[Dtb-talk] Changes to BARD

[David Andrews]

Among other things, NLS is putting the B in 
BARD.  The following information went out today 
-- the site will change next Tuesday, the 27th of November.

Dave


Hello, List Members,

We are excited to tell you that a major update to 
BARD will be released next Tuesday, November 27. 
Here is what will happen before the update and 
what to expect once the update is complete.

As you may have noticed, there's a BARD alert up 
to remind everyone that The Braille and Audio 
Reading Download (BARD) will be down for at least 
twenty-four hours beginning at midnight on 
Sunday, November 25, while we migrate to the new 
system. On Tuesday, November 27, the new 
BARD­featuring Web-Braille materials, the wish 
list, and other additions­will be available at https//nlsbard.loc.gov.

BARD users will receive a message summarizing the 
new materials and features the first five times 
they log in to BARD after Tuesday, November 27.

Once BARD has been updated, you will be able to 
log in with the same email address and password 
you use now. You'll notice the following differences:

Web-Braille is now part of BARD. On every page 
containing books or magazines, you'll find links 
to both audio and braille titles. These links are 
always at heading 1, so you can easily find the 
book format you want. Audiobooks are always 
listed first. Also, if you only want to see one 
type of book, you can set this up by choosing the 
Account Settings link on the BARD main page and 
then making your choice in the Display Results 
combo box. This page also gives you the option to 
display the site in color or black and white, 
which may help some of you to see it better.

Braille books are in zip files. Each zip file 
contains all the volumes of that book. So to read 
a braille book, unzip the book to a folder, copy 
that unzipped folder’s contents to a 
braille-aware notetaker or computer with a 
braille display, open the volume you want, and start reading.

Braille music scores and audio music instruction 
courses are now on BARD. So are books, both 
braille and audio, that are produced by NLS network libraries.

BARD book listings are formatted as they always 
were, except that each book title is now a link. 
If you choose that link, you go to a page with 
several new features. These include:

•	The author’s name is a link that takes you to a 
page displaying all the books on BARD by that author.
•	If the book is part of a series, there is a 
Series link that will take you to a page listing 
all the books on BARD in the series. Note that 
this section is still under development, so not 
all books in the series may be listed.
•	If the book is listed under more than one 
subject, all the subjects are listed, and each is 
a link to all the books on BARD with that 
subject. This also means that if you browse by 
subject on BARD, Bestseller will now include all 
books with the subject Bestseller.
•	The narrator's name is a link that will take 
you to a page listing other books read by that narrator.
•	There is a link that will add the book to a 
wish list. This is handy if you don't want to 
download the book now but would like to be able to locate it later.
•	There are additional details, such as the book's ISBN.

You can now see a list of all the books and 
magazines you have downloaded. To do this, follow 
the My Previous Downloads link on the main page. 
The My Wish List link is there, too. Both are 
level 3 headings, making it easy to find them.

For a more detailed description of the changes, visit

https://nlsbard.loc.gov/NLS/NewBARDOverview.html

Since these are major changes, you may experience 
some problems with the site at first. If so, 
please be patient and know that NLS is working to 
fix problems as quickly as possible. If a problem 
doesn't go away after a day or two, however, feel free to contact your library.

We hope you enjoy this new version of BARD.

Sincerely,
The BARD Technical Support Team
NLS BARD Technical Support
e-mail: NLSDownload at loc.gov
Read the BARD FAQ at: https://nlsbard.loc.gov/NLS/FAQ.html