Gloucester County Library partners with Talking Book and Braille Center

The TBBC’s no-cost services will be available at the GCLS Mullica Hill and Logan branch libraries.

The Gloucester County Library System and the state library Talking Book & Braille Center have partnered together to bring TBBC’s no-cost services to the GCLS Mullica Hill and Logan branch libraries.

“Staying connected with the community is a top priority for the library system and this partnership allows us to provide state-of-the-art resources to those residents who are visually impaired or have difficulty reading,” Freeholder Director Robert M. Damminger said.

“This talking book program expands the reading and learning opportunities for those individuals with impairments and limitations, and provides them the ability to enjoy reading and learning with comfort and ease,” Freeholder Lyman Barnes, liaison to the Gloucester County Library said.

As part of this collaboration, the GCLS Mullica Hill and Logan branch libraries are participating in a pilot project to assist registered TBBC members to download audiobooks and audio magazines from the Braille and Audio Reading Download web site. BARD is provided by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a division of the U.S. Library of Congress. The BARD downloading process can be complicated, so this pilot project allows libraries to provide local assistance.

“This initiative will help us expand the services of the Talking Book and Braille Center to new, underserved populations in New Jersey,” said Adam Szczepaniak, director of TBBC. “It will help to make a difference for those who, for whatever reason, have difficulty reading printed material. This is an important partnership for TBBC.”

Anyone who has difficulty reading standard print, holding a book or turning the pages of a book may be eligible to participate in the program. A certification for most visual and physical limitation can be completed by one of the professional librarians on staff.

Once a member has registered for the program by TBBC, they will be able to select from these no-cost services:

• Accessible Audiobook player
• Audiobooks
• Braille books
• Downloadable audiobooks, audio magazines and Braille files for Braille readers.
• Access to BARD Mobile, an app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• News reading services, such as Audiovision and Newsline.

Library staff will be available to help TBBC members download audiobooks to flash drives. TBBC members can bring their flash drives to the GCLS Mullica Hill and Logan branch libraries and librarians will assist them.

For more information call (856) 223–6050, or visit your local Gloucester County branch library.