By Catherine Durivage, Director, Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library

(Editor’s Note: This presentation was given at the Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota on October 27, 2012.)

Hello, my name is Catherine Durivage.  I am the Library Director at the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library.  Thank you for extending an invitation to me to speak at your annual conference again this year.

 

What a difference this year has been compared to last year.  I am not here this time talking about the effects of a state government shutdown on the library.  Instead, I am here to talk about some exciting changes in this program.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has a new director.  Her name is Karen Keninger.  She was the director of the Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped from 2000-2008 and then the director at the Iowa Department for the Blind.  She considers herself a user of this program first, then director. 

Her goals for NLS are:

 

• To be the best program for the blind and physically handicapped in the world.
• Revive braille.
• Increase scope of offered materials.
• Increase readership by 20% in the next 5 years.
• Develop more and better ways for patrons to take advantage of technology, especially seniors.

Many NLS staff seem to welcome her leadership and seem invigorated.  I know I am.

In regards to technology, I want to share some changes that will occur in BARD or Braille and Audio Reading Download.  BARD continues to be very popular with library patrons.  We are approaching almost 1,000 registered users of BARD.

Many of you are aware that BARD does not currently contain braille.  Well, that is going to change in the next upgrade.  Web-Braille will be merged with BARD, so you will have a one-stop place for both braille and audio downloads.  If you do not have a BARD account, you will need to obtain one.  Your Web-Braille login will not work in BARD, so please register for a BARD account.  Web-Braille will not be updated once braille books are incorporated into BARD and eventually it will be shutdown.

So what can you expect from the new and improved BARD?  Besides the inclusion of braille, you will be able to add books to a wish list.  This will allow you to select books you wish to download at a later date.  You can remove books on your wish list at any time.

You will also be able to track previous downloads.  I know some of the beta testers of BARD miss this feature and it is coming back.

There will also be more information about the book, like navigational points and clickable links for author, narrator, series, and subjects.

You will be able to change the color of the screen background to black/white and limit by format so if you want only audio books to be displayed in your search results you can change a setting.

There will eventually be more locally-produced recordings (books and magazines) from other states included, but you will be able to limit your search to only NLS-produced material, if desired.

So when will these new features be available?  Network libraries are beta testing the new interface now.  We hope the new features will become available sometime after November.  For more information about Minnesota BARD, visit https://nlsbard.loc.gov/MN1A.

Related to the changes in BARD is the development of a smartphone app for Apple iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads.  I expect an app for Android phones to be available later.  The contract has been awarded and the goal is to have the app ready sometime in early to mid-2013.  The app will be able to handle disrupted downloads and there should be an accessible download progress bar.  More information will be forthcoming, but this is exciting, as I know many of you have been eagerly waiting for this app.

The other technological development I want to share with you is the conversion of audiocassette magazines to digital.  Many of you BARD users are already taking advantage of downloading digital magazines.  However, if you are not a BARD user or prefer to receive your magazines by mail, you will shortly be receiving them on digital cartridges.  Those of you who subscribe to multiple magazines will receive a cartridge containing multiple titles.  You may experience a slight delay in receipt of your monthly magazines because the cartridge won’t go out until the last magazine for the month is published.  Weekly magazines will be sent to you weekly.

Magazine cartridges must be returned within a certain period or else the magazine subscription(s) will be suspended.  We will contact you when this happens.  If your magazine subscriptions won’t fit on one cartridge, you will get more than one cartridge.  

Magazine packaging and labeling will be a little different.  Magazines will be shipped in similar containers as digital books, the container will be dark red and the seal on top of the container will be different to reflect that it contains a magazine.  Magazine cartridges will be blue.  The mailing label will include a punch hole or 45 degree cut in a corner so you can identify what side the return address is located.  The return label will have the audio magazines producer’s address on it rather than the library’s address.

Returning digital magazines is a new procedure, so it is important that you do not hang on to the cartridges indefinitely as it will affect your magazine subscriptions.  This includes subscriptions to the audio version of Talking Book Topics.

Once a magazine title is available on a cartridge the cassette version will cease.  If you want to discontinue receiving audio magazines by mail, please let us know.

I know I haven’t shared much about NFB-NEWSLINE® in the past.  It continues to be popular, especially now with the recent addition of an iPhone, iPod Touch® and iPad app.  We currently have over 250 users access NFB-NEWSLINE® every month.  We have many more registered users, but not everyone accesses the service monthly.

NFB-NEWSLINE® usage statistics are:

• Phone users: 154
• Web users: 66
• In your pocket users: 12
• Email users: 36
• Total calls: 4414
• Total web sessions: 634
• Total in your pocket deliveries: 769
• Total email deliveries: 12,466
• Total call minutes: 87,100
• Total state newspaper accesses: 124
• Total TV listing accesses: 1,333
• Average call length: 19.73
• Percent local calls: 74.01

The library now has a much smaller web URL.  It is now www.mnbtbl.org.  We are in the process of updating content on our website, so be patient, but the new URL should make it simpler for you to find us online.

Our Advisory Committee is seeking one new member to fill an opening.  You need to complete an application available at the Secretary of State’s website or contact the library if you would like a copy e-mailed or sent by mail.  Members of the Advisory Committee meet quarterly, generally in Roseville at the Minnesota Department of Education, to discuss library issues and concerns.  Members are paid a per diem and travel expenses.  If you have questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

The last bit of news that I would like to share with you is our on-going relationship with the Communication Center at State Services for the Blind.  We have a long-standing and strong relationship with the Communication Center that handles the distribution of NLS talking book machines and accessories.  They offer many more services, like audio/braille transcription, the Radio Talking Book Network and Dial-in News.

In August, staff from the Communication Center and the library participated in a Kaizen event.  For those of you not familiar with Kaizen it is the Japanese word for improvement or change for the better.  It is a process that helps identify ways to improve relationships and streamline processes.  Staff from the Communication Center and the library spent three days discussing ways to improve our joint services, recognizing that we both operate with limited staff.  We are currently working on implementing some of the recommendations, like creating a joint application for library service and sharing the same computer system since our current computer systems do not speak to one another.  This results in quite a bit of duplication that could almost be nonexistent in a shared computer environment.  These are just a few of the activities that we are working on together.  The bottom line is that we want to find ways to improve our customer service and possibly expand the type of services we both currently offer.

It has been a pleasure being here today.  If there is time, I’ll entertain questions.

Thank you.