Continuing Digital Magazine transition

Our customers who subscribe to audio magazines are beginning to see them delivered on digital cartridges. These are the state produced magazines which are now only available in anthology groupings. Individual titles are no longer available. The anthologies will be distributed every 2 months and are grouped into 7 separate categories: Senior Living, Women's Interest, Men's Interest, General Interest, Youth and Young Adult, Literary/Historical/Cultural and Spanish Language.

It is very important that all of our customers know that these cartridges must be returned to the location they were issued from. The cartridges will circulate just like ordinary digital Talking Books with a postage-paid mailing card; the only difference being the color of the cartridge and mailing container. Failure to consistently return the cartridges will result in the suspension of a customer's audio magazine subscription.

Customers who subscribe to audio magazines may find it easier to navigate the new anthology cartridges with the advanced digital Talking Book machine rather than the standard digital Talking Book machine. In this case customers who currently have the standard machine may request that it be switched with an advanced machine. 

The image below lists each magazine title per anthology grouping.

Perhaps as soon as next month Florida residents who subscribe to federally produced audio magazines will begin to receive them on digital cartridge as well. We will pass along the information regarding this digital transition in a future post.

Cars for Blind People

Motor vehicle independence for the blind and visually impaired is being improved by the development of both self-driving vehicles and sensory driven vehicles.

In October 2010 Google unveiled a self-driving automated car that allows drivers to travel to pre-programmed locations. In essence the driver isn't actually "driving" the car so much so that he or she is going along for a ride. As part of the car's sophisticated on board technology are cameras, radar and lasers that aid in navigation. Google's self-driving car will give visually impaired drivers the freedom to choose their own destination(s), change the route as needed and experience the independence that other drivers enjoy. 

In February 2011 Mark Riccobono, a blind executive at the National Federation of the Blind, drove a Ford Escape at 25 mph around the Daytona International Speedway while dodging obstacles thrown from another vehicle. The event was part of the Blind Driver Challenge and the car had been equipped with an array of sensory equipment, laser-range finders and global positioning that provided cues on how to navigate the race track.The development of this vehicle is a major advancement for blind drivers in that it allows a blind individual to "drive" the car and not just ride along. The vehicle's sensory equipment included features that allowed the driver to experience tactile, physical stimuli integrated into the steering wheel and driver's seat that compensated for the lack of visual stimuli. Furthermore, the continuing development of sensory driven vehicles for those who are visually disabled will invariably lead to advancements in safety and operation of standard vehicles such as devices that alert a driver when a vehicle is in their "blind spot" or assisting drivers in navigating in conditions like fog that impair visibility.

Magazines on Digital Cartridge

A summer 2012 edition of Talking Book Topics informed Talking Book readers that audio magazines are beginning the transition to the digital cartridge medium. We have now learned that circulation of audio magazines on digital cartridge will begin in early 2013. With this implementation, production and distribution of audio magazines on cassette format will cease.

The digital audio magazine format will be nearly identical to the digital audio book format. The only exceptions are that the digital audio magazine cartridges are blue and their mailing containers are red. Both cartridges play the same in the standard and advanced digital Talking Book machines. Some cartridges may contain multiple issues of the magazine to which a reader has subscribed. In this case, the cartridge will include audio instructions describing how a reader may navigate among the separate issues.

Digital audio magazines will be circulated according to the print magazine’s regular frequency like the audio cassette magazines were. All digital audio magazine cartridges must be returned as they are recycled and rerecorded. Inability to promptly return the cartridges may result in a reader’s service being interrupted.

For more information contact the Jacksonville Talking Book Library at 630-1999.

New Hours for the Talking Book Library

Beginning October 1st the Talking Book Library will have new public service area hours. The hours will be:

Monday, Thursday & Friday - 10am to 6pm
Tuesday & Wednesday - 11am to 6pm

We would like all of our customers to know that staff members can still be reached via phone at 9am.

For more information on the changes to the operational hours of the Jacksonville Public Library please visit the following website: http://jpl.coj.net/lib/branches/index-fy13.html

Support the Jacksonville Public Library

Once again the Jacksonville Public Library's operating budget is facing cuts. This time the proposed cuts amount to 4.6 million dollars. These cuts would result in fewer hours of service at every Jacksonville Public Library location including system wide closures on Sundays as well as a reduction in staff. Such cuts would affect the Talking Book Library by reducing the hours that our customers can visit our office and use our adaptive computer programs. We do not yet know how the reduction in staff may effect us.

A final budget has not yet been approved by the Jacksonville City Council; they vote in late September. If you wish to show your support for the Jacksonville Public Library and the Talking Book Library we urge you to contact your city councilperson as well as the at-large council members. If you are unsure of who your City Councilperson is use the following link to determine your precinct and elected officials: www.duvalelections.com/precinctfinder.aspx

The at-large council members are:

Kimberly Daniels - 630-1393
John Crescimbeni - 630-1381
Stephen Joost - 630-1396
Greg Anderson - 630-1398
Robin Lumb - 630-1387

Division of Blind Services Public Forum

The Florida Division of Blind Services is holding a public forum on Thursday, July 26th from 4pm to 5:30pm at the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront location. The forum is intended as an opportunity for individuals who have received service from the Division of Blind Services to express their level of satisfaction with their experiences. The forum is also open to members of the community who have a visual disability as well as those individuals and/or organizations that assist those with a visual disability to learn more about the Florida Division of Blind Services and the services that it provides. Those that require special accommodations should notify the Jacksonville office no later than 5 working days prior to the meeting at 904-348-2730 or toll free at 800-226-6356 or Florida Telephone Relay system 711.

Bible on Digital cartridge

Throughout the years many of our customers have received free, audio cassette recordings of the Bible from a program called Audio Bibles for the Blind sponsored by the Aurora Ministries in Bradenton, Florida. As part of a transition to the better quality, more versatile digital audio format the Aurora Ministries no longer offers free copies of the Bible on audio cassette. Our customers can now receive an audio recording of the Bible on digital cartridge for a small donation of $15 which covers the cost of a blank digital cartridge.

The digital cartridge is exactly the same as the NLS digital cartridges and can be played on the NLS digital Talking Book machine. The audio recording is indexed by "book" of the Bible and not chapter. The Bible is available in 4 English versions and in over a dozen foreign languages.

Customers can still receive a free audio recording of the Holy Bible on mp3 CD (to be used on mp3 compatible CD players, computers and some DVD players) or digital download from the Aurora Ministries download library. They may also mail the Aurora Ministries blank 2GB capacity digital cartridge or USB flash drive. There is no charge for loading the digital audio recording onto a customer's storage device.  

For more information call Aurora Ministries at 941-748-3031 or visit their website at: audiobiblesfortheblind.org