Presentation to the

IHLS Board of Directors by IMSA Director, Loretta Broomfield

Talking Books

Illinois Machine Sublending Agency

January 24, 2012

Talking Books…in Ten Minutes or Less

• Overview of the Talking Books program

• Overview of the responsibilities of the Illinois

Machine Sublending Agency (IMSA) Carterville

Office

Overview of Talking Books

• Mail order library service for print impaired

• Established in 1931 by an act of Congress(celebrated 80 years in March 2011)

• Provides braille and audio reading material and audio playback equipment to eligible readers

• No direct cost to patron. Tax supported

Eligibility

• Blindness or Visual impairment

– Macular degeneration

– Glaucoma

– Cataracts

• Physical impairment

– Paralysis

– Tremors

– Weakness

• Learning disability

– Dyslexia

– Aphasia

Application and Certification

• Eligible patrons must submit a completed

application for service

• Applications must be signed by a

“certifying authority” to verify that the

applicant meets eligibility requirements

Application and Certification cont.

• Certifying authorities may be professionals from the following fields

– Medical (M.D., R.N., therapist, ophthalmologist)

– Social Services (counselor, case worker, rehabilitation teacher)

– Education (teacher, librarian, school administrator)

Application and Certification cont.

• In the case of a learning disability, the certifying

authority MUST be a medical doctor (M.D.) or a

doctor of osteopathy (D.O.)

• The cause of the learning disability must be

physically based, that is, it must be an organic

dysfunction

• The person certifying the application must be

medically able to judge whether the disability

has a physical or organic basis

How the Program Works

• Once a patron is registered, all playback

equipment, books, catalogs, and request

lists are mailed to and from the patron as

FREE MATTER through the United States

Postal Service.

– The USPS receives approximately $80

million per year to handle FREE

MATTER mail. This is annually funded

by Congress.

How the Program Works cont.

• The NLS collection of books consists of over 100,000 titles in audio and braille formats

• All titles are unabridged

• Computer system allows patrons to exclude books containing sex, violence and/or strong language.

• Can also filter by specific narrator (male, female or narrators with accents)

Types of Books(Comparable to most public library collections)

• Classics

• Romances

• Westerns

• Mysteries

• Best sellers

• Cookbooks

• Poetry

• Biographies

• Children’s books

• Religion

• Science fiction

• Historical fiction

• Pop culture

• Inspirational

MagazinesOver 100 popular magazines are available

in cassette and braille formats

• Newsweek

• People

• Cricket

• Reader’s Digest

• Gook Housekeeping

• Consumer Reports

• Sports Illustrated

• Popular Mechanics

• Seventeen

• Smart Computing

• Martha Stewart

Living

• Cooking Light

• National

Geographic

• Talking Book Topics

Descriptive Videos

• Illinois has a shared collection of about 700 descriptive videos on both VHS and DVD

• A narrator describes critical visual elements of a movie without interfering with the dialogue. For example, scenery, facial expressions of characters, clothing, etc.

Descriptive Videos

• Pirates of the Caribbean

• The Wizard of Oz

• Forrest Gump

• Polar Express

• Back to the Future

• The Godfather

• Harry Potter

• Ken Burns’ Baseball

Braille and Audio

Reading Download (BARD)• BARD is an NLS website that allows

registered users to download audio books.

– Nearly 25,000 titles available

– Fast and on demand (no waiting lists and no wait for the postal carrier to deliver)

– No overdues

– Patrons can keep books forever

BARD cont.

• Must be a registered Talking Book user

• Must apply online for a BARD account

• Must have high speed internet connectivity

• Must have some computer knowledge (there is a bit of a learning

curve)

• Must have a flash drive or digital cartridge and cable

• BARD downloads will only work on NLS player and other approved

NLS third party players (not on computer, iPod, or other unapproved

device)

The Role of IMSA• The primary function of IMSA is to maintain and

circulate all Talking Book machines, equipment

and accessories for the state of Illinois

• The Carterville office took on the role of machine

sublending agency on July 1, 2010 (on paper).

In practice, the role was assumed in late

September 2010.

• A secondary, yet vital role of IMSA is to provide

BARD technical support for Illinois patrons

Machine Maintenance and Circulation

• Check out and mail machines to patrons

• Check in machines that have been returned

• Perform minor repairs in house

• Send extensive repairs to Telephone Pioneer volunteer repair groups

• Prepare machines for circulation to next patron (check for functionality, clean, charge battery, etc.)

Machine Maintenance and Circulation

• Maintain records in the KLAS automation

system and submit monthly reports to NLS

• Attempt to retrieve machines from patrons

who have cancelled service but failed to

return machines in a timely manner

• Assist patrons with the functionality of the

machines

BARD Technical Support• Respond to patron inquiries about the BARD

download process

• Offer basic troubleshooting strategies to patrons experiencing difficulty with BARD

• Provide BARD help documents to patrons

• Assist patrons with BARD account maintenance (change password, change email address, obtain key for purchased player, etc.)

• Refer patrons to other sources of help

IMSA Data• Illinois has about 13,000 registered Talking Book

users. This fluctuates from day to day.

• IMSA sends out approximately 6,000 machines

per year

• Approximately 15-25 machines are returned to

IMSA every day

• Current available inventory:

– Cassette players: 1,300

– Digital players: 3,800

IMSA Data• IMSA receives approximately 50 BARD

inquiries per month

• IMSA has five full time employees

• IMSA has no budget line item for outreach

but we do participate in outreach events

that are free, or low cost and within close

proximity to Carterville. This typically

consists of health fairs, senior fairs,

disability support groups, etc.

Websites

• BARD https://nlsbard.loc.gov

• Illinois Machine Sublending Agency http://www.imsa.lib.il.us

• Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service http://ilbph.org

• National Library Service http://www.loc.gov/nls

Questions?