To get started with BARD Mobile:

1. Setup a BARD account on the NLS BARD website
2. Make sure your BARD password is permanent. BARD Mobile will not accept temporary passwords
3. Download The FREE BARD Mobile app from Google Play Store, iTunes App Store or the Amazon Kindle Fire Store
   • Find it using the search term "bardmobile" or "nls"
4. Install it on your device
5. Open the app and enter your username and password as requested. BARD Mobile will store this for future use

Not sure how to use BARD Mobile? Here's how to get started downloading with BARD Mobile on your mobile device:

1. Open BARD Mobile
2. Read the BARD service agreement
3. Select the Agree button. BARD Mobile won't work unless you agree with the terms of service
4. Login to BARD Mobile using your BARD username and password. The password MUST be permanent. Temporary passwords will not work
5. Choose the Get Books tab
6. Download a book (or magazine) in several ways:
   • Wish List
   • Recently Added Titles
   • Browse BARD

In order to use BARD Mobile you need to setup a permanent password on BARD. The password you were sent by email is a temporary password that is only used to set a permanent password in BARD. Login to BARD from a Web Browser (either on your computer or mobile device), using your Username (email address) and temporary password. This will take you to a page where you can set your permanent password. This will only be known by you. Once you completed this, you can then open the BARD Mobile App on your mobile device and set your Username and Password. This will be stored and used for everything going forward. The only time this will need to be changed is if you change your email address. BARD will send you a temporary password which you'll have to change using a Web Browser and then change in BARD Mobile.

When you are creating a password that you plan to use with BARD Mobile, please be sure to follow the password rules listed on the BARD website. In addition, make sure that your password does not contain any of the following special characters:

• Apostrophe (')
• Quote (")
• Ampersand (&)
• Percent (%)
• Less Than (<)
• Greater Than (>)

Passwords containing these characters work when you log into the BARD website, but not when you log into BARD Mobile.

A detailed user guide is available located on your BARD Mobile bookshelf under the Help category.

Online help is also available in on the web:

• iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) - http://nlsbard.loc.gov/apidocs/BARDMobile.userguide.iOS.current.html
• Android - https://nlsbard.loc.gov/apidocs/android/v1.0.3/toc.html 

NLS YouTube videos on how to use BARD Mobile - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpAGnumt6iV7Aap_-C8b-8pR_HCxnh_Ls

To download a book (or magazine) from your Wish List:

1. Display your Wish List by a double-tap. Your Wish List will display in reverse chronological order
2. Double-tap the title of the item you wish to download

There are four different types of things you can download from Recently Added Titles:

1. Audio Books
2. Audio Magazines
3. Braille Books
4. Braille Magazines

To download from Recently Added Titles:

1. Double-tap one of the four different types of item to see a list of recently added titles in that category
2. Each item on this screen includes the title and a More Info button
3. Double-tap the title of the item you want to download, or double-tap More Info to see a synopsis or other information
4. Double-tap the Download button on the More Info screen to download the item

Use Browse BARD to go to the BARD website and browse available titles. You won't be able to directly download titles but you can add them to your wish list to download later.

1. Double-tap Browse BARD to open the BARD main page
2. Use Search to find books as you normally would
3. Use the Add to Wish List button following each book title to add books or magazines you find to your Wish List. Then you can download them afterwards from your Wish List

Navigating BARD

You have several navigation options while browsing BARD.

• In the top center of the screen is a heading called BARD
• To its right are Back and Forward buttons. These work like the standard Back and Forward buttons in a web browser
  • The Back button takes you to the page you last visited
  • Forward button returns you to a page if you have used the Back button to go to a previous page
• To the left of the BARD heading is another Back button.
  • It takes you out of the BARD site and back to BARD Mobile
  • Double-tap this button after you have added books to your Wish List to download them

Downloading from BARD

1. Find the books and/or magazines you want to download, and add them to your wish list
2. Double-tap the Back button to the left of the BARD heading to return to BARD Mobile
3. Double-tap the Wish List option
4. Double-tap the title you want to download. A confirmation message will appear
5. Select OK

When you are finished reading a book, or are just wish to delete a book from your bookshelf to free up space on your mobile device:

1. Select and enter a category within Bookshelf, on the upper right corner of the screen, there will be an Edit button
2. Activate the Edit button to reveal a Delete button after the name of the book you intend to delete
3. Select the Delete button to remove the title from the list
4. When you have finished deleting titles from within the category selected, activate the Done button on the upper right corner of the screen.

• While the title is downloading, you can double-tap it to pause. Double-tap it again to resume the download
• Selected items will download one after another in the order they were selected. If you double-tap an item already queued for download, it will be moved to the top of the queue
• If you leave BARD Mobile while items are being downloaded or the screen locks, downloading will stop. Downloading should resume the next time you open the app. If it doesn't, select the bookshelf tab. All items you are trying to download are listed there and labeled "Queued for download." Double-tap the item or items you want to download.
• BARD Mobile will always download via wi-fi if it is available. If you're not in wi-fi range, BARD will download via the cellular network if you have turned on "Download over mobile network" in the User Account section of Settings. If this option is off, BARD Mobile will stop downloading until it has access to wi-fi again.

