*Remember*
Please send in your orders for alternative format textbooks for the 07/08 school year and return all textbooks used during the 06/07 school year or earlier. Call Karen with questions at 1-800-423-6665.


Notes from the Director
Digital Update
For the past six months a group of NLS patrons have been doing a pilot test of the NLS Digital Books and Digital Player. The first set of surveys from this group is now in and the initial feedback is very positive.

The pilot tests main goal is to assess such aspects of the usability of digital talking books and playback equipment with regards to the number and placement of navigational markers, audio quality, ease of operation and the overall reading experience.

This is the largest pilot test conducted to date. It included one hundred patrons from across the country. They were selected based on their interest in the project and their technical expertise.

The patrons are currently reviewing a collection of 1,800 books and 12 magazine titles. Download offering reflects the full NLS collection, comprising approximately 55 percent fiction and 45 percent nonfiction titles.

Only titles that were originally recorded in digital audio are included to maximize the usefulness of the text data.

The results appear to confirm that NLS is approaching the move to digital in the appropriate manner and that the development is on the right path. Research and Development Officer Neil Bernstein stated that, "Only when you put this technology into patrons' hands do you really understand how well or poorly it functions.

The rest of the steps in the move to digital to be started during 2007 and completed in 2008 are: Flash-cartridge production, Flash-cartridge duplication, manufacture initial lot of Digital Talking Book containers and labels, and full digital player production.

The start of digital talking book players being shipped to patrons will begin in 2008 and will continue for three years before all library patrons in the US will have access to a player.

Beginning in 2008, libraries will start receiving digital books along with the continuation of new titles being added to the cassette collection. Beginning in 2011, new titles will no longer be added to the cassette collection.

All new titles will be digital - on flash memory.

The cassette players and the cassette collection we remain in use for another five years or until about 2015.

NLS/BPH Digital Talking Book Player and Cartridge
The National Library Service will begin distributing new digital talking book machines and books on flash memory cartridges in 2008.

Here are some features of the new digital talking book machine:

• 24-hour battery life, with capacity to recharge in two hours.
• One-third the size and one-half the weight of the current cassette (C1) machine.
• Turns off after 30 minutes of non-play.
• Sleep mode available.
• No moving parts.
• Built in audio prompts make it easy to learn how to operate the machine.
• Significantly better audio quality than the C1.
• Large, well-spaced, color-coded control keys that are easier to press.
• Full range remote control.
• Remembers where you left off (if you are reading more than one book).

Features of the new digital talking books:

• 95 percent of the titles will fit on one cartridge.
• Slightly smaller than cassettes but easy to insert with an audible signal.

The Braille and Talking Book Library will be closed on the following holidays.

• Memorial Day - May 28
• Independence Day - July 4

Google Accessible Search
If you have done any web searching you have probably gotten frustrated with the advertisements and all the "junk" that fills the screen. Even without that, complex, graphical designs that pack a lot of information into web pages create much difficulty for low vision users who rely on screen magnifiers, and blind web searchers who rely on a screen reader to convert text into spoken words waste a lot of time identifying and skipping over extraneous page content.

To combat this, Google recently launched a new search site designed for use by people with visual disabilities. Google Accessible Search favors pages with few visual distractions, giving priority to pages that do the best job of balancing pertinent data with solid design, sorting the sites based on simplicity of page layout, quality of design, and the organization and labeling of information on each page.


Student Aid Available at - www.studentaid.ed.gov
The U.S. Department of Education office has a variety of information resources available for blind and visually impaired students considering enrolling in or currently enrolled in education beyond high school. An audio guide is available at www.studentaid.ed.gov. It contains information on eligibility, notification, loan repayments and deferments as well as information on non-federal sources of aid. Other print guides are available online at this same site through the use of a screen reader. The braille version can be ordered by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243.


2007 Governors Summer Reading Program
The 2007 Governors Summer Reading Program sponsored by the South Dakota Braille and Talking Book Library and supported by the South Dakota Lion's Foundation will run from June 11 through July 20, 2007.

