Tag Archives: TBBS

“Abandoned Prayers” Now Available on BARD!

“Abandoned Prayers” by Gregg Olson is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.

Eli Stutzman was born and raised in one of Ohio’s strictest Amish communities. But behind the peaceful facade was a quietly tormented rebel. After the suspicious death of his pregnant wife, Stutzman abruptly severed his ties with the Amish. Taking his young son Danny with him, he embarked on a cross-country spree of compulsive pickups, rampant drug abuse and violence.

TBBS borrowers can request “Abandoned Prayers,” DBC01998, 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.

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New Book Available on BARD!

“A Rose is a Rose” by Ruth Richert Jones is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.

Kelley stopped believing in God when she stopped believing in Santa Claus. And she’s managed just fine without Him. She has a good career, a handsome man who wants to marry her, and now an exciting trip to England to fill her life. But suddenly everything falls apart. She meets Ian Stewart in England, and she begins to question her feelings for Charles, the man waiting for her in America. Shadows surround Ian, though, and Kelley is afraid to trust him. As the days go by, she realizes that either Ian or Charles is involved in the theft of a valuable microchip. One of the men who loves her is a thief. What’s more, the authorities suspect that Kelley was also involved in the robbery. Kelly is in danger of losing her career, her good name, maybe even her life. Where can she turn of help, when she doesn’t know whom she can trust? But, Kelley’s great aunt promises Jesus is a Friend one can always trust, for He never fails. What would it be like, Kelley wonders, to have a Friend like that?

TBBS borrowers can request “A Rose is a Rose,” DBC01994, 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.

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2024 One Book One Nebraska: Now Available on BARD!

Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crimeby Debora Harding is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.

This memoir of native Nebraskan, Debora Harding, is all about a traumatic childhood event, the aftereffects of which would change her family forever. Harding expertly weaves the past with the present in a riveting story of survival and family dynamics.

“With remarkable narrative skill, Harding untangles the lingering effects of family dysfunction and criminal trauma. This is a page-turner with a deep heart and soul, full of forgiveness but demanding of accountability.”

BookPage, “Best Books of 2020: Memoirs

This title has been selected as the 2024 One Book One Nebraska. The program is now in its 20th year of bringing Nebraskans together for the reading and discussion of one great book written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. Nearly every One Book One Nebraska winner is available on cartridge and for download on BARD.

The narration was done by Connie Healey, who has been volunteering for Talking Book and Braille for 10 years and received a Nebraska Library Association Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2022. The recording took over 30 hours in the studio and an additional 20 hours of post-production to prepare for our patrons. Connie has now read three One Book One Nebraska selections, the other two beingThe Bones of Paradiseby Jonis Agee andPrairie Forge by James J. Kimble.

TBBS borrowers can request “Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime,” DBC02052, 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.

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New Book Available on BARD!

“Take All to Nebraska” by Sophus Keith Winther is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!

A novel about a Danish family struggling to establish themselves on a rented farm in Nebraska at the turn of the century.

TBBS borrowers can request “Take All to Nebraska”, DBC02009, 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.

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New Nebraska Book on BARD!

“Keith County Journal” by John Janovy is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!

The natural life of Keith County, in West Central Nebraska, is explored in this unusual and highly praised book. As we walk through the field and marshes, we are shown aspects of the countryside that are usually ignored or even found repulsive, such as termites, snails, the blood-sucking louse, etc.

A very different look at the wonders of nature, fascinating, well written, and enlightening

Library Journal

TBBS borrowers can request “Keith County Journal,” DBC02008, 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.

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“The Home Place” Now Available on BARD

“The Home Place” by Wright Morris is available on cartridge and for download on BARD!

First published in 1948, this novel, written in the first person, describes the one-day visit of Clyde Muncy to “the home place” at Lone Tree, Nebraska. This tale of a New York family’s visit to a Nebraska farm has been acclaimed for its human interest and humor, stemming from the quiet collision of ways of life going in opposite directions. It was selected as the 2010 One Book One Nebraska 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.

A fine piece of Americana.

Library Journal

TBBS borrowers can request “The Home Place,” DBC02005, 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.

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New Book Available on BARD!

No Time on My Hands by Grace Snyder is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!

Snyder grew up on the high plains of Custer County, Nebraska and lived in the western Nebraska all her life. This book serves as her autobiography, a full life in which, “I have been blessed by having no time on my hands.”

“Snyder’s lengthy narrative is filled with humorous incidents, and she rarely fails to see a light side to even the most dreary event. Still the pathos comes through. . . . We realize Snyder’s importance as a folk artist, an outstanding quilter whose work was shown all over the country.”

Denver Post

TBBS borrowers can request “No Time on My Hands,” DBC01997, 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.

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2023 NLS Summer Reading Kickoff Program

You’re invited to attend the very first National Library Service Summer Reading Program!

It begins on Monday, June 26 with a kickoff event featuring Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, who will welcome everyone and read a picture book for the younger participants. All ages are welcome!

The kickoff event will be followed by these weekly author talks and story times and music:

For more information:
Annette Hall
402-471-4033
annette.hall@nebraska.gov

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New Summer Book Available on BARD!

“Jack and Noah’s Big Day: The Summer When Everything Happened Just Like No One Had Imagined” by Jay Patrick Slagle has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service and is perfect for summer!

Best friends Jack and Noah are facing what promises to be a long boring summer. They decide that Jack needs the world’s greatest birthday party, for which they will need to raise a lot of money. As fundraisers, they start a summer camp, staff a slushie stand, and try to sell glow-in-the-dark necklaces at the city’s July 4th fireworks show. Along the way, a house is blown up; there are visits by police, foremen, and news reporters; and an elephant marches down the driveway.

TBBS borrowers can request “Jack and Noah’s Big Day,” DBC01984, 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.

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New Autobiography Available on BARD!

“Behind the 8-Ball by Nebraska author Tom Frye is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!

“This is the story behind all of my stories, starting from when I was a kid growing up in Havelock and moving on through the 45 years I spent in the field of youth work. I may have a wild imagination, but this one is non-fiction and filled with true stories of my life and times.”

Author, Tom Frye

TBBS borrowers can request “Behind the 8-Ball,” DBC01988, 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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Listened to a good book lately?

Narrator Lois Crandall prepares to narrate a magazine.

This article was originally published in the Lincoln Journal Star.

Nebraska Talking Book and Braille Service uses newly developed technology to supply audio books to individuals with print disabilities. As books are requested, they are duplicated and mailed to the borrower’s home. Duplication-on-demand has eliminated waiting lists for popular books. Borrowers are also able to download reading materials and listen to them on their phone.

Talking Book and Braille Service is available to Nebraskans with print disabilities. These include visual impairments, dyslexia, and disabilities that make holding a book difficult. Talking Books is part of the Nebraska Library Commission and works in collaboration with the National Library Service.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled works with Talking Book libraries across the nation to provide audio books, magazines, and special book players. The National Library Service has also paid for mailing the materials back and forth to homes, so that there is no cost at all to borrowers to use the service.

To supplement the bestsellers and national books and magazines, the Talking Books audio studio records 21 magazines of specific interest to Nebraskans. Volunteers narrate the text as a second person follows along and handles the recording equipment. The team’s goal is to make a recording that is word perfect. Experienced volunteers might also narrate books about Nebraska or by Nebraska authors. To audition to be a narrator, or if you or someone you know would like to sign up to use the service, please contact the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service at 402-471-4038 or 800-742-7691.

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