To run BARD Mobile on your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Amazon Kindle, here are the minimum requirements needed to use this mobile app. These are minimum requirements just to make sure the program will function at a minimal level. This assumes you have an up-to-date enough model of device to run the version of operating system required. Please note that models of different phone and tablet types change annually. If your device (phone or tablet) can't load BARD Mobile it may not be able to accommodate the minimum operating system needed to run the program:

Apple - IOS (iPhone or iPad)

File size of download - 9.4 MB
Current version - 1.4.1
Requires - iOS 11.0 or later

Android

File size of download - 8.7 MB
Current version - 1.3
Requires - Android 6.0 and up

Amazon - Kindle

File size of download - 8.7MB
Current version - 1.3
Requires - Android 6.0 and up

Open a web browser from your device and go to nlsbard.loc.gov. Select the link to the BARD application instructions. From the BARD application instructions page select Link to BARD application for individuals. You will be presented with a drop-down list of network libraries. Choose your library from the list and then select the Submit button.
Fill in all of the information in the application. Note that the field labeled “Please select the type of player you will be using” is for users of 3rd party talking-book players and/or braille notetakers. You do not need to select anything from this list. Submit your application.

Once your application is processed by your network library, you will be e-mailed a temporary password. You must login to BARD, using a web browser and change your password before logging into BARD Mobile.

• Already a BARD user, Yes, you can go get the BARD Mobile app for your device (iPhone, iPad) - (Android) - (Amazon Kindle), enter in your current email address and permanent password and start downloading today. 
• New BARD user, you will need to setup a BARD account first by going to https://nlsbard.loc.gov. Fill out the online application and wait for approval (usually within 2 days). Once you are approved you will get a temporary password, which you will need to go in and change to a permanent password using a Web Browser on the BARD website (NOT BARD Mobile). Once this is complete you are ready to start using BARD and can download and activate the BARD Mobile app for your device.

Users are limited to 5 devices per account. If you try to add a 6th device to an account it will not accept it. You will generally get an error saying, "Failed to authorize device from BARD." Note that sometimes BARD Mobile will treat an upgrade of the operating system on a device as a new device. This will effect how many devices you have listed, even though you haven't added a new device. Please contact the library to have extra devices removed from your account.

BARD Mobile all of a sudden won't let me in. My Username and Password are correct. What happened?

• If you have recently changed your email address or Password, this could be the reason. You need to make sure you enter the same email address and Password used to access BARD using a Web Browser. BARD Mobile uses what you have online to connect you. Please note, your password can't contain Ampersand (&), Percent (%), Less Than (<), Greater Than (>), Quote ("), or Apostrophe('), if you plan to use BARD Mobile.
• If you haven't changed anything there could have been an issue with BARD online (Web Browser version), where the server goes offline, etc. This can sometimes be fixed by doing an App Reset:
  1. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch - Go to Device settings, BARD Mobile, and switch Setting Initialization to the "On" position.
  2. Android devices - Tap into More Options, Settings, and finally Application Reset. Note this will reset the App to new and erase all downloaded content.

Listen to MP3

The amount of books and magazines that your device (or flash drive) can hold depends on the amount of storage space and the length of the recording, which determines that amount of space it takes up. The rule for space is that for every 1 hour of audio recorded you need 10 MB of space. This means an average length recording of 14 hours takes 140 MB of space to store. For a typical mobile device with 16 GB of space (GB is 1000 times larger than an MB) you have room for approximately 1600 hours of audio or roughly 114 average length books.

BARD Mobile downloads one book at a time. If you try to download multiple books, it starts downloading the first one and marks the others as "Queued for download." When the first book finishes downloading, the second starts, etc., until all the books have downloaded.

If no book is downloading and all the books are marked as queued, the first thing to do is make sure you have a solid Wi-Fi or cellular connection. Then make sure no book is downloading, and double-tap one that is queued. This should start it downloading.

If there is a book that won't download, delete it from either the bookshelf or wish list. Then once all books are downloaded, add it to your wish list, and try downloading it again.

This message usually indicates that too many apps are running in iOS and draining available memory. To fix this, open the app switcher in iOS and close all apps. Then, open BARD Mobile and try playing the book. It should now play.

Warning, resetting BARD Mobile may lose your downloaded books and magazines.

To reset BARD Mobile you can do an App Reset:

1. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch - Go to Device settings, BARD Mobile, and switch Setting Initialization to the "On" position.
2. Android devices - Tap into More Options, Settings, and finally Application Reset. Note this will reset the App to new and erase all downloaded content.

BARD Mobile itself does not have a sleep timer. However, you can use the Timer in the Clock app on your iOS (iPhone or iPad) device. This allows you to set an amount of time that seems comfortable to stop playing.

