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REA D ING M ATTERSSecond Quarter 2013Washington Talking Book & Braille Library2021 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121-27838:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - FridayPhone: 206-615-0400 Statewide toll free: 1-800-542-0866wtbbl@sos.wa.gov www.wtbbl.orgDavid Junius, EditorTHAT ALL M AY REA D . . .

A Message from the DirectorWe’ve been busy getting books out to youand processing new and returned books.There is always something keeping ushopping, and this past quarter has been nodifferent!WTBBL hosted a wonderful VolunteerAppreciation Event on April 18. More than60 people attended and enjoyed a talkby local mystery writer Kevin O’Brien. OnApril 26, three WTBBL staff presented onlibrary services to the underserved at a jointconference of the Washington and Oregonlibrary associations. El día de los niños/Eldía de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) isan annual celebration of children, families,and reading that culminates on April 30.WTBBL participated for the second yearand mailed braille and large-print materialsto kids and teens using our service. Thecelebration emphasizes the importanceof literacy for children of all linguistic andcultural backgrounds.Our ninth Ten-Squared High Tea forWTBBL patrons over 100 years of agewas held the Saturday before Mother’sDay and was a truly memorable event. Ofthe 63 centenarians actively borrowingbooks (including a 110 year old), we had30 new inductees in the club, and threecentenarians attended the event with theirfamilies and friends.If you borrow braille, you may have gotten1Washington Talking Book & Braille LibraryDanielle Miller, WTBBL Directora call from us asking about your braillehabits, the ease and method of braillereading, and your ideas for future use ofbraille in library collections. Thank youfor participating, as your feedback andideas help WTBBL keep moving forwardand initiating and sharing ideas with theNational Library Service (NLS).We know many of you are very excitedabout downloading and reading talkingbooks on your iPhone, iPad, or Androidphone, and I’m happy to say that NLS iscontinuing to move forward with this modeof accessing your books. I’m sure there ismuch more to come and we always lookforward to hearing from you.Enjoy this issue of Reading Matters andenjoy your summer.All the best, Danielle

Notes and AnnouncementsSummer Workers at WTBBLby Sally Jo HagenSummer at WTBBL means we are proudto be participating again in two youthemployment programs.Washington State Librarian Rand SimmonsI have a passion for gardening. If you arealso a gardener and live on the “wet” sideof the state, you no doubt know that thisspring’s constant rain and cool temperatureshave been hard on the seedlings that arestruggling to establish themselves.We have a lovely garden at the WashingtonTalking Book & Braille Library. Its flowers andvegetables are novels, mysteries, poetry,non-fiction, and other varieties that enrichour lives. Our staff and volunteers tend thisgarden with care so that for all patrons thereis a right book, for the right person, at theright time.Youth Employment Solutions (YES) is a jointprogram of the Washington State Schoolfor the Blind (WSSB) and the WashingtonState Department of Services for the Blind(DSB). Students from the WSSB move into aUniversity of Washington sorority house forsix weeks to learn job skills and independentliving skills.The Seattle Youth Employment Program(SYEP) is a City of Seattle program thatplaces young people in seven-week paidinternships to develop work readiness.Having our summertime help will allowWTBBL’s shipping staff to spend more timemaking our services even better.Happy summer!Rand SimmonsWashington State Librarian2Reading Matters -Second Quarter 2013

Technology at the LibraryThis quarter’s “Technology at the Library”will focus on the audio and braille booksthat are available for WTBBL patrons. If youhave any questions about the followingtips, or want more information, feel free tocall the library at (206) 615-0400 or (800)542-0866, or visit our new downloadingpage at www.wtbbl.org/downloadbooks.There are three sites for our downloadablematerial: BARD (Braille and Audio ReadingDownloads), WTBBL Locally ProducedAudio Books, and WTBBL Braille Books. Youcan also find all books on all of the sitesusing the WTBBL catalog: http://webopac.klas.com/wtbbl, and can download theaudio formats directly from the catalogby selecting the link associated with the“Document Link” field. Books on BARD willstart with DB for digital books and BR orBRC for braille books; WTBBL downloadableaudio books start with DBW and WTBBLdownloadable braille books start with BRW.The link in the “Document Link” field willeither start the download or take you to thelog-in page.BARD (Braille and Audio ReadingDownloads) Tipsby Eura Szuwalskiat s.html.Once you have access to a BARD account,the following tips will help you to findtitles you want to download and changesettings to your account.Tip 1: Searching for Books: Throughout thissection, I will use James Patterson’s AlexCross series as my example. To log into BARD (bard.loc.gov) todownload one of the thousands of audiobook or braille titles available, you will needyour email address and a password. To signup for an account, fill out the application3Washington Talking Book & Braille LibraryWhen you know part of the book title orthe author’s name: Use the “Search theCollection” text box to enter your searchkeywords and use quotation marksaround your search topic to limit theresults.Example: If I am looking for the firstbook in James Patterson’s series, I wouldenter “Along came a spider,” or even“Came a spider” and BARD would pullup the audio book and braille version ofthat book. I could also enter “Patterson,James” (last name, first name) to see allof Patterson’s books.Finding books in a series: Now that Ihave found Patterson’s first book, youmay want to see what else we have inthe Alex Cross series. If you select thelink for the book title, in this situation,Along Came a Spider DB 35894, you willreach the title page (summary listing)for this book. On this page you will finda link called “Alex Cross series,” which

