NCBI is here to help you stay connected during Covid19

 

A Covid 19 Update from NCBI

Over the last few weeks, NCBI have been closely monitoring the evolving situation with the COVID-19 outbreak to ensure we are taking every precaution to look after our clients, staff and volunteers. After careful consideration and out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided to:

  • Keep our essential community-basedservices open, but shift all planned face to face appointments to a telephone based service only.
  • To support efforts to slow the spread of the virus and to ensure the health and wellbeing of our retail staff and customers alike, NCBI will close all 117 NCBI retail stores with immediate effect.
  • To answer any questions that you may have in relation to the above changes, NCBI has established a dedicated helpline on 01 830 7033, which is opened from 9am to 5pm daily. You can also email your concerns or queries to NCBI’s dedicated helpdesk at [email protected]

NCBI is here to help you stay connected during Covid19

Below are some ways NCBI can help our clients stay connected and supported during the disruption that Covid 19 may bring:

  1. NCBI Library Access Service: As of March 16th, NCBI is offering free membership of its library service to all blind and visually impaired people across Ireland. NCBI will also open upits collection of Audiobooks, ready for download, for all people over the age of 65, free of charge. Since 2018, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of people joining its library service. For more information, please phone 01 864 2266 or email us at [email protected] or log on to https://www.ncbi.ie/our-services/library-media-centre/
  2. NCBI National Check InService: If you or somebody you know would benefit from a check-in call from NCBI’s community based teams, please contact 01 830 7033 or make a referral to us using the following link https://www.ncbi.ie/relativereferral/ (Just state “Check In” as reason for your referral). NCBI will follow up with all requests in 24 hours.
  1. Education – Parents – Students: With schools and colleges closed for the foreseeableNCBI in conjunction with the Department of Education is offering free NCBI Booksharememberships to its collection of over 500,000 accessible titles for all children and young people in education with a print disability (i.e visual impairment, dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy) allowing all eligible members to access books at home and in their preferred format. To sign up, please go to https://www.bookshare.ie/en or phone 01 864 2266 or email [email protected]
  1. NCBI Eye Clinic Liaison Officers(ECLO) Service: NCBIs ECLO’s will ensure all new children and family referrals from our Temple Street service will continue to be monitored and responded to. Similarly, we remain open and ready to respond to referrals from the Mater and Royal Victoria Eye and Ear eye clinics. For further information, please email [email protected]