BARD Mobile app for Apple devices

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped now offers BARD access app for iPads, iPhones and iPods. It is called BARD Mobile and it is free to download from the iTunes store.

Step-by-Step Instructions for using the BARD mobile device:

•  Download (free) from the iTunes store.

•   Enter BARD login information to complete installation.

•  Connect to a WI-FI network.

 Get Books tab
◦ Search for and select audio books to download.
◦ Select titles from the BARD online catalog interface or from a list of “recently added titles.” This is especially useful for accessing audio magazines, as it lists most recent publications first.
◦ If using BARD catalog, first add   book(s) to your Wish List.
◦ Access the Get Books tab to find the titles you added to Wish List ready for download. (You may find it easier to add titles to Wish List by using a computer with screen magnifiers and readers.)
◦ Download book(s).

· Now Reading tab
◦ Select this tab to begin listening. The app is similar to the digital Talking Book machine, with buttons for play, fast forward, rewind, speed, bookmark, and forward/backward chapter.

· Bookshelf tab
◦ This is where downloaded books are grouped and can be sorted by title, author and latest played. Click Edit and Delete buttons to remove a title you no longer want from the Bookshelf.

· Settings tab
◦ Manage account information.
◦ Manipulate audio and video settings. The degree to which a voice  command software can assist a user with this app will depend on the features of their personal device. Many iPhones have a voice command option called Siri and this software can be downloaded as an app to the iPad.

       

If you have any questions about how to register for BARD or use the BARD Mobile app call the Talking Book Library at 630-1999.

Talking Book Review

Mom Can’t See Me by Sally Hobart Alexander

I read this book to my children when I learned how to read Braille. My children thoroughly enjoyed hearing it as much as I loved reading it to them.

Alexander, to give readers a picture of her life, told her story from the vantage point of her nine-year-old daughter. It is a warm picture of family life and explains how both mother and daughter have learned to cope with living with a handicap. Alexander participates in all the family activities: cooking, cleaning, taking the children to lessons, and volunteering at school. She includes some of the frustrations of blindness as well, such as the fear children express of "catching" blindness and the sadness Alexander feels in not seeing what her children are seeing. Ancona's clear black-and-white photographs greatly amplify the text, showing the family at work and at play.

Although this book is intended for children in Elementary school, I believe that it is a must read for all ages.

Happy Reading!!!

Talking Book review

Gift of Gold by Beverly Butler

Hello readers…

This week’s book is an excellent account of a blind girl's struggles in working toward her career goal of being a speech therapist. Cathy, the main character of Butler's earlier novel, "Light a Single Candle," goes on to college and faces many trials, including dealing with the death of one of the children she works with and dealing with the parents' attitudes about her blindness.

Although this book is for middle school through high school readers, I feel that it is a must read for all. This book will inspire you to persevere through all obstacles that you face to each your desired goal.

Talking Book Review

The First Lady of The Seeing Eye by Morris Frank and Blake Clark

Happy New Year readers! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to continue with reading great books in 2014!

The First Lady of The Seeing Eye by Morris Frank and Blake Clark is the book of the week for this week. Morris Frank was a blind man from Nashville who helped start the first school that trained seeing eye dogs. His dog Buddy is considered to be the first seeing eye dog in America. This amazing story started in November 1927, when Morris Frank was a 20-year-old student at Vanderbilt University and a man very unhappy about his dependency on others to get around. Frank's father read him an article by Dorothy Eustis, a woman living in Switzerland who had seen shepherds training dogs to lead blind people get around. Excited by the idea, Frank wrote a letter to Eustis and received a response letter 30 days later inviting him to come see for himself. Frank then took a ship to Europe and trained extensively with a dog that had been bred specifically to lead a blind person. The training was hard, but after weeks with the dog, Frank could get around the nearby Swiss village holding tightly to a harness to which Buddy was strapped.

I’m not about to give away the rest of this amazing story. To find out more about Morris Frank and Buddy please consider reading this book…it will inspire you and give you adequate knowledge about one of the most prominent Guide Dog schools in the country.

Happy reading until next week!!

Unread Talking Books

Are there Talking Books at your home that you keep telling yourself you're going to get around to reading but can't seem to find the time? Are you holding on to later books in a series while you're on a waiting list to receive the early titles? Do you just need to clear up some space and have fewer demands on your time during this busy holiday season? If that's the case then send those books on back but before you do give us a call and we can create a record of the books that you want to receive again at a later date. If you've been waiting for titles to complete a series give us a call and we might be able to send you a downloaded copies. Due to the limited availability of some titles on digital Talking Book cartridge we ask our customers to return unread books and request them again at a later date so that there are enough titles in circulation to satisfy everyone's reading habits. Please call us at 630-1999 and let's work together on this.

Talking Book review

Light a Single Candle by Beverly Butler

At 14, Cathy Wheeler suddenly became blind as the result of an unsuccessful eye operation. Once enjoying a normal and fairly uneventful life, Cathy now finds herself having to learn how to live in a different world. She once enjoyed drawing, which she can no longer do; she once enjoyed bike riding, and now that's a challenge. She once had a close friendship with her neighbor Pete, who no longer talks to her.

Desperately unnerved with the prospect of going back to regular high school, Cathy agrees to give the state school for the blind a try. That, however, comes with its own obstacles -- it's a hundred miles away, so Cathy must board there; many of the girls have been blind most of their lives, and well accustomed to many things that Cathy is not. Worst of all, the teachers and director don't seem too optimistic about a blind girl's future among average people.

It's Cathy's semester at the school that gives her the strength to come home and give her old life a new try -- only as a person with a few new challenges to overcome.

Though it's overwhelming and difficult at first, Cathy is soon amazed to learn about all she can accomplish if only she puts her mind to it. Best of all, the teachers at the blind school were wrong -- not every sighted person will either pity or mock her. To her delight, Cathy soon begins to enjoy new friendships and opportunities, some even beyond ones she would have sought out previously.

Although some of Cathy's experiences are dated -- the public high school, for example, has no accomodations for students with any sort of special needs -- most of her other struggles are still valid today. Who wouldn't experience heartache and despair while being forced to adjust to a sudden, completely life-altering disability?

A great read, sensitive, yet real, great for young adults of all ages...

HAPPY READING!!!!

Talking Book review

Do You Dream In Color: Insights from a Girl Without Sight by Laurie Rubin

Laurie Rubin's memoir of how she overcame her blindness to carve out a career as an operatic singer is a testament to an unquenchable spirit.

Born to intelligent, affluent and loving parents in California, Laurie was fortunate to have had all the advantages that such an upbringing would suggest. Except for one thing - Laurie was born blind, unable to see anything except white light. But Laurie, as every page of her entrancing memoir testifies, was also born with an unstoppable optimism - a can-do attitude that refuses to give up on any aspect of life's riches. Backed up by her family, she learned to ski, she has a bat mitzvah and discovers a wonderful singing voice coupled with a rare musical talent.

Every page of this book is infused by Laurie's unstoppable drive to live life to its fullest. The words "I can't" are simply not in her vocabulary. Instead, she asks, "how can I?" -- and then she goes ahead and does whatever it is.

As always, I would strongly advise readers to read this book because it’s a great read that will inspire people from all backgrounds to achieve their dreams without any hesitations.