Guest Post: How to Find Music Materials on BARD

 

Guest Post: Music 

Contributed by NLS Representative

How to find music materials on BARD:

 

On BARD, the NLS Music collection is located in a place different from the general NLS book collection.

 

To find braille music scores and instructional music audiobooks on BARD, navigate to the heading “Music Collection.” It is hyperlinked. Click on the link. It will bring you to a new page with access to the NLS Music Collection. There you can search the music collection or browse through recently added and popular materials.

 

Note: Our audio collection contains a learn-by-ear series and lectures about music. There is no music for listening pleasure/entertainment in the NLS Music Collection.

 

Guest Post: National Library Service's Braille on Demand

Contributed by NLS Representative

As part of its braille modernization initiative, NLS is launching the Braille-on-Demand pilot project on Monday, June 20, 2022. This project will allow active NLS patrons to request and receive one hard-copy braille title per month, which they can retain for their personal use. If an individual who is not registered as a patron submits an order, NLS will refer the individual to their local network library to begin the process of becoming a patron.

Braille titles will be limited to books that are currently available on BARD, the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download service. At this time, requests are limited to one book per patron per month. Only complete titles will be distributed. Requests for partial titles (for example, volume one of a three-volume book) will result in receiving the entire book.

The form to request a braille-on-demand book can be found linked from https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NLSbrailleondemand. Patrons may complete the form themselves or contact their network library for assistance. They may also contact NLS Reference at nlsref@loc.gov for assistance in completing the form.

Director's Corner: NLS Starting New Patron Corner Program

 

Director's Corner: 

NLS Starting New Patron Corner Program

Contributed by John Owen, Director

NLS is starting a new Patron Corner program.  The first one is on June 13 at 7 PM on Zoom.  Here's an excerpt with the relevant info from the Library of Congress Daily Digest Bulletin:   The program will be interactive, last for one hour, and have a designated topic of discussion. The topic for the June 13 session is Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Collection Selection, but Did Not Have the Vehicle to Ask. Our guests will be members of the Collections Division at NLS who are responsible for selecting the books in the NLS collection. Bring your questions and your thoughts about the NLS collection and join us at https://loc.zoomgov.com/j/1600983343?pwd=VW9tRWtwY3BsdHRac0s2MmJkN0RCZz09. Meeting ID:     160 098 3343  and Passcode:   164674

You can subscribe to this bulletin and other Library of Congress content at https://loc.gov/subscribe/.  

Guest Post: National Library Service Talks Tallking Book Topics

Guest Post: National Library Service

Contributed by NLS Representative

Due to significant and worsening supply-chain issues and worldwide paper shortages, the large-print edition of Talking Book Topics (TBT) January–February 2022 will not be printed. The US Government Publishing Office (GPO) has informed NLS that these problems are expected to continue through the end of 2022, and likely beyond.

 

We strongly encourage patrons to the use the six other formats in which Talking Book Topics can be read and enjoyed:

 

·       HTML, www.loc.gov/nls/tbt, linking to BARD for downloading or adding books to wish lists

·       PDF, www.loc.gov/nls/tbt, containing a printable order form

·       Audio cartridge, which comes with a print order form

·       BARD audio magazine, downloadable to cartridge or to BARD Mobile wish list

·       Braille Book Review’s TBT Abridged section in hardcopy braille

·       Braille Book Review’s TBT Abridged section as a BRF downloadable through BARD or from www.loc.gov/nls/bbr

 

Patrons can also learn about the latest titles added to BARD through the “Recently added books and magazines” link on the BARD website or the “Recently added to BARD” feature on the “Get Books” tab on the BARD Mobile app.

 

Patrons who subscribe to Talking Book Topics (TBT) in large print will not receive the January–February 2022 issue in paper format due to ongoing supply-chain issues and worldwide paper shortages. Patrons can access TBT January–February 2022 online in HTML and PDF right now at www.loc.gov/nls/tbt. TBT in HTML contains direct links to BARD for downloading or adding books to wish lists, and TBT in PDF contains printable order forms for mailing. TBT January–February 2022 in audio will be available on cartridge and on BARD and BARD Mobile the first week in February. Additionally, TBT Abridged will be available through Braille Book Review in hardcopy braille and BRF on www.loc.gov/nls/bbr.

 Guest Post: The Blind History Lady
Before it was NLS

Hello Blind History Lady Fans:

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the National Library Service for the Blind. But how did national library services for the blind get started years before? 

November 1, 1897, the first Reading Room for the Blind was opened in the Northwest corner on the first floor of what is today called the Thomas Jefferson Building. The woman credited for putting the idea into the Librarians mind is Helen Marr Campbell. Here is how Helen convinced the librarian to include the blind.   

After leaving the Maryland School for the Blind, Helen moved to Washington D. C., and taught music. She took rooms with Catherine Keith and her father.

Catherine Keith edited a newsletter for the blind called the “Scrap Basket”. Catherine collected articles, then Helen and other blind women transcribed by hand, several copies into braille and New York Point. The newsletter was circulated among the blind, passed from one to another. 

Helen met Alice Underwood-Hunt, the second wife of the Governor of Colorado, the late Alexander Cameron Hunt. Mrs. Hunt asked the blind pianist to come stay with her during the summer of 1897. 

A new building was being erected to hold the library of Congress, scheduled to open in late fall of 1897. While talking with Mrs. Hunt about the new building in the news, Helen told of the difficulty the blind had in the country to obtain any reading material as an adult, and  there was no place to quietly read.

“The deaf and the dumb have their college. There are hospitals for the sick and insane, and a home for the district’s paupers. But no provision of any kind has been made by anybody for the betterment of the condition of the blind.” Helen explained.

“One of our great sources of sorrow, has been that we have had no chance of others of equal education. Of course, we have a right to go to the Congressional Library and sit down in the public rooms with our books. But fingers reading naturally calls around us a crowd of spectators who ask idle and curious questions that – hurt. We are always grateful for sympathy, but only the blind can know how many hours of sadness are inflicted by thoughtless people who see.”  

Mrs. Hunt listened to what Helen said. Sighted people read every day, either a newspaper, signage in a business, letters from friends, their bible or devotional material. Those such as Helen, taught to read in school, with access to reading material that brought the world to them, found themselves, after leaving the schools for the blind, starved for literacy.

Alice Hunt called in-person the next day to the Librarian, and asked Mr. Young to talk with Helen. Mr. Young exchanged several letters with Helen excited to start a reading room for the blind, and asking to learn more about the needs of the blind.

In her letters she said: “We go out into the world with little or rather no opportunity for reading since our books are very expensive and most of us are not able to procure them.” The letter went on, “Now I ask you, in the name of humanity, only to think for one moment, what your conditions would be were you deprived of the blessed delight of reading-and remember the blind in the forming of your great library.” 

The two met in the middle of September in person. Helen brought several prominent blind citizens along with her to his offices to discuss plans. They thanked him for making the literacy of the blind just as important as the sighted in the country. 

On November1, 1897, the library had its grand opening.  The Reading Room for the blind, in the basement was ready for its patrons. Special shelves were built to house the oversized books and materials. A screen allowed for private reading, away from the curious sighted patrons. Tables and chairs were spaciously placed around the room to allow for quiet reading as well as a volunteer reading to a group. Thicker paper and writing devices such as a slate and stylus were placed in the reading room for blind persons to write letters to other blind persons. It also meant that if a blind patron or volunteer who knew one of the raised codes, could also write a letter or card from the sighted guest to a blind person. Later, typewriters were added.

Originally, the library was to be on the main floor. However, many stairs led up to the main floor from the street. Fewer stairs led to the basement and officials felt that fewer stairs would be preferable to the blind. 

The library opened with several books in Braille, Moon Type, and New York Point, about 500 volumes. The books included an eight-volume Bible, books by Dickens, an encyclopedia, the Eneid, Books in Latin, poetry and musical scores. 

Just as she had before November of 1897 at other libraries around the district, Helen spent a lot of time at the Reading Room for the Blind in the Library of Congress. She read what there was, but also assisted newly blinded patrons in learning how to read and write in one of the raised formats available. Many believed that Helen was one of the “elite” blind in D. C. as she had an education, was literate and conducted her music teaching business enough to support herself with comfort. 

Visitors from across the country and around the world came to visit the reading room. Some were curious sighted individuals. Others were the well-educated blind with no library services in their community.

Helen got to know Col. Edward F. Jones, a former Lieutenant Governor of New York who lost his sight later in life. He came to the Reading Room and learned to read and write in New York Point. The Blind Chaplin of the House of Representatives, Rev. Henry N. Couden came to read from the religious material. 

One blind man, a piano tuner by trade many times visited the library, just to warm up in the winter. The blind patrons and the librarian took him under their wing. They taught him to read and write, dress better and built up his self-respect. After many visits to the library, his piano tuning business grew. 

Helen not only contributed her own New York Point material to the library, but helped raise funds for the purchase of additional material for the reading room such as magazine subscriptions in alternative formats, raised line maps and books. 

Often Helen performed for the one-hour concerts on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:30 at the Reading Room. Her technique on the piano was considered to be superb. Her voice was strong, sweet and conveyed much emotion, bringing in not just blind patrons of the library, but sighted ones as well. When the performance began, the doors to the reading room were closed and no one was allowed to enter or leave until the end of the performance.  

If you would like to schedule a presentation contact me at theblindhistorylady@gmail.com

You can read more of my Books at  https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/24325

International treaty adds hundreds of foreign language books to NLS catalog

 A post from our partner:

International treaty adds hundreds of foreign language books to NLS catalog

By Mark Layman

The email from the San Francisco Public Library’s Talking Books and Braille Center found its way to Kelsey Corlett-Rivera, foreign language librarian at the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS): A patron had requested a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra—in Spanish. Could NLS help?

Corlett-Rivera found a digital audio copy of Así habló Zaratustra through the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Accessible Books Consortium (ABC), and within two weeks it was up on BARD, the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download service.

Another satisfied NLS patron. And another success story from NLS’s participation in the Marrakesh Treaty.

It’s been only a year since NLS cleared the last legal hurdle to full participation in the cross-border exchange of accessible books under the treaty. But its patrons are already reaping big benefits.

More than 1,000 titles obtained under the treaty have been added to BARD in a variety of languages including Arabic, French, German, Greek, Polish, Spanish and Vietnamese. Patrons have downloaded these titles more than 20,000 times.

NLS has reciprocated by sharing its collection with Canada’s Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), the UK’s Royal National Institute of Blind People, Germany’s Deutsches Zentrum für barrierefreies Lesen and Chile’s Música y Braille. NLS has also uploaded tens of thousands of audio and braille books to the ABC Global Book Service, making them available to organizations that serve blind and print disabled readers in more than 50 countries.

• • •

The road to NLS’s full participation in the Marrakesh Treaty was a long one. The treaty was finalized at a conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in June 2013; the US signed it the following October. The Senate ratified the treaty in June 2018 and simultaneously passed the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act to amend US law in accordance with the treaty. The House of Representatives quickly followed suit, and President Trump signed the legislation that fall.

 “As we increase the size of our collections in these languages, we can increase outreach and, long term, increase the number of foreign language-speaking NLS patrons, while better serving our current foreign language speakers.”
— Kelsey Corlett-Rivera, NLS Foreign Language Librarian

The treaty facilitates the exchange of accessible books across international borders by organizations that serve people who are blind, visually impaired or print disabled. One of 26 international copyright treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), it aims to address what advocates call a worldwide “famine” of accessible books. According to WIPO, less than 7 percent of the millions of books published each year are available in accessible formats for the 285 million people in the world who are blind, visually impaired or print disabled—90 percent of whom live in developing countries.

