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Category Archives: Talking Book & Braille Service (TBBS)
“Becker’s Farm” Now Available on BARD!
“Becker’s Farm: A Novel” by William Timmons is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
World War II prisoner of war Helmut Sommerfield is interned at a small POW camp in western Nebraska. He soon earns the good will of surrounding farmers as he puts his mechanical skills to work repairing farm equipment. Their admiration for him deepens after Helmut is severely burned while rescuing two farmers trapped in a burning barn. One of the farmers, a recluse, dies, giving rise to a plot to swap Helmut’s identity for the deceased farmer. His chance for a new life is threatened by an escaping POW who knows Helmut’s true identity.
TBBS borrowers can request “Becker’s Farm,” DBC01999, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
2023 One Book One Nebraska Selection available on BARD!
“The Mystery of Hunting’s End” by Mignon G. Eberhart has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service!
Smack in the middle of the Nebraska Sand Hills is Hunting’s End, a weekend lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Socialite Matil Kingery invites a strange collection of guests — the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She intends to find out which one of them murdered him.
This title has been selected as the 2023 One Book One Nebraska. This dynamic program cultivates a culture of reading and discussion in our state by bringing our diverse state together around one great book by a Nebraska author.
TBBS borrowers can request “The Mystery of Hunting’s End,” DBC02012, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Book Available on BARD!
“Haven’s Wake” by Ladette Randolph is now available on cartridge and download on BARD!
When Haven Grebel dies following a tractor accident on his Nebraska farm, his Mennonite family gathers for the funeral service. Widow Elsa, estranged son Jonathan, and the rest of the family must navigate love, loyalty, and long-buried secrets.
“Haven’s Wake is about memory and silence, and about secrets and the fear of them. But above all, it’s a tale of love and loyalty. At the very heart of this deeply heartfelt novel is the story of the restorative power of family and tradition.”
Timothy Schaffert
This novel is part of the Flyover Fiction series and is listed on the 150 Greatest Nebraska Books list — a list that represents the best literature produced from Nebraska during the past 150 years.
TBBS borrowers can request “Haven’s Wake,” DBC01896, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
William Kloefkorn Book Available on BARD!
“This Death by Drowning” by Nebraska author William Kloefkorn has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service!
“Is there any human corner left to illuminate? To surprise? Absolutely, as these wondrous recollections by poet Kloefkorn prove. This slim volume is filled with provocative perceptions garnered from daily life. . . . After the last line, readers will turn back to page one and start again, slowly.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“This Death by Drowning” serves as Kloefkorn’s personal memoir. It is an artfully assembled collection of reminiscences having to do with water and is listed on the 150 Greatest Nebraska Books list — a list that represent the best literature produced from Nebraska during the past 150 years.
TBBS borrowers can request “This Death by Drowning,” DBC02002, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
NCompass Live: New Technology for the Visually Impaired of Nebraska: Magnifiers and e-readers
Electronic video magnifiers and Braille e-readers will improve services to your blind and visually impaired patrons, and they are available via public libraries across the state. Learn about this equipment on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, on Wednesday, March 22 at 10am CT.
Erin Brandyberry and Mickie Saltzman, from the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and Pat Fischer from NanoPac, will talk about and demonstrate how to use equipment that will improve services to your blind and visually impaired patrons. Electronic video magnifiers were placed in Nebraska public libraries by the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Braille e-readers are available to Nebraska patrons from the Talking Book and Braille Service (TBBS) at the Nebraska Library Commission.
Upcoming NCompass Live shows:
- March 29 – Pretty Sweet Tech: GrandPads: Creating Digital Connections for Older Adults
- April 5 – T(w)eens: Programming, Partnership, and Burnout
- April 12 – Art Show! Where Art and Science Meet to Bring the Community Together
- April 19 – Creative Aging Arts Program for Nebraska Libraries
- April 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech
- May 17 – Read the Rainbow: Serving the LGBTQ+ Community in Your Library
- May 24 – La Biblioteca Es Para Ti – Building Community Relationships in a Different Language
- May 31 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Bots for the Community!
For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website. The show is presented online using the GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
Posted in Education & Training, Talking Book & Braille Service (TBBS), Technology
Tagged NCompLive
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New Nebraska Book on BARD!
“Welcome to Pallywonkersville: My Irreverent, but Humorous, Memories of Growing up in Rural Nebraska” by Nebraska author David Hunt is available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
Hunt shares humorous stories about growing up in Palisade, Nebraska, (population 350), which he refers to as Pallywonkersville. Family, friends, and pranks fill these vignettes of small-town life.
TBBS borrowers can request “Welcome to Pallywonkersville,” DBC01990, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Book available on BARD!
