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About NLS Cassette Tapes
By Alicia Waters | September 22, 2009
Whether you have applied for a digital talking book machine or not, individuals are encouraged to hold on to their cassette players. There are over 56,000 RC cassette titles in the national collection. And more will be produced until 2011. So to get the greatest selection in the next few years, check out both the cassette tape and digital book collections for the titles you want to listen to.
Since cassette tapes will be around for awhile, here is a new tip if a cassette tape is giving trouble. If the standard suggestion to tap the tape on a hard surface doesn’t work, try the following. If the tape is received too tightly wound or the cassette machine winds the tape too tightly, try putting a finger or nail file in the sprocket hole and give it 3 turns to loosen the tape.
The National Library Service (NLS) will stop producing cassette books in 2011. To put the entire NLS collection in perspective, as of Sept 2009, approximately 190 digital titles in cartridge format have been approved for distribution and are being shipped to the network libraries such as Talking Books Plus (TBP). About 16,000 titles are available through the Braille and Audio Reading Downloads (BARD) program with more titles being added each month. BARD is the digital program offering books to TBP members to download through the Internet. BARD borrowers must have access to high-speed Internet service, permission to download and unzip files, and have an active email address.
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