“NLS has one of the largest collections of accessible books in the world, so sharing it with other countries is making a tremendous difference,” Corlett-Rivera says. NLS books have already been downloaded more than 4,700 times by 34 different organizations around the world.

But NLS’s participation in the treaty is making a difference for its own patrons, too.

“It allows us to acquire foreign language titles faster—and at less cost—than if we recorded them ourselves,” Corlett-Rivera says. “It also helps us expand our collection to meet the changing demographics of our patrons.” Most of NLS’s foreign language books are in Spanish, but NLS patrons also speak Tagalog/Filipino, Vietnamese, Russian, Haitian Creole, Arabic and many other languages. “As we increase the size of our collections in these languages, we can increase outreach and, long term, increase the number of foreign language-speaking NLS patrons, while better serving our current foreign language speakers,” she says.

And it’s not just foreign language-speaking patrons who benefit from NLS’s participation in the Marrakesh treaty. So far, 150 audiobooks in English have been added to the collection, courtesy of Canada’s CELA. They’ve been downloaded by NLS patrons more than 11,000 times. The top 10 includes three titles from a series by Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould: The Amish Midwife, The Amish Nanny and The Amish Bride, confirming for Corlett-Rivera and her colleagues in the Collection Development Section that “there is no such thing as too many Amish Romances in your collection.” NLS patrons can also access 195 braille titles in English from CELA. There are plans to add hundreds more titles in English from CELA in both audio and braille.

Full participation in the Marrakesh Treaty came with some challenges—technical as well as bibliographic. For example, audiobooks acquired from foreign partners often are coded in a different digital format than NLS uses, so NLS created a new conversion tool to access that content. NLS staff developed processes by which Marrakesh titles can be selected in a systematic fashion according to what patrons most want to read, and developed new cataloging standards that are accessible and succinct while being helpfully descriptive.

Of course, all this effort is for naught if patrons can’t find the new foreign language titles. So NLS recently added an easy-to-use “search by language” function to BARD for those wishing to narrow their results to a specific language. And the first issue of Foreign Language Quarterly debuted online this summer, highlighting popular titles recently added to the collection via the Marrakesh Treaty, as well as foreign language titles produced by NLS.

“The implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty has brought together people working in almost every part of NLS—from technical experts handling format conversion issues to foreign language catalogers wading through diacritics in Voyager to developers customizing BARD to ensure that patrons can find the amazing selection of books we’ve added to the collection,” says Corlett-Rivera, who came to NLS last summer after working as a librarian at the University of Maryland. “I feel like I joined NLS at exactly the right time.”

 

Director's Corner: Notice of Public Hearing

Contributed by John Owen, Director

NLS has a new Director!  

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled has selected Jason Broughton as its new Director!

"We are pleased to announce that Mr. Jason Broughton has been selected as the new Director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) at the Library of Congress. Prior to joining the Library of Congress, Mr. Broughton was the first African American to serve as Vermont State Librarian," NLS said in a written statement to network libraries. "In this role, he engaged in strategic planning for the Department of Libraries and establishing a long-term vision for the State Library. Previously, Mr. Broughton held numerous positions at libraries in South Carolina and Georgia."  

Mr. Broughton earned his M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina, an M.S. in Public Administration from the University of South Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Florida A&M University.  His first day at NLS is scheduled for Monday, September 13. Please join us in welcoming Jason Broughton to NLS."

Director's Corner: Mailing Concerns

 

Director's Corner: Mailing Concerns

Contributed by John Owen, Director

Greetings from the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled

On behalf of the staff of the library and as the Director of LBPD, I want to address the most recent wave of issues regarding the delivery of audiobooks, braille books, large print books, and equipment to you, our patrons, across the state of Maryland.

We are hearing from many of you that it has been five or more weeks since you last received materials from us.  This is frustrating to us, as I’m sure it is for you who count on our service.  We are providing you with access to reading material and information and we work hard to get those audiobooks and braille books out on a daily basis, only to have them not reach you.