“Not by the Sword: How a Cantor and His Family Transformed a Klansman“ by Kathryn Watterson is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
“Watterson has written one of the most powerful, painful, yet healing stories about our most explosive issue: race. Her book [Not by the Sword] is not only literally true but also symbolically true for us as people — if we acknowledge and transform who and what we are.”
Cornel West, author of “Race Matters”
Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Nebraska, Larry Trapp was a wheelchair-bound amputee who led a campaign of fear against Jews and other minorities from his cramped apartment in Lincoln. After receiving death threats from Larry, Cantor Michael Weisser and his wife Julie extended friendship to him and later offered to take him into their home. Larry renounced all ties to the Klan, began working with youth groups to educate them about the danger of racist ideology, and, before dying from kidney disease, even converted to Judaism.
TBBS borrowers can request “Not by the Sword,” DBC01995, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
Happy World Braille Day!
Check out this story by KMTV on our braille e-reader and Talking Book and Braille services!
Nebraska Library Commission offers free use of braille e-reader
The device uses electronic displays to create braille letters. They are normally costly, but the Nebraska Library Commission’s talking book and braille service has them to use for free.
By: KMTV Staff
Posted at 5:31 PM, Jan 04, 2023
and last updated 8:21 AM, Jan 05, 2023
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Wednesday was World Braille Day and the whole week is dedicated to visual impairments.
A braille e-reader is a digital device that can make a big difference for those who read braille. It translates words on a screen to braille and it’s free to access for Nebraskans.
“I can read a text message in braille, so braille itself hasn’t really changed,” said Mickie Saltzman, technology training associate for Outlook Enrichment. “The technology and the tools we use to access that braille has changed.”
The braille e-reader can be used on more than phones. It works with computers and tablets, too.
New Book Available on BARD!
“George Norris, Going Home: Reflections of a Progressive Statesman” by Nebraska author Gene A. Budig and Don Walton is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
“Nebraskans need to remember George Norris. He truly was one of our great citizens. This book is a very enjoyable journey through those memories.”
Francis Moul, Lincoln Journal Star
This enjoyable book takes readers back through George Norris’ career and what he accomplished. It provides a contemporary perspective about a man who fought to improve everyday life for all American citizens.
TBBS borrowers can request “George Norris, Going Home,” DBC01907, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
“In Cold Storage” on BARD!
“In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains” by Nebraska author James W. Hewitt is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
“In 1973 the small southwest Nebraska railroad town of McCook became the unlikely scene of a grisly murder. More than forty years later, author James W. Hewitt returns to the scene and unearths new details about what happened.”
Book Jacket
James W. Hewitt is president of the Friends of the Center for Great Plains Studies and was an adjunct professor of history at Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author of “Slipping Backward: A History of the Nebraska Supreme Court” (Nebraska, 2007).
TBBS borrowers can request “In Cold Storage,” DBC01892, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
NCompass Live: Learning Opportunities and Resources from WebJunction
Come on a tour of WebJunction and learn how to build your library-specific knowledge, skills, and confidence on next week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, July 20 at 10am CT.
WebJunction provides a range of library-specific, online, and on-demand courses and webinars to help meet your continuing education needs. Whether you are looking to pick up a new skill, or to find inspiration for a new idea, these resources can help you take the first, or next step. With the support of the Nebraska Library Commission, all of the content, webinars and courses are free, and you’ll find topics ranging from customer service to organizational management to space planning. Join this session for a tour of WebJunction and to hear about these flexible and dynamic learning opportunities!
Presenter: Kendra Morgan, Senior Program Manager, WebJunction.
Upcoming NCompass Live shows:
- July 27 – Pretty Sweet Tech: CES 2022 and Libraries
- Aug. 3 – Building a Reading Community Through Podcasting
- Aug. 10 – Reinventing Programming Kits
- Aug. 24 – Team Up with your Community!
- Sept 7 – Retirement: Time to Ease on Down, Ease on Down the Road
For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website. The show is presented online using the GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
Posted in Books & Reading, Education & Training, Talking Book & Braille Service (TBBS)
Tagged NCompLive, TBBS
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NCompass Live: Talking Book and Braille Service: Continuously Evolving
Learn all about the NLC’s Talking Book and Braille Service on next week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, July 13 at 10am CT.
Join Gabe Kramer, Director of the Nebraska Library Commission’s Talking Book & Braille Service, to learn about the free audiobooks, audio magazines, and Braille available through the TBBS to individuals with a visual or physical condition, or a reading disability which limits use of regular print. We will take a look at the past, present, and future of the talking book program’s technology and services.
Upcoming NCompass Live shows:
- July 20 – Learning Opportunities and Resources from WebJunction
- July 27 – Pretty Sweet Tech: CES 2022 and Libraries
- Aug. 3 – Building a Reading Community Through Podcasting
- Aug. 10 – Reinventing Programming Kits
- Aug. 24 – Team Up with your Community!
