Tape Ministries Northwest Programs
Our services are very important to our patrons, who are courageous people who are living in difficult circumstances. Many are senior citizens who are losing their sight due to macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, and other diseases, and dearly miss reading Christian literature. We think it is important that they are able to enjoy wholesome and inspirational faith-based books on tape.
Though there are many public libraries for the blind, with thousands of titles available, most carry only a limited number of Christian books on tape. Tape Ministries NW offers the faith-based books that otherwise might not be readily available to the blind and reading-disabled.
In addition, many tape libraries that provide such services, are closing due to the costs of digital format ordered by The Library of Congress. Because of this change, cassette tapes and players are becoming obsolete. To aid in helping convert to digital books, Talking Book Players are given to every blind person who applies to The National Library Service. These new players are not able to play cassette tapes. Tape Ministries NW is dedicated to continue the legacy of our founder, Crystal Bullis, by converting our cassette library to the new digital format which will allow Tape Ministries NW to continue to serve our patrons that are blind and disabled.
Tape Ministries Northwest is both the only outlet in Washington, Oregon and Idaho and one of the largest in the Nation to provide this free service to people who are blind and disabled.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
We were fornuate to have recieved a matching grant for M J Murdock Chartiable Trust to helps us digitize our library. We now resources in place to begin our first year of digital conversion and I am happy to report that we are on target for having 750 books fully converted to digital cartridge or available for digital downloads. We are also adding another Library to our collection. The Martha Arney Library was donated to Tape Ministries NW. This will give us around 3300 books with the conversion is completed. This will make Tape Ministries NW as one the the largest Library of our type in the nation. We continue to pray that we have the resources to continue this process. We estimated that it will take us between 3-4 years to realize our goal of a completely digitized library and we are seeking addtional financial resources to see this through..
One of our goals is to empower the blind and disabled by improving their quality of life.
We operate in the Pacific Northwest and may remain one of the few services of its kind in the U.S.