Media

COVID-19 update from Centre for Equitable Library Access Public library service for Canadians with print disabilities

Dear patrons,

As the situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve, I want to reassure you that the health and safety of our patrons, member libraries, colleagues, educators and staff are CELA’s primary concern. We know that reading can bring comfort in uncertain times, and our team is committed to maintaining book and magazine reading options for our patrons.

We continue to monitor the situation and follow the guidelines of public health officials. As a result of a government directive, the production and delivery of physical braille and DAISY CDs, including our What’s New publication, are now on hold in an effort to combat COVID-19. Access to our digital books, magazines and newspapers will continue. You can continue to place books on hold and those holds will be fulfilled once we return to production. You can also delete or reorder holds using the options on your My account page.

Our work at CELA continues behind the scenes. Our staff, including our Contact Centre staff are working safely from home and we are adding new books and magazines regularly.

We know how important clear and transparent information is, so we have developed a webpage where we will be posting COVID-19 information and updates related to CELA services. On this page you can learn about our health and safety protocols, find information about how to use our digital options, and get updates regarding our services. Please visit this page and feel free to reach out to our Contact Centre if you require further assistance. Our social media channels will also continue to update patrons as needed.

Reading gives us somewhere to go when we have to stay where we are. Whether that means re-visiting an old favourite title, teaching yourself a new skill or craft, or escaping into a different time and place through a new book, we hope CELA can help in our own small way.

Rina Hadziev, Executive Director
https://celalibrary.ca/covid-19

CELA provides services to public libraries to support their patrons with print disabilities. Eligible patrons of all ages will find a broad choice of books, magazines and newspapers.

CELA members with proof of disability can access books from our Bookshare collection. Bookshare offers 600,000 titles, including books for all ages, best sellers, and more. The books are available in electronic text, braille and audio formats; please note that audio versions are in synthetic speech (computer voice), not human-narrated. https://celalibrary.ca/collections#bookshare