock spoken word cassettes and
CDs (abridged versions of books).
Talking books are only available for loan to visually-impaired
people and people who have difficulties physically handling a book.
Spoken word cassettes are available to all adult borrowers.
Some branch libraries have small collections of talking books
for loan to the general public for a small charge. They are
currently available at Alkrington, Darnhill, Norden, Littleborough
and Spotland libraries.
Middleton library has a regular talking book club where members
can go to choose their talking books in informal surroundings and
have a chat.
If you would like to borrow talking books but cannot get to a
library that stocks them, please ask at your local library. We'll
be happy to help you.
Kurzweil (text-reading) and Brailling facilities
PC-based text-reading and Brailling facilities are available on
PCs at the Central Library. A CCTV magnifier is also available.
We also have a computer that prints out in Braille. If
you are happy using a computer keyboard, you can type your document
and then print it out in Braille. Braille can also be produced from
a text file on floppy disk.
Please check with the Special Services Unit to make sure these
machines are available when you want it.
Deaf and hearing-impaired people
We provide a range of services for deaf people and people
with hearing impairment.
These include books, magazines and information on deaf issues;
sub-titled videos; and British Sign Language materials, including
books, videos, and material on CD-ROM and DVD.
If you need any help or any more information, please call in or
ring us at the Special Services Unit.
Sub-titled videos
These captioned versions of commercial video releases are
available at the Central Library in the Special Services Unit.
There are hundreds of videos to choose from, including children's
cartoons; TV programmes and popular films. There is no charge for
borrowing sub-titled videos.
If you would like to borrow sub-titled videos but cannot get to
the Central Library, please ask at your local library.
British Sign Language materials
The Special Services Unit has a range of British sign language
materials including videos, books and CD-ROMs. We also have a
selection of books and videos suitable for people learning British
Sign Language. These are available for loan from Heywood and
Middleton Libraries, as part of their Open for Learning
Collections, and from the Special Services Unit at the Central
Library. Other libraries have some BSL learning materials in their
Adult Non-Fiction stock. All these materials are available on the
Library Catalogue.
Baby Sign and Rhyme sessions at the Central Library
The Central Library provides Sign and Rhyme sessions for babies
and children up to four years old and their parents and carers.
Children can learn to use signs before they can talk, so
encouraging babies and young children with signs helps
them to communicate and reduces frustration. These free sessions
include songs, rhymes and stories and the parents and carers will
also be taught a few signs which they can use to help them
communicate with their children in a fun and enjoyable way.
Sign and Rhyme sessions are held every Tuesday morning from
10.30am to 11.15am during school term time. There will also be time
for a chat and a drink afterwards!
Computer-based training materials
A selection of BSL training materials has been installed on a PC
in the Special Services Unit at the Central Library. Please contact
Special Services if you would like to book a session on this
computer.
Community language collections
We have nearly a hundred collections in our catalogue. Some
special collections held at the Central Library are listed here.
All these items are available for loan from the library. If you
cannot get to the Central Library, please ask about these
collections at your local library. All the titles in
these collections can be found on the Library Catalogue.
The Bengali Collection
There is a small collection of Bengali books, mostly adult
fiction.
The Polish Collection
There is a small collection of books in Polish, a mixture of
fiction and non-fiction.
Urdu Collections
There are over a thousand books in the Urdu Collection for
adults and nearly as many again in the Junior Urdu Collection.
These collections include fiction and non-fiction. Most of the
fiction is by Urdu authors but there are also examples of popular
western titles translated for Urdu readers.
The "Around the World" Collection
This is a collection of popular titles in a range of European
and Asian languages: Arabic, Farsi, French, Kurdish, Portuguese,
Russian and Urdu.
Reminiscence Packs
Reminiscence packs are collections of photographs and
memorabilia to help jog your memory of the past - recent and not so
recent - from tram cars to donkey stones; from top and whips to
liberty bodices. Topics include:
- Childhood
- Holidays
- Shopping
- Fashion
- Wartime
Reminiscence packs are available to be used with groups of
elderly people, including people living in their own homes as well
as people in residential accommodation.
Supporting parents and carers
Parents and carers collections
We have a large number of books on child care on the adult
lending non-fiction shelves in our libraries. In addition to these,
all our main libraries and nearly all full-time branches have
Parents and Carers collections with books on child care and
development, parenthood and meeting special needs.
We also have a selection of books that may help children cope
with situations which are worrying, unusual or just new to
them.
BookStart
Bookstart is a national initiative providing free books to early
years children. We hope to instil a love of reading at an early
age, it has been proven that a good reader performs well across the
whole curriculum and it is never too early to start the reading
habit.
We supply health visitors with the Bookstart and Bookstart Plus
packs and these are gifted to children at around 9 months and 18
months at the health checks. Should you miss your visit from the
the health professional but would still like your Bookstart pack we
have them at your local library, please don't forget to take your
red book along with you.
We have two Library Outreach Workers for Bookstart & Early
Years who visit every early years setting in the borough to gift
the Treasure Box - this is the Bookstart pack gifted at around
three years old. The visit for gifting the packs is always a
special occasion, accompanied by a fun storytime, rhyme and singing
session.
We also intend to start Bookcrawl this summer, this is the
reading game for early years children from the Bookstart
people.