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.
Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month
The Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services celebrated Art Beyond Sight on Thursday October 8. Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month is a chance for individuals, museums, libraries, schools, and other community institutions to showcase the work they are doing to promote art education for people who are blind or visually impaired.
Low Vision Artist Beth Siudock held a hands-on sculpture program. Beth is a local artist who teaches Volusia County students who are homebound or visually impaired. You can view a sample of her art at http://www.arthaus.org/streetpainting03.htm.
Sculptor Dina Niedelman also participated in the celebration. When Dina is not creating Art she is busy with Activist Projects that promote Disability Rights. Dina has Dystonia, a Neuromuscular Disorder which causes involuntary spasms of muscles including her eyes. The effected parts twist in abnormal shapes, stiffen and freeze into painful positions. Arthritis compounds the pain of Dystonia yet Dina creates from her wheelchair some of the most interesting, mesmerizing and beautiful Art. You can view samples of her art work at http://tiny.cc/xsCWO .
To learn more about Art Beyond Sight go to the http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-overview.shtml.
Robert Iron Recognized By Quality Assurance Division
Audio producers of talking books must work hard to deliver quality books. The National Library System has a quality control system to periodically check books. Robert Irons, Recording Coordinator has received congratulations from the Quality Assurance Division of Multistate for full acceptance of Mike Mulligan y su Maquina Maravillosa by Virginia Lee Burton, narrateed by Florida volunteer, Norma Torres. It has been assigned the book number RCN 016. This is a wonderful achievement for the recording program. This master recording provides a solid example of correct NLS formatting, superior technical quality and professional sounding narration.
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: