Frequently Asked Questions

1. Check whether you are eligible for service.


2. Complete an application. Make sure it is signed by a doctor, optometrist, nurse, therapist, professional staff of a hospital or institution, a social worker, caseworker, rehabilitation counselor, or other certifying authority.


3. When your application is complete, you or your certifier can email your application to nlc.talkingbook@nebraska.gov or fax it to 402-471-6244.
   
   If you prefer to mail your application, mark your envelope with
   'Free Matter for the Blind' in place of a postage stamp, and address to:

Talking Book and Braille Service
1200 N St, Ste 120
Lincoln, NE 68508

4. After we receive your application, we'll give you a call to complete your enrollment. It is important to provide a phone number on your application that we can easily reach you or your alternate contact at.


5. When we enroll you, you will have the option of downloading materials via BARD online and BARD mobile.


6. Interested in a low-tech option? No problem! Check out our easy-to-use playback equipment. All of our materials can be sent through the mail, and there's no postage required to return them.

Talking Book and Braille Service is taxpayer funded and available to all eligible persons at no cost.

There is no cost to borrow materials and equipment, and our service does not issue or collect overdue fees or fines for lost equipment and materials.

Talking Book and Braille Service partners with the United States Postal Service to send and return equipment and materials through the mail under the Free Matter for the Blind provision.

Absolutely! Blindness is a spectrum, and many people who are legally blind have some vision or light detection.

Is it uncomfortable, painful, or challenging for you to read standard print?

If your answer is “Yes”, then Talking Books is for you.

Yes! Individuals with a temporary disability that prohibits them from comfortably reading standard print qualify for service on a temporary basis. Whether it takes you six weeks, six months, or six years to recover, you can be a patron during that time.

When you are recovered and able to read standard print again, we ask that you return your equipment and materials so that they can be reissued to others who need the service.

Yes! People with reading disabilities such as dyslexia have access to our entire service and collection, including our BARD mobile app/website. Your doctor, therapist, teacher, or librarian can certify your application.

Our collection includes tens of thousands of audiobooks for younger readers. We also have a collection of Twin Vision Braille picture books, which have braille overlays so that the sighted and blind can read together.

Our parent organization, National Library Service, has collected resources for younger readers.

Our collection also include audio and braille magazines for children and teens; including Jack and Jill, Missy, and National Geographic Kids.

Talking Book and Braille Service strives to process all applications within three business days of receipt.

In order to enroll you as a patron, we need to contact you.

It is very important to provide a phone number at which we can reach you (or your alternate contact) on your application. We cannot send equipment or materials before confirming your address; and we cannot register you for BARD without confirming your email.

If it has been more than a week since you emailed or faxed your application, or more than two weeks if you mailed it to us, please contact us as soon as possible to make sure that your application was received.

After enrollment, we will mail you a player and audiobooks, and/or you can get same-day access to our collection via BARD.

With hundreds of thousands of audio and braille books available, as well as a collection of magazines, it may be hard to know where to start.

Talking Book Topics (TBT) is a bimonthly magazine that highlights some of the latest audiobooks added to the National Library Service (NLS) collection. TBT is a great way to get a feel for our overall collection.

Looking for books on a specific subject or theme? NLS has dozens of curated lists of titles on a wide variety of topics: popular book series, award-winning books, The Beatles, financial planning, Rosa Parks, container gardening, Native American stories, Queen Elizabeth II, and many more! Your Reader Advisor is also able to search the collection and create a booklist for you.

There is also Collections Connections, a free email newsletter from the NLS Collection Development staff. Each month, Collections Connections highlights fiction and nonfiction titles—many of them new—focused on a timely theme.

NLS also produces dozens of popular magazines in audio and braille, from titles on current events and tech tips, to sports and celebrity news. We have magazines for children and teens too. Patrons can receive magazines through the mail on audio cartridge or hard-copy braille or download them in audio or ebraille from BARD and BARD Mobile.

Many of our cartridges will have multiple books uploaded on them. The audio instructions should say how many books are on the cartridge when it is inserted into the player after it is turned on. To access the books, you can follow the instructions given in the audio statement at the beginning of the cartridge and use the bookshelf feature; or you can use the sequential-play feature:

1. To use the bookshelf feature, you press and hold down the rectangular green play button at the top lower edge of your player. Let go when the voice announcement says "bookshelf". Then use the fast-forward and rewind arrow-shaped keys on either side of the play button to move between titles. When the title of the book that you would like to listen to is announced, press the play button again to listen to that book.
2. To use the sequential-play feature, you must wait until the audio instructions at the beginning of the cartridge have concluded and the player tells you "End of Book". Then press the play button to continue on to the first title. Repeat to listen to all of the books on the cartridge.

Books and magazines will arrive in hard, plastic cases. On the outside of the case there will be a mailcard. To return books and national magazines, you need to remove the mailcard from the case, then place the case in outgoing mail. To return local magazines, you will need to flip the mailcard over, rather than removing it, before putting it in outgoing mail.

Books and magazines from TBBS are delivered to you through the United States Postal Service (USPS). Postage has already been paid. There is no cost for you to receive or return these library materials.

In the event a plastic mailcase is returned empty, you can still return your cartridge. The next time you mail back a book, put both cartridges in the same case with the smooth sides of the cartridges together.

If your player stops working or has battery issues, please contact TBBS and we will send out a new player. When you receive the new player in the mail, please send us back your old one. The machine the box comes in will have a white slip of paper in a clear, plastic envelope on the outside of the box. You can flip this piece of paper over and use it as a return address label. Shipping using the United States Postal Service (USPS) is free. We do not charge for replacement players.

Users need to download a book at least every six months to maintain an Active status in BARD. Contact us for any issue with BARD.

Absolutely! We encourage you to call ahead to expedite any book orders or machine exchanges you wish to make, but we would be delighted to see you. We are located in downtown Lincoln on the ground level of the Atrium Building. When you walk through the Nebraska Library Commission doors, the TBBS desk is on your left. Our address is: Nebraska Library Commission, Talking Book and Braille Service, The Atrium, 1200 N St, Suite 120, Lincoln, NE 68508.