Section 3035.610  Definitions

"Accessible Electronic Information Service" means news and other timely information (including newspapers) provided to eligible patrons from multi-state service centers or qualified providers as designated by the Director, using high-speed computers, telecommunication and attendant technologies for acquisition of contents and rapid distribution.

"Advisory and Outreach Center" or "AOC" means a provider of reader-advisory, outreach and/or machine lending activities. AOC also provides walk-in services for patrons who use digital books that the AOC downloads from NLS.

"Competent Authority" means, in cases of blindness, visual disability or physical limitations, physicians licensed to practice medicine in the State of Illinois or comparable licensing authority; doctors of osteopathy; ophthalmologists; optometrists; registered nurses; physical therapists; and professional staff of hospitals, institutions and public and welfare agencies, such as social workers, case workers, counselors, rehabilitation teachers, and school superintendents. In the absence of any of these, certification of eligibility may be made by professional librarians or any person whose competence under specific circumstances is acceptable to the Library of Congress. In the case of reading disability from organic dysfunction, "competent authority" means physicians licensed to practice medicine by the State of Illinois or comparable licensing authority who may consult with colleagues in associated disciplines.

"Director" means the State Librarian.

"Eligible Patron" means a blind person whose visual acuity, as determined by competent authority, is 20/200 or less in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose widest diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees.  Other eligible print-disabled persons include persons whose visual disability, with correction and regardless of optical measurement, is certified by competent authority as preventing the reading of standard printed material; persons certified by competent authority as unable to read or unable to use standard printed material as a result of physical limitations; and persons certified by competent authority as having a reading disability resulting from organic dysfunction and of sufficient severity to prevent their reading printed material in a normal manner.  Senior citizens are eligible for this program.

"Free Matter" means postage free mailing of specified materials for the network of cooperating libraries and for eligible patrons.  The cost for Free Matter is provided directly to the United States Postal Service by the Congress of the United States through the USPS budget.  Examples of free material are books and magazines on tape, large-print material, Braille books and magazines, descriptive video, old-time radio shows, playback machines and other sound enhancement accessories.

"Illinois Radio Information Services" or "IRIS" means the network that broadcasts accessible electronic information services on a daily basis on a special radio called a sideband receiver.  The receivers are distributed at no cost to eligible patrons.  Local newspapers are read and usually include pieces of news that may not generally be heard on the television news broadcasts.  A variety of topics are available, including comics, grocery ads and obituaries.  IRIS also produces public affairs programs and listener call-in shows.

"Machine Sub-lending Agency" or "MSLA" means an entity that engages in lending federally owned and supplied equipment.  An MSLA offers personal attention to readers' equipment needs, such as specially designed record players, cassette players and accessories.

"National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped" or "NLS" means a part of the Library of Congress.  NLS produces books and magazines, in recorded and Braille formats, playback equipment for listening to the books, an international online catalog of available books, and catalogs of available books in accessible formats.  These materials are distributed to a network of cooperating libraries throughout the United States that serve eligible patrons on a temporary or permanent basis.

"Qualified Provider" means any entity that can provide high quality and timely information that is accessible through an electronic information service.

"Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped" or "LBPH" means the Talking Book and Braille Service (TBBS) for blind and physically disabled individuals that is administered by the Illinois State Library as designated by NLS.

"Talking Book Centers" or "TBCs" means facilities in Illinois designated by the Director of the Illinois State Library that are geographically dispersed throughout the State that provide direct library service to eligible patrons delivered primarily through the free matter for the blind and physically handicapped postage subsidy as defined in Section E040 of the Domestic Mail Manual published in The Postal Bulletin (PB 22081, July 23, 2003), which can be ordered from the United States Postal Service, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington DC 20260-5540.

(Source:  Amended at 37 Ill. Reg. 18922, effective November 7, 2013)