With a massive database of digital books, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) is trying to narrow the information gap that now leaves blind people with access to only 3 per cent of the world's printed texts.

"It will open up a window on the world to blind and visually impaired people," says law student Aaron Marsaw, a CNIB client and board member.

Jim Sanders, president and chief executive officer of the Toronto-based CNIB says a $33-million program to digitize the organization's library, book production and distribution processes likely will be copied by other libraries for the blind around the world.

"This will have a profound effect on those of us who are blind," Mr. Sanders says. He notes that about three million Canadians are unable to read print because of a disability.

Blind or visually impaired people can access books and other textual material in four ways: through Braille, recorded "talking books," computer-generated synthetic voice and (for those with low vision) enlarged text.

By creating a database of electronic texts, the CNIB is now able to use the same digital file to create material in various formats. Users will be able download files in order to read them on their own computers with the aid of text-to-voice software, enlarged fonts or devices that capture the contents of a computer screen and render it into Braille, Mr. Sanders says.

The most immediate impact on most CNIB clients will come from the conversion of talking-book recording and distribution from analog tape to digital files and compact discs. The CNIB is now converting its 60,000 audio books to a digital format and it aims to double the collection to 120,000 titles by 2006.

The move had to be made, according to Mr. Sanders, because commercial recording studios and media organizations throughout the world already have converted to a digital format, rendering old tape-recording equipment almost obsolete and hard to repair or replace.

This "fortunate necessity" gave the CNIB an opportunity to take advantage of a new international recording standard called digital audio information systems (DAISY) developed specifically for libraries for the blind, Mr. Sanders says. Until now, talking books have been produced in different formats in various countries, making it difficult for blind people in one country to use audio books created in another.

When users listen to a digital recording on a specially designed DAISY playback device, they can easily find their place in the text with electronic bookmarks and skip from one section or chapter to another, Mr. Sanders says. Such manoeuvring would be extremely difficult with an audio cassette.

Cost savings from the project will be "amazing," Mr. Sanders says. Compact discs are cheaper to produce than cassette tapes, he says. Total annual savings for the CNIB, once conversion is completed in 2006, is estimated at $1.6-million a year on an $8-million budget.

Converting talking books to an electronic format involves creating very large digital files. With 120,000 audio book titles, in addition to other materials in digital format, the database will contain 90 terabytes -- the equivalent of 185 million electronic books formatted for print. That will make it one of the largest databases of its kind in the world, according to Frank Clegg, president of Mississauga-based Microsoft Canada Co., which has helped design the digital library platform.

Once the technology is in place, according to Mr. Clegg, the task of making more material available to blind people and closing the information gap will largely be a matter of cutting deals and reaching agreements to use publishers' electronic files. "We can go to publishers down the road and say we've got all the technical issues resolved."