- Sept 7 – Retirement: Time to Ease on Down, Ease on Down the Road
For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website. The show is presented online using the GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
Posted in Books & Reading, Education & Training, Talking Book & Braille Service (TBBS)
Tagged NCompLive, TBBS
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New Nebraska Memoir on BARD!
“Our Life Our Way: A Memoir of Active Faith, Profound Love, and Courageous Disability Rights” by Nebraska author William L. Rush and Christine F. Robinson is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD.!
“Our Life Our Way, A Memoir of Active Faith, Profound Love, and Courageous Disability Rights explores an extraordinary love story grown out of engagement with both disability rights advocacy and Christian faith communities. This important memoir contains thoughtful, often-entertaining, and sometimes heart-wrenching anecdotes of a couple’s journey to create their profoundly intimate relationship and Christian marriage, in a world not yet ready for them.”
Book Jacket
This memoir was written by a husband and wife, and is narrated by Christine Robinson, it is the sequel to Rush’s autobiography, “Journey Out of Silence,” which is also available on BARD and cartridge.
TBBS borrowers can request “Our Life Our Way,” DBC01986, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Nebraska Book Available on BARD!
“Journey Out of Silence: An Autobiography” by Nebraska author William L. Rush is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD.!
Bill Rush’s exceptional journey continues to encourage and inspire all who aspire to live fully and contribute to society. Bill lived with a significant disability of quadriplegic cerebral palsy. He did not have use of his arms, hands or voice. Society’s prejudices proved to be a greater obstacle than his disability in attaining his first life’s goal of completing college. William (Bill) L. Rush chronicled his extraordinary life from childhood until graduation from the University of Nebraska -Lincoln in Journey Out of Silence, first published in 1986.”
Book Jacket
This humble and uplifting autobiography is a window into the world of people with disabilities. It’s narrated by Scott Scholz, who is a past director of Talking Book and Braille Service at the Nebraska Library Commission.
TBBS borrowers can request “Journey Out of Silence: An Autobiography,” DBC 01985, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
Roger Welsch Book Added to BARD!
“It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It From Here: Tales of the Great Plains” by Nebraska author Roger Welsch has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service!
“In this rather slight collection of monologues, stories and essays, Welsch–a regular on CBS’s Charles Kuralt show, a columnist and collector of Great Plains lore–celebrates small-town America’s leisurely pace, human scale and the ordinary man or woman who “moves mankind and shapes destiny.”
Publisher’s Weekly
The book is a collection of stories which demonstrate that small-town Nebraska life is filled with color and variety, ideas and humor, wit and warmth. Some pieces are short narratives; others are descriptions of characters. The book was previously recorded in the TBBS studios and has been reformatted for national distribution.
TBBS borrowers can request “It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It From Here,” DBC 01987, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. Another Welsch title available for download is “Mister, You Got Yourself a Horse: Tales of Old-time Horse Trading,” DBC 13621. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
NLC Staff: Meet Eric Saxon
Questions and Answers with TBBS Studio & Book Circulation Support, Eric Saxon. He started working with NLC in May of 2021. Take a few minutes and get to know him better with a few fun questions!
What was the last thing you googled?
Looking up the pronunciation of Coccidiosis
What advice would you give your 21 year old self?
Make your money in the early side of life and retire early, as early as possible
What’s your ideal vacation?
Not too far away, not too close, and cheap
What do you do to relax?
Walk my dog
Describe your first car?
A royal blue 1993 Honda Civic
If I weren’t working in a library, I’d be…
Working in a museum or archives
What was the first concert you remember attending?
Social Distortion at the New Daisy Theatre in Memphis, TN
What movie can you watch over and over again?
This Is Spinal Tap
What was the last book you read?
The Unexpected Universe, by Loren Eiseley
What was the last movie you watched?
The Alpinist
What is your proudest handyman moment?
I fixed our dryer
What smell brings back great memories?
The smell of roasting jalapenos
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
The ability to stop time for the world while I can keep moving
What’s the last thing you do before you got to bed?
Text friends especially in other countries/time zones
Do you have any tattoos?
I have a pencil lead tattoo
What is your favorite comfort food?
Mashed potatoes
What words or phrases do you overuse?
Sounds good
On what occasion do you lie?
When I’m tired
What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
Torn out pictures of insects, jewel beetles, and a No Bozos poster
Do you love or hate rollercoasters?
Love
Do you have any pets?
Yes – a Bernese mountain dog named Pepper
What is your guilty pleasure?
Throwing rocks through ice
Favorite technology you could not live without?
Running water
If you could get rid of one holiday – which one would you abolish?
National Mayonnaise Day
If you could only eat one kind of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Granola
What do you get every time you go to the grocery store?
