The Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services
Welcome to the Florida Division of Blind Services, Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services Page. If you or someone you know has trouble reading print because of an eye problem or reading disability, or has difficulty holding a book because of arthritis, a stroke, or an accident, the Braille and Talking Book Library can help keep you in touch with books.
National Braille Press' Traveling Louis Braille Exhibit
January is Braille Literacy Month. To celebrate, the Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library is hosting the National Braille Press' Traveling Louis Braille exhibit. The exhibit has a 20-panel traveling display, in print and Braille. The display highlights parts of Louis's life, the Braille production process, and why Braille remains important today.
The Friends of Library Access, Inc. are sponsoring this event. Please plan to attend. The exhibit will be in the Weber Room, 421 Platt Street, Daytona Beach, Florida during the month of January.
To learn more about the exhibit, go to http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/louis/louis_tour.html.
Tomoka Correctional Institution
The Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library is having an awards ceremony on December 10 at 11:00 am for the inmates who work at the Tomoka Correctional Institution (TCI). The TCI has worked with the Bureau since 1999. The program is the largest of its kind in the United States.
At this time, one staff person and 28 inmates record and Braille nine magazines and four books each month. TCI also duplicates, labels, and resells cassettes. Last year, inmates worked 25,600 hours on these duties. This effort resulted in the duplication of 1,200 books and 385,092 magazines and newsletters. As we transition into digital books, Blind Services is playing a key role changing analog cassette books into digital format.
Audio Games
Do you like to play audio games? There is a great Web site that has an audio game database containing many audio games. You can find what you want by selecting the table headers to sort the list. For example: you can select 'license' to find all freeware games or view all the games of a specific developer.
New Digital Talking Player Books and Books
The Library is pleased to announce that we have now begun the statewide testing of the new digital talking book players and books.
This week the Library mailed digital talking book players and books to the 500 test customers in Florida, and by Monday all testers should have received their player and at least one book. The digital talking books are on flash cartridges and start playing as soon as the book is inserted into the player. Right now the Library only has 37 copies of 54 digital talking book titles, so testers will receive whatever digital books the Library has available. The Library may receive additional digital talking book titles for the testers in late June.
The Library has no digital players for distribution to the general readership and doesn't expect to have any until late summer. At this time, the Library is not taking requests from non-testers for the digital equipment and books.
So far there have been no significant problems reported with the players or the books. The Library has had some technical glitches with the barcodes and other issues that are transparent to customers. There may be a problem with some mail cards falling out of the mailing containers, and the Library of Congress is working to resolve this issue. If no significant problems with the players or books are identified in Florida or any of the other seven test states, the Library of Congress will begin mass production and distribution of the new materials later this year.
Library Services
To better understand what we have available:
- Take a short video tour of Braille and Talking Book Library Services;
- View the Library's Frequently Asked Questions; or
- Read Braille and Talking Library Services at a Glance.
Facts about the Library
The Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services serves more than 39,000 Florida residents who cannot use standard print reading materials as the result of a visual, physical, or reading disability. It is the largest library of its kind in the U.S., with a collection of more than 2.4 million items in Braille or on cassette, and annual loans exceeding 1.6 million items.
News and Hot Topics
Keep up with news about talking books or library services
The National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is working on a project to provide readers with a digital format of reading materials. Learn more by following these links: