Craig's Desk Intro - episode 19 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 19. 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/ 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 iPhone and as fate would have it, a bunch of other NLS libraries reported an issue that happened to many other patrons trying to listen to BARD books. This was something interesting discovered and it sounds like it's mainly happening with iPhones. A patron was listening to a book on BARD Mobile on their iPhone and in the middle of the book they suddenly got kicked out where they now couldn't read the book. A message appeared and they got asked to login, again, just being asked for their password. Where they happen to be, in the Now Playing tab or BARD Mobile player section there’s no place to enter the password. So they needed to change where they were. And, of course, they couldn't remember their password. So we did have to reset their password and they then updated it on the BARD website to this now changed new permanent password. We went back with them and talked them through getting this new password into the BARD Mobile app, by going to the settings tab at the bottom of the window. The third option. Then putting it into the second box in the User Account Settings page and selecting done. In this case there was still an issue and BARD Mobile again asked for the password. It now looked like BARD Mobile and the BARD website weren't talking to each other. So we determined that the best option was to use something called Setting Initialization in the BARD Mobile App. Once the patron did this things returned to normal and the books downloaded already in BARD Mobile would play again as expected. For those who don't know, Setting Initialization in BARD Mobile is a kind of reset of the app. It can help clean out issues caused when connections fail and information becomes stale. I wouldn't recommend it everytime, but it can be useful to know how to do it in case things just get stuck and nothing else you try works. It's a much better option then uninstalling BARD Mobile and reinstalling it. One thing to note is that every time you do Setting Initialization it resets BARD kind of back to factory settings. Meaning that the next time you open BARD Mobile you will be asked again for your username and password and to agree to the terms and conditions once more. So it is important to remember that information before you try this. As I sad this is a much better option than having reinstall BARD Mobile because your books and magazines already downloaded will remain in place. So you shouldn't need to download them again to read them. So here's how to perform Setting Initialization for the BARD Mobile App. First if you have BARD Mobile open close it. Then Open Settings on your device. Scroll the list of apps and choose BARD Mobile. Scroll down the page to find Setting Initilization. Turn the switch to On. Then close settings and Open BARD Mobile. BARD Mobile will now open like when it was first installed. It will ask you to agree to the terms and conditions. It will also ask for your username and password. Once you do this BARD Mobile should perform as expected and allow you to play the books and magazine you already have downloaded and then allow you to download more books and magazines and read them. Any interupted playing of book and magazines should be fixed. This is something good to remember should you encounter some kind of issue that you can't fix even after you have checked to make sure everything is correct in the BARD Mobile's User account settings area. Best of all you don't have to reinstall the app and all of your books, magazines, and bookmarks will remain just as they were. 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 NLS Patron Corner presents Narration: The Art of Telling the Story I thought it would be nice to share on this episode a reminder of a new kind of regular feature that will happen with NLS. This quarterly program is called the Patron Corner, by the NLS Patron Engagement Section. The next program will be called Narration: The Art of Telling the story. This is event will feature guest speaker Celeste Lawson, narrator and head of the NLS Media Lab, plus a panel of other NLS narrators. It's a chance to hear the perspective of the narrator of a book plus how a book goes from the page to the recording. This program will happen on Monday, September 19 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The session will last approximately 2 hours. As with other Patron Corner offerings, the program will start with a brief presentation. The remainder of the time will be spent answering questions about the presentation or any other questions related to things about the topic. In this case, all about Audio Book Narration. NLS will announce the topic for the next quarterly edition of the Patron Corner at the end of the program. 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. To enter the session call 1-669-245-5252 or use the Zoom link to the session. The telephone number provided here is 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 Patron Corner programs will be recorded. If participants do not want to be on the recording, they should refrain from speaking. Since you will use Zoom, either on the computer or through the phone, this is 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. 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 Another way to get Talking Book Topics - directly from the Online Catalog Recently NLS has had to make the choice to not distribute the full Talking Book Topics catalog that it produces every 2 months, due to paper and ink shortages. This is unfortunate for the many patrons who receive this publication and do much of their book selection based on the information it provides on the latest books available. In light of these events the library has gone back and updated some offerings from its online catalog to help patrons gain access to Talking Book Topics in an alternative way. What we have done is create something for the online catalog browse tab that pulls together all of the books from the latest Talking Book Topics. Note the first thing you will see will be the latest 5 added. After you go through the first 5 entries and then you will get to a link that says See More at the bottom of the browse. This will take you to the entire list of the latest Talking Book Topics. Best of all since you are in the online catalog you can directly order any of these books. You also have the advantage of being able to read more information about each of the books then you could using any of the other versions of this catalog. To find this browse and many others, go to the online catalog - https://ncabls.klas.com and Look for the tab near the top of the page that says Browse. Then find links to the browses from the top of the browses page, scroll down and look for the letters TBT at the beginning of each version of the list. If you're using a screen reader use your links list to navigate these browses since they are presented as links. The overall general Talking Book Topics just has TBT as it's heading. As an added bonus, we were able to also create genre or subject specific versions of Talking Book Topics. So if you're just into one genre like Romances or Detective Mysteries or a subject like biographies you can find just those books without having to go through the whole list yourself to find them. These other versions have TBT plus the 3 letter subject or genre code the library uses. One example would be B-I-O for biographies, W-E-S for Westerns, R-O-M for Romances and so on. Each link to each list also has a description of what list you will get to see. The fun in using them is searching them out and seeing what they are and what each contains. We hope you'll use this to help you find more to read. We think this might be a better way to do things. What's your take? Try it out and let us know what you think. Send me a comment or your feedback to 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