will take you to a list of all of the bookson BARD in this series. The series fieldalso tells you that this book is volume 1in the series.Finding books by the same author: Alsoon the title page, you can click on thelink for the author’s name – “Patterson,James” – and receive a list of all of theother books by Patterson on BARD.Add to my wish list: Another greatfeature found on the Title page is the“Add to my wish list” link, which will addAlong Came a Spider DB 35894 to a wishlist where you can track books you wantto download in the future. To see whatbooks are on your wish list, you can goto the BARD main page and look under“settings.”WTBBL Local Audio Book TipsTo log into the WTBBL local book site(www.wtbbl.org/login.aspx), you willneed a WTBBL Username and Password(different from your BARD log-incredentials). If you have already signedup for BARD, you should have receivedinformation on how to access these books.This is the same username and passwordused to log into the WTBBL online catalog.Downloading WTBBL’s local books uses thesame procedure as BARD. On this page youwill also find “Recently Added Books” at thetop, as well as a search box to find specifictitles within all uploaded books.Tip 2: Additional Links on BARD main page:There are several items on the BARD mainpage that may make your searching fasterand help to manage your account. The“Additional Links” section is a heading atthe bottom of the main page. Here you willfind links to “My Wish List,” “My PreviousDownloads,” “Update account settings,”“NLS Catalog,” “Braille Book Review,” “TalkingBook Topics,” “Latest DTBM firmware andinstallation instructions” and “Help.” To learnmore about what each of these links does,please visit our new downloads page atwww.wtbbl.org/downloadbooks.Eura Szuwalski, Instruction Librarian4Reading Matters - Second Quarter 2013

Summer ReadingThe WTBBL Summer Reading Program is infull swing! Our eight-week by-mail programoffers kids and teens the opportunity totrack their minutes or number of books readand receive weekly packets full of readingideas, activities, recipes, fun websites andcrafts. This year, our themes are “Dig IntoReading” for preschool through grade 6 and“Beneath the Surface” for grades 7 to 12.It’s not too late to register – just visit http://www.wtbbl.org/summer-reading.aspx orcontact Mandy Gonnsen at (206) 615-1253.by Mandy GonnsenMore information will be available on theWTBBL Youth Services webpage, or contactMandy Gonnsen at (206) 615-1253 ormandy.gonnsen@sos.wa.gov to participate.This summer, WTBBL will also be hostingSensory Storytimes, a new programspecifically designed for children ages 3 to6 with visual impairments. The half-hourstorytimes feature stories and songs, alongwith tactile, sound, and other sensoryelements and activities to engage youngchildren in reading! Open to everyone, thisprogram will be offered at the followingdates and times: Thursday, July 11, at 2:00 p.m.Tuesday, July 16, at 10:00 a.m.Thursday, August 8, at 2:00 p.m.Tuesday, August 13, at 10:00 a.m.For our middle and high school students,we’ll be hosting an online book clubthroughout the summer with opportunitiesfor talk about series and popular titles withother teens, and hear about new books fromthe Youth Services Librarian!5Washington Talking Book & Braille Library

UpdatesNLS audio magazines now on digitalcartridgeIn the spring of 2013, NLS launched itstransition of the magazine program fromanalog cassettes to digital cartridges.Going forward, all NLS-producedmagazines will be circulated on digitalcartridge, and we hope you will enjoy theenhanced sound quality and navigationcapabilities. As with books on digitalcartridge, the magazines need to bereturned. The cartridge loan period forweekly publications is one week after youreceive them. The cartridge loan periodfor monthly, bimonthly and quarterlypublications is one month after you receivethem. Please treat magazine cartridgesthe same as book cartridges: read yourpublications, return the cartridge to thered container, flip the mailing card on thecontainer, and place it with your outgoingmail. The timely reading and returning ofmagazine cartridges will help NLS continueto provide the high-quality audiomagazine program you have enjoyed.In some cases you may receive a magazinecartridge that has more than one magazineon it. The NLS digital talking book player isequipped with a bookshelf feature to assistyou in navigating your digital cartridge. Toactivate the bookshelf feature, press andhold the green Play/Stop button on yourplayer until you hear a beep. Completeaudio instructions for using the bookshelffeature are included on all cartridges thatcontain more than one magazine issue.Keep in mind that any magazine cartridgethat has a monthly, bimonthly or quarterlypublication on it—even if it also has aweekly publication on it—will have a loanperiod of one month after you receive it.Enjoy your audio magazines and pleaseremember to return them.The next Brown Bag Book Club will beheld at WTBBL on Thursday, September5, at noon. The book we will bediscussing is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.This classic is available as braille book BR12173, large print book LP 6845, digitalbook DB 25835, and cassette book RC25835 and RC 25706 (in Spanish).Nearly 200 years after its publication,the story of scientist Victor Frankensteinharried by his monstrous creation stillstands as one of fiction’s most thoughtfuland frightening considerations of man’srelationship with the natural world andwhat can go wrong when ambitionoutstrips understanding.To attend the meeting by phone, call(800) 920-7487 and enter code number39258344#. Questions? Call David at(800) 542-0866.6Reading Matters - Second Quarter 2013