I thank you for your understanding during this time.  I know that it might not seem obvious when materials don't arrive for you, but LBPD staff have been working and continue to work through the pandemic.

I can assure you that staff has been at our library every day, Monday through Friday, for the past year as always, pulling books to be sent out and checking in the books that we receive back from you. LBPD is closed to public visits to keep staff and patrons safe, but we have not missed a day of pulling books to be sent out in the mail.  This is on top of the virtual programming, reference desk services, assistive technology instruction, and textbook conversion that we provide our patrons. And that consistent service continues to this day.

Over the last month, we have actually taken steps that improve the turnaround time on materials. In the last month, we’ve reduced the quarantine time on incoming materials based on the latest safety information from the Maryland Department of Health.  This has enabled us to process returns more quickly than over the last several months.  Also, more of our patrons are using Books on Demand which means that more patrons are getting multiple books on a single cartridge, which reduces the load on the post office to deliver multiple audiobook cartridges.

In fact, March 2021 and April 2021 were two of the highest months in the circulation of titles to our patrons over the past year.  Unfortunately, that increase in circulation and efficiency has coincided with increased challenges with delivery by the United States Postal Service.  According to the USPS website, Free Matter materials should be treated as First Class mail, and the delays you are experiencing now are not indicative of that.

If we at LBPD are processing books faster and sending out more books than previous months and you’re still not getting books for five weeks, you should be upset.  I know I am.

And if you are getting other mail from the post office in a timely manner, but not mail from the Library from the Blind, you should be upset.  I know I am.

Please contact your local post office branch to let them know you are upset.  You can find that information at this website - https://tools.usps.com/find-location.htm - or contact our staff to help you find contact information.  Please know that I’m contacting our post office liaison here in Baltimore on a regular basis.

Please contact your legislators to let them know you are upset.  You can find your congressional representative at house.gov and your senator at senate.gov, or you can contact our staff to help you identify them.  Our State Librarian Irene Padilla has sent letters to Senator Chris van Hollen and Senator Ben Cardin expressing our concerns.

And contact us about Books on Demand which will make the delivery of your materials through the U.S. Postal Service more efficient with fewer cartridges to handle.

If you have access to an Internet connection or mobile device, get access to audio and braille downloads through BARD.

Please continue to return items when you’ve finished reading them, both audiobooks and printed Braille books.  This ensures that a steady supply of materials keeps coming to you.

The USPS is our partner and is subsidized by Congress to provide you with Free Matter in a timely manner.  Let them know that you need them to deliver for you.  We hope that the challenges faced by USPS are overcome soon and we can count on their partnership in serving you.

In the meantime, continue to share your book requests, concerns, and successes with us by calling 410-230-2443 or emailing us at reference.desk@maryland.gov.  LBPD will continue to do what we have done throughout these challenges:  get materials in the mail to you every day so That All May Read.

Thank you,

John Owen

Director

Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled 

BARD Update From NLS

 

BARD Updates from NLS

Contributed by Don Olson, Customer Service Specialist at NLS

A number of patrons and libraries have recently reported that certain BARD account-holders are either no longer able to log into BARD Mobile or can no longer see their Wish Lists from within BARD Mobile on their iOS devices. We have determined that these problems are related to the older versions of iOS devices that these patrons are using.

 

The current version of BARD Mobile for iOS, version 1.4.1, is supported by devices running iOS 11 and above. A list of all devices capable of running iOS 11 is available from Apple at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209574. We encourage patrons using devices on that list but not yet running iOS 11 to upgrade their operating systems.

 

We understand that very old devices may not be able to upgrade to iOS 11 and regret the difficulty this may cause for some patrons, but an unfortunate reality is that all equipment eventually becomes obsolete. NLS is not able to support BARD Mobile on devices running iOS 10.0 or below. We do not know of an option that would allow patrons to download and install any version of BARD Mobile prior to 1.4.1.