"Get a Clue @ Your Library" is the theme of this year's program. The program is open to all registered students of the Braille and Talking Book Library between the ages of 7 to15. The reader's are broken into age divisions: 7 to 9 years, 10 to 12 years, and 13 to 15 year olds. The readers can only read recorded books or Braille books for the program. Participants are required to submit written or oral book reports. They may receive assistance in writing the report. The student submitting the most book reports will be the winner in their age division. Incentives are mailed throughout the program. The more book reports returned the more prizes they receive. Each age division has a winner in the recorded format and in the Braille format. Plaques will be awarded to the first, second, and third place winners in the recorded and braille division. The first place winners receive their plaques at an awards program in August. The awards program is attended by the winner's and their family and includes a luncheon and special program.

A registration form for the program may be obtained from the Braille and Talking Book Library. We encourage students to participate as this gives them the opportunity to do recreational reading during the summer. Students are encouraged to choose their books. The program may be incorporated into summer school that requires reading novels. For more information call the Braille and Talking Book Library at 1-800-423-6665 and ask for Mary.


Computer Games Available For Checking Out: 1 of each

• Toodle Tiles: Emmy's Town is an educational computer game for students 5 and up. Based on the matching game of Mahjong, the object is to clear away matching tiles and pave the way for the new mayor of Emuville. The game features simple designs in five different tilesets: Characters from Emuville, introduced in APH's ENVISION program; Chinese set portraying sea creatures; Veggie set; Universe set ;a bug set. A plastic form is included to explain the multi-dimensional aspects of the game. The student with blindness can hear audio cues, as well as audio feedback, each time he or she chooses a tile.
  
• Talking Word Puzzles is an accessible word puzzle program. It lets you create and solve hidden word and crossword puzzles and provides fun, high quality speech feedback and an animated character while navigating through the puzzle grids and when the student successfully solves one of the words in the puzzle. The program also provides advanced navigation by giving the user direct routing from a puzzle's clue to the word's beginning square in a crossword setting. Similarly, when the student moves through the squares of a crossword puzzle to examine the letters and their relationships, she may use direct commands to move to the point in the clues list where that word's clue is displayed. As the student uses the arrow keys to explore the crossword grid or the hidden word puzzle, Talking Word Puzzles announces each letter the cursor crosses. If there is a number in the square to which the cursor moves, indicating the beginning of a new word, the program says that number, too.

Congress Approves Coin to Honor Louis Braille
Congress has authorized the U.S. Mint to produce a commemorative silver dollar honoring the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth. Braille created the tactile alphabet bearing his name while a teenager.

The Mint will produce up to 400,000 silver-dollar commemorative coins in 2009. Coins will feature an image of Louis Braille and raised dots that spell the word contraction for braille, brl.

The legislation authorized a $10 surcharge be added to the cost of each coin. This money is designated to support programs for the blind.


Keeping Up With Your Account
We appreciate it when schools and parents contact us with any changes to account information such as: name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and contact person that is authorized to check out machines and books from our library. It is important to keep this information current at all times. If a school has a change of address or contact person - this information is needed so we know where and to whom to send the next school-year's textbooks. Also, remember that other students may be requesting textbooks your child/student used this school year and you would help us by sending any and all textbooks back at the end of the school year. Thank you for keeping up your account!

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The BOOKBAG, published quarterly, is our means of communication with parents, teachers, and schools that utilize textbooks and educational materials in alterative format. The BOOKBAG is available in Braille, on cassette or on a diskette upon request and is posted on our website: http://www.sdstatelibrary.com/b&tb/

If you have any questions or comments you would like to address, or wish to request this newsletter in alternative format, please contact the Braille and Talking Book Library.

The South Dakota Braille and Talking Book Library does not endorse any product or service listed in this newsletter.

- Karen Duenwald, Educational Materials Coordinator, Editor