BARD is the Braille and Audio Reading Download. It is a website with downloadable National Library Service (NLS) digital books. You must be a registered National Library Service patron in order to sign up for the BARD service. As a registered NLS patron you can donwload the digital books and magazines to a victor reader stream if you wish to buy one...or you can contact your library for the blind and ask to receive an NLS digital machine. your local library for the blind may have one for you immediately, or you may need to be added to a waiting list, depending on player availability.
Once you have a machine, you can receive digital books on the NLS cartridges or you can purchase a commercial flash drive, download the books to the flash drive and listen to them through the NLS digital machine. There are many options avaialbe. Speak with the staff of your local library for the blind. Valerie On Thu, Apr 22, 2010, Steve Matzura <numb...@speakeasy.net> said: > On Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:33:49 -0400, you wrote: > >>I've heard of Bard but don't really know details. Is this a service where we >>can download talking books without having to have something like a Victor >>Stream? I would like to know about it and where to sign up, especially if it >>is simply a download of talking books service. Thanks. > > I don't like any of the answers you got because they didn't address a > key question you had. You specifically asked, do you have to have > something like a Victor Reader Stream. The answer is yes, you do. > There are currently three such players available for purchase--the > Stream itself, the Book sense and the latest Icon. They all require a > decryption key, which comes in a file that you load into the > aforementioned device. You get this decryption key from the National > Library Service after you give them the serial number of your device > and they contact the manufacturer to validate that serial number. The > key file and instructions for installing it are returned to you via > email from the NLS. > > The free option, of course, is to get a player directly from NLS. It's > a lot larger and less versatile than the other pay options I > mentioned, but it's a darn good machine with a lot of capabilities on > its own, and really good playback audio, far better than the old > orange boxes they used to give out masquerading as cassette players > (LOL). > > The good thing is, you can get a BARD login from NLS today, start > downloading books, and save them for when you get a player. If you > don't know where your nearest regional library is, get yourself onto > the Library of Congress National Library Service main Website, where > I'm sure you can look that information up easily. > > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org > -- Valerie Lewis, Director LI Talking Book Library Administrator of Outreach Services Suffolk Cooperative Library System 631-286-1600, x1365 To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
