Growing

W.O Carson, Librarian and Secretary, London Public Library to Sherman Swift, Librarian CFLB

Public libraries saluted the work of the CFLB.  London, Ontario, librarian W.O. Carson wrote in 1913 that he was fascinated to learn that Canada had a library for the blind and wanted to help the cause. In response to a letter from the CFLB's Sherman Swift, he wrote "there is in the library world what we call the 'library spirit', and every page of your letter reads as though you have it;  I have no fear, therefore, but that our blind friends throughout our country will be served with the best kind of literature, and that they will be encouraged to borrow it and read it." 

Letter - 24 November 1913 (1:24)
W.O. Carson, Librarian and Secretary, London Public Library to Sherman Swift, Librarian CFLB
(Read transcription of narrated text)
Note from Miss Kitty Curry appended to this letter

The impact of the CFLB on its users was profound:

If I am deprived of what literature we have in raised print, I fear to think what would become of me
— Kitty Curry

"I don't know what I would do if it were not for our Library.  I am of a melancholy disposition, and as I must depend solely on myself for reading, if I am deprived of what literature we have in raised print, I fear to think what would become of me."  This poignant message came from Kitty Curry of Toronto, in 1914.

As time went on, the library circulated more than books.  The annual report for 1917 noted that the CFLB supplied "blind persons in many parts of the Dominion with Braille paper, typewriters, Braille and New York Point slates, and playing cards."