After south Sacramento resident Thomas Mason, a 73-year-old retired master electrician and Navy veteran, lost his eyesight to macular degeneration more than a decade ago, the California Braille and Talking Book Library's free audiobook program helped him overcome the depression he felt about going blind.

"It seems like the whole world ends when you lose something you've had all your life," Mason said. "I gave up until I met my wife and went to a rehab center and learned about talking books.

"The talking books are one of the best things that ever happened to me."

Mason is one of an estimated 50,000 California patrons – including 12,000 in Northern California – who rely on the federal talking book program, which was established by the Library of Congress in 1931. He will be among the speakers this weekend at an 80th anniversary ceremony at the California State Library to commemorate the impact of the audiobook program on the lives of the visually impaired.

The median age of audiobook patrons in the region is 71, said Braille and Talking Book Library director Mike Marlin. Most participants are in their 80s and, like Mason, lost their eyesight to age-related illnesses.

Under the auspices of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, each state has at least one library that handles the talking books program. The Braille and Talking Books Library, established in 1904, serves patrons in Northern California, while Los Angeles' Braille Institute and Library serves the south state.

The Northern California library lends talking books not only to individuals, but also to 550 institutions, including retirement homes, senior centers, low-vision support groups and occupational centers for the blind, Marlin said.

In the talking book program's earliest years, vinyl discs were lent out through the mail and played on record players. Now, the audiobooks are digitally recorded cassettes, packaged in small blue or green plastic containers and played on electronic playback equipment also lent by the library.

Linda O'Neal has been listening to audiobooks since 1962, when she was a 10-year-old living in San Mateo and her Braille teacher recommended the program. Her first talking book? The E.B. White children's classic, "Charlotte's Web."

"I'd already read everything in Braille in the resource room, and I was hungry for more," said O'Neal, 59, who lives in South Natomas and was laid off from her call center job in 2009.

During her high school years, O'Neal got a lot of her literature and textbooks from the national service.

"But the neat thing was, my mother could listen to the books on disc with me," she said. "I remember a quiet New Year's Eve when I was 17. I had a Sherlock Holmes collection we listened to together."

These days, she still likes listening to mysteries and detective stories. As it happens, so does Mason, who is also the vice president of the local chapter of Blind Veterans of America.

"I tell my veterans, 'You have a better life to live, and you just don't know it yet,' " he said. "Talking books helped make a difference in my life. Hopefully, the program can make a difference in their life, too."

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