On a breezy March morning in Kapahulu, Joy Nakata Muranaka and her guide dog Laika dropped by the Regional Library of the National Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to talk about the role its resources play in her life.

Born and raised on Kauai, Muranaka has been a patron of the library, a branch of the Hawaii State Library System, since she lost her sight to diabetic retinitis at age 19 and moved to Honolulu for rehabilitation at Ho‘opono Services for the Blind.

“My life is listening to books,” said Muranaka, 66. “Whenever I’m cleaning house, washing dishes, I’m listening to stories — suspense, mysteries and romance.”

The library, she said, mails audiobooks — return postage paid — to her Ala Moana apartment, where she listens to them on an audio player that the library loans its patrons. Although the library has a full collection of books in Braille, “I prefer audio because my Braille isn’t that great,” Muranaka said.

On a special radio supplied by the library, she also listens to Hawaii news being read aloud by library volunteers in its Radio Reading programs, which are broadcast over a subchannel of Hawaii Public Radio accessible only to registered library patrons. The radio also provides regular HPR programming and daily readings from national publications, such as the Washington Post.

Now in its 80th year, the library is seeking adult readers in its annual spring volunteer drive, in furtherance of its goal to provide patrons with audio materials that are relevant to local sensibilities and lives.

“It wouldn’t be too strong to say it’s an absolute lifesaver,” said Jim Becker, 89. A journalist, author and former columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, he became legally blind 10 years ago due to macular degeneration.

“When you’re someone who’s worked with words all his life and suddenly can’t read, it’s an appalling shock,” said Becker, a widower who lives alone. Grateful to have discovered “this wonderful service and these wonderful people,” he listens to an average of three to four books per week from the library.

The library has 1,400 registered clients, 11 staff members, a volunteer outreach coordinator and 30 to 40 volunteers, not all of them active. Among these volunteers, there are “fewer than 20 constant readers who can pronounce just about anything,” said branch manager Sue Sugimura.

While the library provides access to the National Library System’s audiobook collection, Sugimura said, what’s missing is Hawaiiana, works by local authors and other topics of interest to local readers. “We need to produce these books ourselves with the help of read-aloud volunteers,” she said.

The Hawaii Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has produced 1,021 audiobooks; its overall collection consists of 94,478 audiobooks. Sugimura and her staff want to expand the local collection, which means increasing the number of volunteers.

It’s not easy, she said. Not everyone can correctly pronounce Hawaiian, Asian and other names and terms from diverse ethnic groups. And few are fluent in pidgin.

“I was brought up speaking pidgin in Kalihi,” said volunteer Muriel Seo, 72, a retired teacher. “I almost feel it has to be a local reader because of the language, like in this book,” she said, holding up “Kau Kau,” by Arnold Hiura, which she was recording.

One also has to be a stickler for precision and accuracy. The goal is to produce local audiobooks that meet National Library System standards, so “you have to read the text exactly, word for word,” with no ad-libbing, Sugimura said.

Perhaps that’s why applicants with acting or broadcasting experience don’t necessarily do better than novices, said Sharon Fong, who works in transcription services. “Often, professionals aren’t the best readers,” she said.

IN READING for the radio, accuracy and clarity are even more crucial because patrons rely upon the material to shop and otherwise navigate through their daily lives, said Leilani Nihei, volunteer outreach coordinator.

Muranaka said she listens to the weekly grocery ads mostly, as well as recipes and health articles. She types up recipes or ads that interest her, making lists of ingredients and products that she takes to stores, where customer service staff help her find things.

While Muranaka visited in the library’s reading room with Laika curled at her feet, a volunteer, Kathi Ching, was sitting in one of the library’s soundproof recording booths reading aloud the week’s new Walgreens, Longs, Don Quijote and other ads.

This takes real skill, Nihei said. “To read the ads is super hard because the words are all over the place. You have to follow an exact format” to make sure that listeners get such crucial information as prices and weights, she said.

Ching, 69, said she used to borrow audiobooks from the library for her parents when they were ill. Seven years ago, after her three children were grown, the retired airline ticket agent began volunteering at the library.

A few weeks earlier, in February, Ching, Seo and three other volunteers had gathered for an interview in the library’s bright, high-ceilinged, A-frame central space, where its recording studio is located. The women seemed happy to have a little social interaction.

“We usually never see each other. We’re always alone in our booths,” said Seo, who started volunteering because of a friend with macular degeneration who depended on audiobooks.

Each volunteer had her specialties and preferences.

Linda Andersen, 65, a retired teacher, was reading aloud a local book, “Filipinas,” by Patricia Brown. Of Filipino descent herself, she had requested to record it after learning that two of her best friends were contributors. Like Seo, she also reads selected articles from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and local magazines.

Helen Noh Lee, 87, one of the library’s longest-tenured volunteers, was reading her 53rd audio book: “Ancestral Reflections,” by Douglas Dai Lunn Chong.

The volunteers had fun discussing how they prepare for the reading sessions.

“It affects our reading, what we eat the night before,” Ching said, explaining that on Sunday nights she loves to eat peanuts while watching TV. “But when I’m reading on Monday morning, my mouth gets very dry, even if it was salt-free peanuts and I drink lots of water.”

Before she comes into the library, Seo sings at home “to loosen up my cords, get warmed up,” she said. “I put the Carpenters on and sing along with Karen.”

ASPIRING read-aloud volunteers do have to take a voice audition that tests voice quality, reading skills and technical aptitude (one has to be able to use a microphone and computer).

To take the test, as this reporter did, you go into a clean, windowed soundproof recording booth and enter your name into the computer. After reading recording instructions and tips — “be yourself” — you start reading aloud: history; natural science; word pronunciations; cultural reportage filled with Japanese, Samoan and Hawaiian words; and a short story narrated in pidgin. You can start, stop and tape over. If you relax it’s actually quite fun. You can take as much time as you want up until the library closes.

As it happens, Muranaka volunteers as an evaluator of the recorded tests. “When I evaluate, I listen for clarity of the voice,” she said. “I don’t like voices that are kind of gravelly.”

In addition to good pronunciation, readers should have “expression in their voice, enthusiasm,” Muranaka said, as opposed to a “dead tone.”

Sugimura, Nihei and Fong were quick to emphasize that a successful reader doesn’t have to be a complete polyglot. “We also evaluate what the volunteers can or cannot do,” said Nihei.

For example, “You can specialize in one dialect or in materials with lots of Japanese names,” Fong said.

Nor do volunteers have to be local. “We’ve had some of our best volunteers from as far away as Australia and Fire Island, N.Y.,” Nihei said.

Once accepted, however, volunteers have to commit to coming in at least one hour a week; most work from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours, Nihei said. This includes editing: Volunteers have to play back, listen to and proof what they’ve read, and make corrections.

“It’s so much easier now with digital recording,” Nihei said.

Volunteers also have to promise not to quit in the middle of a book.

If you loved reading aloud to your children or your parents — and miss it — or you’ve always wanted to be on the radio and are looking for flexible but meaningful hours as a volunteer, the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped could be the perfect gig for you.