Craig's Desk Intro - episode 18 Welcome Intro Music bed starts up then fade into. Music bed 40-45 seconds long. (Disclaimer voice) 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. Be forewarned, listening and subscribing to this podcast just might make you a better user of the library reading technology and take your reading to another level of enjoyment. 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. This show is all about sharing and learning about the library's reading technology, online resources and some insider information and announcements from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, known as NLS. It's time again for a new episode of the show. I can't believe here we are on Episode 18. It seemed like not that long ago we were recording the first episode of this show, in my bedroom closet. But time flies and here we are in the comfort of the library's recording studios, the audience of listeners grows and more and more is shared with you. On the topic of sharing and learning, some of the best questions we've had on the show have been from people posting on our social media accounts, like the library's Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts, at SLNC-ABLS, and day-to-day when you call in for support and help. I take notes and remember things. I also learn things daily from the interactions with patrons. You teach me also. It's a gift I get to receive from you. One more outlet I offer you for questions that I get sent right to my desk by email is to craigsdesknc@gmail.com. Keep that around and use it when you need it. 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 tips and tricks. 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. 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/ Before we get started, I have one recent bit of exciting news to share. We've hired another staff member to be part of my team and help out with tech support, guidance and some other patron information assistance. I'm happy to share the load with someone else. I've been doing this job solo for 15 years now. Growing our team to help you with reading technology is important and welcomed. It's going to make us stronger and most importantly help you much more. On a future episode, I'll introduce you more personally to our new staff member. Enough talk, let's get this episode of Craig's Desk started. ************************************* Fade out, use transition "music" then fade in to next section ************************************* 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 use BARD Mobile on their IPad but was having issues getting a new password to save. It also caused an interesting issue to happen, that caused by the timing of trying to enter in a new password. I do find it interesting that on my 2 most recent shows we've had questions about Apple products. But that's the way it goes sometimes. This patron contacted the library and was trying to get back using BARD Mobile with the iPad. The call was originally taken by a Reader Advisor who did help them get their password reset. The person did go online to the BARD website directly and reset their password from the temporary one we sent them to a permanent one. So all was in working order on the BARD website end. Where they encountered an issue was putting the newly created permanent password into the BARD Mobile app. Just as a recap you put in your password into BARD Mobile by going to settings at the bottom of the window. It will be the third option. From here you pick the last option called User Account Settings. Then choose the first option that says BARD account. This will usually have your email address listed so that you know who's BARD account is connected to BARD Mobile. In the Login information section there will be 2 boxes. The first one will show your email address and the second box will have your password. For security reasons, if there is a password in the box, it will be shown as a string of dots. In the case of this patron, that second box for the password was blank. So we had them enter their new password into the box. Once they did that a new button appeared at the bottom that says Done. You use the Done button to save the information into the box. It took some time to help them get to that button but we helped them get their so they could finally save their new password into BARD Mobile. With that things worked mostly. But, I mentioned earlier, one strange thing did happen that I haven't experienced before but seemed like a cause of an issue. Apparently when trying to enter in the new information they also had a book on their bookshelf in BARD Mobile that they were trying to read. This was from before the password change. Because the old password didn't work they kept getting a message about not being authorized to play the book. Usually this means that BARD Mobile and the BARD website aren't connected or able to talk to each other. Books in BARD Mobile need what's callled an authorization key to play them. This is what tells BARD you are authorized to read books. This issue stayed around even after we got the new password in. So something didn't connect at the time. At that point, we had them close the BARD Mobile app and reopen it. Once we did this, the book then was able to be read correctly. The message disappeared. So this is something to remember that if for some reason BARD Mobile gets disconnected from the main BARD website for some reason, like a bad internet connection or you change your password, the books often will not play because BARD Mobile can't unlock them to play them. If you encounter check in BARD Mobile's settings to make sure you have a password entered. Restart BARD Mobile and that may help. Also it could be an issue with your internet connection. If you notice no password in the box, either re-enter your permanent password, if you know it, or you can contact the library and we'll reset the password. If you do this then you'll have to go onto the main BARD website and use the temporary password we'll send you and set the password back to a permanent one. Then you can go into BARD Mobile and put in this new permanent password. I would recommend getting this set and then closing the BARD Mobile app and reopening it just to make sure everything reconnects. So if you get a strange message while playing a book about not being authorized to play it, this may be a way of fixing things. Thanks for those questions, keep them coming and we'll keep answering them. Again the way to get those questions directly to me is by email at craigsdesknc@gmail.com. **************************************** Fade out, fade in music, fade out to next section ***************************************** NLS News The Many Faces of BARD I thought it would be nice to share with you all a new kind of regular meeting that will happen with NLS. Beginning August 11, 2022, the NLS Patron Engagement Section will offer a monthly program called The Many Faces of BARD. This program will occur on the second Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It will last for one hour and will cover one aspect of BARD (the Braille and Audio Reading Download) usage. Each program will start with a brief presentation. The remainder of the time will be spent answering questions about the presentation or other questions related to BARD usage. NLS will announce the topic for the next presentation at the end of each program. This first presentation will give an overview of all of the available BARD products. Meaning things like the BARD website, BARD Mobile and BARD Express. All patrons are welcome to attend. These will be Zoom sessions or by calling 1-669-245-5252. I'd share the link to the Zoom session but it's rather long to read out. So for anyone that needs it, you can contact the library or email me at craigsdesknc@gmail.com and we'll send you it. For future reference, we'll plan on having this information available on the library's website also. calling 1-669-245-5252. To call into a session, participants must use the telephone numbers provided here for Zoom.gov rather than the regular Zoom telephone numbers. Upon connecting either way, participants will be placed in a virtual waiting room until the program begins. When you enter the room, you will be on mute. Please remain on mute unless the host calls on you to speak. At that time, you can unmute by using Alt-A from a computer or star 6 if dialing in by phone. All Many Faces of BARD programs will be recorded. If participants do not want to be on the recording, they should refrain from speaking. This is another good opportunity to offer some insight on 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. I think with as many years as we've had BARD this is a great idea to give you more of a look at the inner workings of all of BARD. Kind of like how Craig's Desk tries to educate you. As noted, if you can't make it to this session, it will be recorded. 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. ********************************************* The Library's Online Resources Need help with BARD? Check out the library's website This episode's theme has been all about BARD. So in keeping with that theme did you know there's lots of Helpful Information for using BARD on the library's website in the appropriately name Helpful Information section? In this section we talked about how to read books, how to download them, how to get started and how to apply for BARD. We even offer insight on how many books your flash drive or smart device can hold, how to find books and magazines once you download them and also how to simply reset your password. This could be helpful going back to our technology question on this episode that dealt with resetting your password. I recommend reading this section to learn more. I also recommend logging into your BARD account online going to your personal settings and then putting in an email address. This will allow you to reset your own password. One more tip, when you get finished with the general section there are more downloading tips and specific sections dedicated to BARD Mobile and BARD Express. Also checkout and download the audio version we've created called all about BARD. This will give you a quick overview of BARD to help get you started. The Helpful Information section on BARD is a great place to go to find answers and another way to empower yourself to learn more and find the answers to your reading technology questions. 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 ************************************************** 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 If you like what you have heard or are just curious about upcoming episodes please subscribe to this podcast. There are links from our website for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our podcast platform called Podbean and even an RSS feed to listen to it on your own podcatcher app. Whenever we put up a new episode you'll be the first to know. Thanks for listening