Craig's Desk - episode 22 Show Intro and Disclaimer ********************************* 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. Before we begin, let me say Happy 2 year Anniversary of this show. That's right it was 2 years ago, as of this taping, that Craig's Desk began. Back then we were in the midst of the COVID 19 Pandemic and I was recording this show in my bedroom closet, laptop on my lap, microphone in front of me, clothes all around to dampen any noise and lots of cramps in my legs as I sat on the floor of my closet recording. Even the library's name changed during these last years from NCLBPH to SLNC ABLS. I wouldn't have it any other way, because this show has been fun to produce and our audience grows each month as we do more shows. I will say, I didn't know if I'd be able to produce a show each month. So far I almost have been able to do it. This is magic show number 22. So we've been close. Thanks for making this time something memorable. On this show we'll see what's on my desk, Craig's Desk. We'll see what kinds of questions and feedback that are worthwhile to share. We'll throw in some NLS news and some resources you can find right now on our library's website. All in the name of helping you read more and learn more. Whether it's to hear a technology question answered or some other bit of news and information about our library or NLS or for whatever reason you're listening, I'm thankful you're here, as is our library. We all want to serve you and help you. I take notes and remember things. I also learn things daily from the interactions with patrons. You teach me everyday. It's a gift I get to receive from you. Let me be your guide and help you navigate the changes in our service. I'll do my best to help you use the technology better and take your reading experience farther. If you don't already know where to email your questions, comments and feedback, send it to ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov. ABLS for Accessible Books and Library Services, the name of our library and what we provide as a library. Help because that's the purpose of the email box. We want to help you. So ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov is the place to send in your technology questions or other feedback. Keep that around and use it when you need it. A final note before we start this program, sharing is caring. We'd like to get the word out and share this show so that we can help whoever wants help. If you have friends, family or anyone else 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 Downloading to my Android device, can I use my desktop or laptop computer to download the books and put them onto my Android Mobile phone? A recent support call illustrated something that is a really great feature of Android phones but also something that can be problematic for BARD users. Android phones are a really good choice for affordable smart devices. They tend to cost less than something like an up to date iPhone and are more open to allowing the user to see what's on the phone. You can more easily locate where things are kept on Android devices. I carried one up until about 1 year ago and still have one that I use for all kind of tasks in my office at the library. They are flexible and allow you to do many things. Moreso than something like an iphone. This flexibility allows you to use the Android device much like a portable hard drive at times and it lets you more easily see directly things like photos and music on your phone or tablet. Because of this openess an Android device when you connect it to a Windows computer with a USB cable is seen by the computer as another kind of hard drive like a flash drive, where once you download a file you can move it from the computer to the phone. This makes downloading and moving around files easy. But for this ease sometimes it creates a misunderstanding. This was the case recently with a patron who was using their computer to download books but thought they could then take those same books, move them to the Android phone and play them. Unfortunately because Android and IOS or iPhone and iPad devices can only play books from BARD using BARD Mobile, there really isn't an easy way to download the books with a computer and then somehow move them over and play them in BARD Mobile. You can't just open the book on it's own and play it. You have to use the built in features for reading books in BARD Mobile to listen to your books on your phone. Yes, it is possible by a process known as side loading to play books using BARD Mobile, but its very complex in application. It requires knowing where the book is downloaded to on the computer and then moving that book as is to the exact location of where the BARD Mobile app is stored on the device. This can be tricky and complicated to find and navigate especially if you are not really a power user. I will also mention that our website does have some instructions for how to sideload BARD books into BARD Mobile in our Helpful Information section. If you are a power use and want to try it, go ahead. But beware, we make no guarentees that it will work properly. You will be on your own a bit. I still wouldn't recommend this with these smart devices, because the easy and efficient way to do this is just using BARD Mobile for Android directly as intended. Why use a workaround, when you can do thing in a straightforward manner. BARD Mobile makes the process much more direct and easy to use. You open the BARD Mobile app, you search for a book, you add it to your wishlist, find your wishlist in BARD Mobile and then download it. Then you go to your bookshelf in BARD Mobile, find the book and play it. So I'm not going to say you can't download a BARD book to a computer and then move it over to a smart device and play it using BARD Mobile, but I'll make a recommendation not to use this method. It's just making more work for you to do it and there are no guarentees that the book will actually play even if you do figure how to get it there or where to put it. That's this episodes technology question. I hope I've answered it well and it helps you. If you have any other comments or other questions related to BARD Mobile, BARD itself, using our online catalog or any other