Talking Book Topics - National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS)

Purple open book with pages unfurled and three sound waves coming out of the center of the book

Patrons now have access to richer, more detailed descriptions of new titles added to the NLS collection. NLS now uses publisher-provided book descriptions for most new titles. These longer descriptions give patrons more insight into book content, making it easier for patrons to identify titles of interest. These descriptions appear in the NLS Catalog, on BARD, and in NLS publications as ‘Provided by publisher’ and are taken verbatim from the publisher.

Talking Book Topics (TBT) lists a selection of titles recently added to the NLS collection and available through a network of cooperating libraries or the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) service. It also carries news of developments in services to people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical, perceptual, or reading disability that prevents them from using regular print materials. NLS publishes TBT bimonthly in digital audio and HTML (current and back issues below), as well as PDF in large-print formats, which include order forms for mailing (current and back issues below), and as a digital talking book (DB).

Increasingly, NLS patrons are accessing TBT through downloadable audio files through their subscription to BARD. An abridged TBT section found in Braille Book Review comes in hard-copy braille with a hard-copy braille order form. Patrons can also contact their network library about subscribing through the NLS magazine-on-cartridge program or having the TBT talking book mailed on cartridge. Additionally, as a publication offered by NFB-NEWSLINE, TBT can be accessed via landline phones; please visit https://nfb.org/programs-services/nfb-newsline or call 866-504-7300 for more information on accessing TBT through NFB-NEWSLINE.

To search the hundreds of thousands of books available in the NLS collection, search the NLS Catalog.

Books listed in the HTML version of TBT link directly to BARD pages from which books can be saved to a computer for playing on a talking-book machine or can be saved to the BARD wish list for downloading on the BARD Mobile app. The free BARD Mobile app is available from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon's Appstore for reading talking books on your personal smartphone or tablet. For more information about BARD service, contact your local cooperating library. To find your library online, go to www.loc.gov/nls/find-your-library.

Other Book Lists

Minibibliographies are available on narrow topics. NLS has dozens of curated book lists of titles on a wide variety of topics: The Beatles, financial planning, Rosa Parks, container gardening, Native American stories, popular book series, and many more.

Braille Book Review (BBR) lists newly added braille books and magazines. Like Talking Book Topics, BBR is a bimonthly magazine that highlights most of the latest braille books added to the NLS collection and is available in a variety of formats.

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