Fresh garlic
New Book on BARD!
Just in Time for the Holidays!
One of the first works by Willa Cather has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service! “The Burglar’s Christmas” was originally published in the December 1896 issue of The Home Monthly under the pseudonym Elizabeth L Seymour.
“William Crawford has failed at one enterprise after another. No job, no money, no food, he desperately decides to try being a thief – and gets caught. “
This is a short but powerful read, just right for the holidays. TBBS borrowers can request “The Burglar’s Christmas,” DBC 01980, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
TBBS Volunteers Receive Award
Volunteers at Talking Book and Braille Service were chosen for Celebrate Literacy, 2021. The award was presented by the Nebraska State Literacy Association at their annual conference. This year the conference was online. Pictures of some of the volunteers were displayed during the ceremony.
We think the studio volunteers are super! They are very dedicated, and many have narrated for several years. Thank you Nebraska State Literacy Association for honoring them.
NLC Staff: Meet Amy Irons
Questions and Answers with Talking Book and Braille Circulation Technician, Amy Irons. She started working with the NLC in August of 2019. Take a few minutes and get to know her better with a few fun questions!
What was the last thing you googled?
Horse Creek Adventures
What advice would you give your 21 year old self?
It’s okay if you don’t have it figured out yet
What’s your ideal vacation?
Mountains and forest
What do you do to relax?
Art: paint, draw, sew, cross stitch
Describe your first car?
A 1987 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Station Wagon with wood paneling. It was white and her name was Billy
What was the first concert you remember attending?
All for One at the Nebraska State Fair
What movie can you watch over and over again?
Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, The Princess Bride
What was the last book you read?
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
What was the last movie you watched?
Birds of Prey
What is your proudest handyman moment?
I installed ceiling fans
Three words that describe you?
Weird, silly, and kind
What smell brings back great memories?
Pine trees and Christmas
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
The power to heal
What’s the last thing you do before you got to bed?
Make the rounds in my house to make sure all the doors and windows are locked and then snuggle with my dog
Do you have any tattoos?
Yes – seven
What is your favorite comfort food when you are sick?
Miso soup
What words or phrases do you overuse?
She was not fragile like a flower, she was fragile like a bomb
What’s your most treasured possession?
My son – Bodhi – age 11
What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
Lisa Frank’s unicorns and dolphins
Do you love or hate rollercoasters?
Love
Do you have any pets?
One fat unruly cat named Girl Girl and a dog named Cora who is the sweetest girl that ever lived.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Taco Bell
Favorite technology you could not live without?
The Internet
If you could get rid of one holiday – which one would you abolish?
Columbus Day
If you could only eat one kind of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Sushi
If you could call anyone in the world and have a one-hour conversation, what would you call?
Lizzo
What do you get every time you go to the grocery store?
Mio
NLC Staff: Meet Matt Hier
Questions and Answers with NLC’s Audio Production Studio Manager, Matt Hier. He started working with the NLC in our Talking Book & Braille Department in October 2019. Take a few minutes and get to know him better with a few fun questions!
What was the last thing you googled?
I was unfamiliar with shoepeg corn that appeared in a recipe
What’s your ideal vacation?
Traveling to cities – New York, Chicago, and Seattle are my favorites
What do you do to relax?
Curl up with a cup of coffee and a good book
Describe your first car?
Red 1989 Ford Probe
If I weren’t working in a library, I’d be …
Working in a radio station
What was the first concert you remember attending?
Sweet 98’s Sweetstock at Westfair Amphitheater in Council Bluffs
What movie can you watch over and over again?
Back to the Future
What was the last book you read?
Normal People by Sally Rooney
What was the last movie you watched?
The Matrix
What is a quote you live by?
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Three words that describe you?
Reserved, hardworking, and empathetic
What smell brings back great memories?
Scents of fall: apple cider, caramel corn at a pumpkin patch, cinnamon
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
To fly
What’s the last thing you do before you got to bed?
Read
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
Less cranky than appears
Do you have any tattoos?
No, I’m not opposed to them but I am indecisive and would almost certainly regret my decision
What is your favorite comfort food?
Mac and cheese
What words or phrases do you overuse?
Fantastic
On what occasion do you lie?
Only when it will hurt someone’s feelings if I tell the truth and it does not matter
Do you love or hate rollercoasters?
I love theme parks but not giant rollercoasters
Do you have any pets?
No
What is your guilty pleasure?
80’s pop music
Favorite technology you could not live without?
Streaming television shows and movies
If you could get rid of one holiday – which one would you abolish?
4th of July because I don’t like loud noises
If you could only eat one kind of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Italian food
If you could call anyone in the world and have a one-hour conversation, who would you call?
Michael J. Fox
What do you get every time you go to the grocery store?
Frozen pizza