kind of reading tech, email them to ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov. One other quick note, a patron asked about getting podcasts on their home computer or laptop. They wanted to know about accessible podcatchers to help them get podcasts. This will be covered on this show in the section after next, the library's online resources section. So be ready, because that's coming up. Thanks again **************************************** Fade out, fade in music, fade out to next section ***************************************** NLS News Straight out of the NLS Newsletter - NLS Music section turns 60 Whether you knew it or not, NLS has a Music section. It's purpose and function is provide blind, visually impaired and print disabled individuals access to music. The Music Section was officially founded in 1962, so it's a little over 60 now. This happened because the 1931 law establishing NLS was expanded to include the loan of braille music materials. The actually offering of braille music materials in the Library Congress's Reading Room for the Blind goes back to 1897. The change occurred in 1962 when NLS patrons were allowed to receive these materials through the mail, the same way they received their braille and talking books. A few years later, the Music Section then began offering audio instructional materials and large print scores by mail. Over the years the Music Section has continued acquiring braille music scores from the United States and all over the globe. They also add large print and audio materials for scores, music lectures and other presentations for accessible music. If you didn't already know this much of this material is available through the BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service from NLS. This is just one more great service that is free for all patrons of our service from NLS. As always, if you have comments about things like this or you maybe want to more about what NLS has in store and upcoming, you are welcome to email me at the email address ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov. Thanks so much again for listening. **************************************** Fade out, fade in music, fade out to next section ***************************************** The Library's Online Resources Accessible Podcatchers for All One of the things about producing a podcast regularly is that you want your episodes to be enjoyed by the widest audience possible. Recently, I have been writing a regular article for each issue of Tar Heel Talk, for Craig's Desk and some of our highlights. From this I have had patrons contact me to ask about how they can get started listening to some of our podcasts. Particularly this one, Craig's Desk, and Tar Heel Talk. There's also the very popular Heard Any Good Books Lately? that NC Reading Service produces each month for us and let's not forget about Notable on NOBLE where you can get a sample listening to a locally recorded book or magazine article. Some patrons noticed that we had podcasts, but weren't sure how listen to them. So for someone new to all of this how do you listen to podcasts? Podcasts have been mainly something that someone with a mobile device, like an iphone or android phone, listens to using a podcasting app. For these folks those apps are readily available. In fact newer phones often come with them already pre-installed. So this means if you have a mobile device you are ready to go. But what do you do if you only use a computer or laptop, and just use your mobile phone to take and answer calls? This was a question asked by a couple of patrons recently to me directly. That's where a separate podcatcher installed on a desktop computer or laptop becomes useful. But remembering that these people were blind or low vision also, means making sure what I offer you is usable by all. Making sure it's accessible. So as a result we went out and researched accessible podcatchers to see what there was available. We discovered 3 options and we have them available to you on our website in our Accessibility Resources for Recreation section. There is a tab labeled Podcast Podcatching. Here you will find the three podcatchers we were able to locate that offer good accessibility and ease of use for finding and listening to podcasts on your computer. There are three choices we offer on our site. The first is Accessible Podcatcher. This is a simple way for blind and screen reader users to use podcasts. Listen to them, forward and rewind, save particular items to disk, and export and import lists of podcasts to send to other people. It's a good simple choice. For someone just starting out it would be a good way to go. Also it's free to use. The next choice is gPodder. gPodder is an open-source podcast client for Windows 10. That means it's being developed by a community of developers and not a company. If you are good with programming you can add things to it and everyone benefits. With it, you can play audio and video files from RSS, YouTube, and SoundCloud. The built-in gPodder.net service keeps your subscriptions and playback progress in sync. It has a few more features than Accessible Podcatcher. It's also free to use. The third of our choices we offer is QCast: Easy accessible podcasts - QCast gives you an accessible and intuitive interface to listen to your favorite podcasts. It can do quite a bit. I would say that if you really need some extra features this might be the best of the lot presented. Note you can try it for free, but then it's a paid subscription to continue using the many features it offers. I would say if you're thinking about getting podcasts accessibly or if you have someone you know that wants to use something more accessible for them, these would all be good to try out and see what you or they think. Thanks for asking. I hope these will help you or someone you know be able to enjoy podcasts more accessibly. I also hope you'll check out these and more of our Accessibility Resources on the library's website. 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 the email address ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov. 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 ABLS.Help@ncdcr.gov (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