Craig's Desk Intro - episode 17

Welcome

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The following show was recorded in the studios of SLNC-ABLS, unmasked, in a sound proof booth that is socially distant and responsible. It's content is intended for people who are blind or print impaired.

Hello and welcome to Craig's Desk, a program from the State Library of North Carolina Accessible Books and Library Services, SLNC-ABLS. I'm your host Craig Hayward, the technology librarian at SLNC-ABLS.

It's time again for a new episode of the show. Episode 17 we think is a pretty good show for you. 
But, before we start, a plug for the library's online presence. If you're on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram look for SLNC-ABLS and you'll find us. This is also a place where you can post questions to ask, if you think of them. Some of the best questions we've had on the show have been from people posting on our social media accounts. I do pay attention.

With that said, the most direct way you can ask question is by email to craigsdesknc@gmail.com. The best and maybe only questions since the last show will be answered right here on the next episode.

All the how you ask questions aside, you're now here listening to this show, which means you're checking back to see what kinds of library technology questions we'll answer and to gain more insight about the library's digital and online resources. Maybe even pick up some insider information and announcements from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, known as NLS.

Whatever your reason for listening, I'm thankful you're here, as is our library. We all want to serve you and help you.

So on this show let me be your guide and help you navigate the changes in our service. I want to help you use the technology better, so you can enjoy more reading.

If you have questions, the place to send them is to craigsdesknc@gmail.com. I'll then answer them. The best questions since the last show will be answered right here on the next episode.

We'd like to get the word out and share this show. If you have friends and family that want to listen to the show tell them to search Apple Podcasts or Spotify for Craig's Desk or go to the Craig's Desk podcast webpage on Podbean - https://nccraigsdesk.podbean.com/

Enough talk, let's get this episode of Craig's Desk started.

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Your technology questions

Now let's answer a technology question. 

This episode's question came from a support call I had with a patron who was trying to download books from BARD on a newly setup Apple MacBook. It came down to recognizing what they were actually downloading once they selected a book to download.

It was hard to tell a totally complete book from a part of the book. What we discovered is that once a book is downloaded completely to the computer it will appear more together, than when you have just pieces of the book. So you know this can happen when your download gets interupted by something. This delay can make the computer show you something than expected. The best course in this case is wait on thing to complete or go back and try again so that the computer can pick up the missing pieces of the book the next time.

The other part of this support call involved finding a ready book and moving to a flash drive. The important tool on an Apple Computer is the Finder. By opening the Finder you can navigate or find the book in your download folder and then move it to the flash drive, provided it's plugged into your computer, in your list of plugged in drives. With that figured out we were able to help get the book onto their flash drive.

This is a good place to mention a key difference about how Windows computers and Apple Macintosh computers download zipped files. It is a slightly different process not apparent to the person downloading the book to their computer. If you didn't know it all books and magazines for download on BARD are in a zipped format. So being able to download a zipped file and then unzip it before you can play or read it is important.

For a Windows computer, when you go onto the BARD site you find a book, select that book and download the book as a zipped file onto the computer. Then you find the zipped file, select it and unzip it or the more accurate term is extract the book's files into a folder, using a separate program on the computer like Winzip, 7-Zip or even the Windows unzip program. This then allows you to take that book, put the unzipped version onto a flash drive and plug it into your digital talking book player and listen to the book. This process can be confusing at first, but once you figure it out you can do the same way each time.

For an Apple Macintosh computer, like a Macbook, the process is simpler. Because once you find the book and select the book, the download process with an Apple computer does the unzipping on the fly as it's being downloaded to your computer. What you get at the end is a working version of the book in it's own folder ready to copy to a flash drive and play on your digital talking book player, without the need to unzip the book on the computer because it's already been done.

The experience with an Apple computer is a little bit simpler. That said, there is a way to experience a little bit of this Apple download experience with a Windows computer and that is using the BARD Express tool. With BARD Express you can search for the book, download the book and have it be unzipped or extracted to a flash drive directly. This means you don't even have to move it, it is already setup for you to use right away once you download it because it's going to go directly to the flash drive. I would recommend BARD Express if your someone who downloads lots of books to your computer to play on your Digital Talking Book Player. I use it myself for much of my BARD download at the library because it allows me to find a book and put it directly onto a digital cartridge and listen to it. It is a real time saver.