1. Go to Utilities
2. Then to Clock
3. Look for the 4th item "Timer"
4. Set the Timer
   • Select hours and minutes
   • You'll then see a Picker item to select the sound you want to play at the end of the set time
   • Select from the last item on the list from "When timer ends" list is "Stop Playing"
5. Once set, you can use this any time after
   • Open clock
   • Select timer
   • Tap the Start button
6. The book will stop playing when the timer amount has ended

Book volumes do vary from time to time in how they are recorded. This may be a reason. Another reason also could be something known as Audio Ducking or Audio Leveling, where the volume is reduced while assistive speech speaks. This could make the volume of audio heard be pushed to a lower level until you stop and restart audio.

• iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch - for Voiceover, to turn off Audio Ducking go to Settings and choose General, then Accessibility, then Voiceover, then Audio. Find the Audio Ducking setting, and double-tap until it's turned off.
• Android devices - for TalkBack, adjust Speech settings. Navigate to Settings and choose Accessibility, then TalkBack and then Settings. Select the first option, Speech, which controls spoken feedback. From here you can adjust Speech volume to be the same or less than the media volume. Media volume is the volume of other sounds on your device. Your choices are Match media volume, 75% of media volume, 50% of media volume, 25% of media volume. You can try out different settings to see what works.

Add items to your wish list. The wish list used by BARD Mobile is the same wish list used by the BARD website, which means anything you add to your wish list from either BARD Mobile or the BARD website will show up on the wish list in either place.

There are two ways to add a book to your wish list:

1. BARD Mobile
   • Click Browse BARD from the Get Books tab
   • Search for a book
   • Find your book
   • Click the link below the book's description that says "Add to my wish list"
2. BARD website
   • Search for a book
   • Click on the title of the book to open its full record
   • At the bottom of the full record click on the link that says "Add to my wish list".

Once your book is added to your wish list:

1. Go to the Get Books tab
2. Click on Browse Wish List
3. Find the book
4. Click on the title of the book
5. Begin the download

Sideloading is a way to manually load a previously downloaded BARD book onto your device. This may be useful if you have issues with downloading through BARD Mobile or want to travel with a large number of books, but don't have enough storage space on your device.

First download the book you want from the BARD website and leave them zipped.

Dropbox (iPhone, iPad or Android):

• Upload the zipped book to your Dropbox account
• Open the Dropbox app on your device
• Export the zipped file to the BARD Mobile app
• BARD Mobile will open and import the book

iTunes File Sharing:

• Install iTunes onto your computer and connect your iPhone or iPad
• Click Apps
• Below File Sharing, select the BARD Mobile app from the list and click Add
• In the window select a file to transfer
• Click Open
• Open BARD Mobile and the book will be available

Android:

• Connect your device to a computer by USB cable
• Open your device's internal memory
• From the directory of folders
  • Go to Android > data >gov.loc.nls.dtb>files>nls-dtb
• Copy and paste the zipped folder of the book into the nls-dtb folder
• Open BARD Mobile and the book will be available

BARD Mobile allows you to change contrast and font size to make it more comfortable for viewing.

To do this:

1. Open BARD Mobile
2. Choose Settings
3. Choose Visual Settings

From here, you can change contrast and font size.

To zoom in and out in BARD Mobile is controlled by the device, not BARD Mobile. This is part of the Zoom text magnification program that is built into iOS. This needs to be turned on. To do this:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Go to General
3. Then Accessibility
4. Then Zoom
5. Turn it on

This should now allow you to use Zoom's gestures to magnify BARD Mobile, the same way it does with other apps.

You can use BARD Mobile to read braille books and magazines using a Bluetooth braille display. BARD Mobile for iOS (Apple) and Android both support braille. As with audiobooks, BARD Mobile unzips your braille files automatically, so you don't need to worry about doing this. Even though you may be reading 6-dot braille from BARD, you should set your braille display to 8-dot braille. Also, single-letter QuickNav should be turned off so you can use the BARD Mobile navigation commands. If it isn’t, you can turn it off by typing dot 7 with the Q-chord command. For more information about reading braille on BARD Mobile, please see Chapter 7 of the BARD Mobile User’s Guide, located on your BARD Mobile bookshelf under the Help category.

Non Braille Readers - BARD Mobile Users Guide in Online Text: 

• Apple - iPhone and iPad
• Android

Braille Readers - BARD Mobile Users Guide in Braille:

• Apple - iPhone and iPad (.brf file)
• Android (.brf file)

To use BARD Mobile with a braille display make sure that the app is set up with the same number of braille cells as your braille display or note taker.

To do this:

1. Go into the BARD settings on the BARD app.
2. Find braille and visual settings.
3. Check to see that you have the correct number of braille cells.
4. Set the number of braille cells to match your braille display.
5. Set your braille display to 8 dot mode and UEB. UEB is the most flexible because UEB will adapt to other braille systems from around the world.
6. Check your settings by opening a braille title.
7. Go to a blank spot and scroll down until you either hear something that indicates anything other than “Empty line”.
8. Check to make sure what you read is legible.
9. You should now be setup to read braille correctly.