The Center for Vision Loss, 845 W. Wyoming St., Allentown, recently dedicated the new Gary John Posch Jr. Memorial Braille Library.

The only non-profit agency in Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties dedicated to improving the lives of people with vision loss and promoting healthy vision in the community, the Center now features the extensive collection of books in braille owned by Gary John Posch Jr. who lost his vision to retinitis pigmentosa.

After learning braille at age 13, Posch became an avid reader who enjoyed reading as his way of “seeing the world.”

The books in his collection reflect his love of knowledge.

Posch especially enjoyed learning about cooking, the history of all the states in the United States and baseball.

The collection also includes titles in poetry and popular children’s stories.

After Posch died at age 36 in 2013, his parents Brenda and Gary John Posch Sr. of Bethlehem, donated their son’s sizeable collection to the Center for Vision Loss.

Two agency volunteers, retired educators Amy Crowe and Maureen Fernbacher, worked to organize and catalog the collection.

The library was dedicated Aug. 15 and opened to the public on Sept. 6.

The Center for Vision Loss invites braille readers to visit the library and use their fingers to travel the world.

All the books may be borrowed.

Library hours are 1-4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment only.

Interested users are asked to call Rita Lang, manager of innovative programming, at 610-433-6018 ext. 225 to learn more about the collection and to schedule a visit at least a week in advance.