So that's how downloading and making a book playable works on an Apple Macintosh computer and a Windows computer.

Thanks for those questions, keep them coming and we'll keep answering them.

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NLS News 

A new quarterly event just for NLS patrons - The Patron Corner

I recently had the good fortunate to have attended the NLS National Conference. As part of the event's programming the new Patron Engagement Section of NLS introduced a new feature it will running quarterly called the Patron Corner. Here's the news from a recent NLS Operations Alert the library received. 

I'm bringing this to you as a service and since I have you attention. Here is a brief version of what it says.

On June 13, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the Patron Engagement Section at the National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress will hold the first event as part of their Patron Corner programming. Each quarterly program will provide an opportunity for patrons to learn more about various services directly from NLS staff. The program will be interactive, last for one hour, and have a designated topic of discussion. The topic for the June 13 session is Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Collection Selection, but Did Not Have the Vehicle to Ask. Our guests will be members of the Collections Division at NLS who are responsible for selecting the books in the NLS collection.

Bring your questions and your thoughts about the NLS collection and join us on ZOOM. 

The full Zoom invitation, including call-in numbers, we will share on our social media channels, due to the length of the link.

Note, when you join this Zoom event, you will be in the waiting room until the program starts. When you enter the room, your phone or computer will be muted. Please stay on mute unless you are called on.

This is a good time to give a little bit of education of how to interact with Zoom using a phone or keyboard commands (something we also have on our website as a guide to using Zoom with assistive technology).

If you want to ask a question, you may raise your hand by pressing Alt Y on your computer or Star 9 on your phone. Once you are called on, press Alt A on your computer or Star 6 on your phone to unmute yourself.

Finally, this meeting will be recorded. If you do not wish to be recorded, we ask that you avoid speaking during the session.

I think this is a great idea, as a forum to interact more directly with NLS and learn more about what happens at NLS. Kind of like this section Craig's Desk, NLS News. Similar purpose.

Also, if you can't make this one, there will be other one's. It will be a quarterly event.

As always, if you have comments about things like this or you maybe can't find something you are after on the website, you are welcome to email me at craigsdesknc@gmail.com.

Thanks so much again for listening.

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The Library's Online Resources
A Direct Way to Search for Foreign Materials in the Catalog

The library's website has gone through a recent a update to add some ways to let you find more books from around the world. We've added Foreign Language Quarterly as tool much like Talking Book Topics. The expansion of books from the Marakesh Treaty, allow us more offerings for reading, but with that, it means many more books to look through to find. So what we did was create a way that goes to our library's online catalog and looks just at books from other countries.

To do this go to the library's website and navigate to the download and borrow section.

On this page there is a kind of hub with a set of nine links in boxes. The last link box is called Find Books from Around the World. If you click on this link you will be taken to the library's online catalog and land on a page of an already set search for just foreign materials.  

To make this process easier, we've added a direct way to go to the catalog and have it take you to a search page where it will focus mainly on foreign materials. This will help making finding these books easier.

Once you're here in the catalog, you can navigate to the search box on the page and enter a book's title or author. This should give you some results to work with. To narrow things down on the left column of the page by language, genre and such.

We hope you'll use this to help you find more to read.

As always, if you have comments or would like some more help email me at craigsdesknc@gmail.com

Thanks for listening

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Closing

That's the end of this episode of Craig's Desk. If you have any questions about the library's technology, how to do something or would like to give some feedback, send an email to craigsdesknc@gmail.com (spell out).

Craig's Desk is a production of The State Library of North Carolina Accessible Books and Library Services, a section of the State Library of North Carolina, part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. This episode was produced onsite, in the studios of SLNC-ABLS. Many thanks to the other person helping on the other side of the glass to produce this show, Clint Exum our Outreach Specialist and jack of all trades around our studios. As it has been from the beginning, this show is a production of EMC-squared productions.

Intro music is "One Fine Day" and closing music is "Step To The Beat" and are offered royalty free from the website Keep Calm and Podcast. Segment Transitions starring nature are from Zapsplat.com

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Thanks for listening