[DTB-Talk] concern and feedback regarding mailer cartridge containers

[Christopher Gilland]

normally, I simply just download all of my material directly from the Bard
website, and therefore have only just recently made this discovery.

it used to be that when returning a cartridge to your library, you would
take the paper card which was inserted into the front pocket of the plastic
cartridge mailer, and you would flip it over, and then that would be it.
you would then put the container back in the mail, and it would go back to
the appropriate party.

recently, in the last month, I received a magazine from my local library of
South Carolina which is not available for download. they have to manually
load the cartridge and send it out. thank goodness my mother, who is cited,
saw this, as I would have had no way of knowing this otherwise. apparently,
there is now a label which is stuck on to the actual plastic container
itself which cannot be removed that has the address to return the cartridge
to the library. that label is behind the paper insert with the Library
patrons address. in other words, that card that slides into the pocket of
the container is only printed on one side, and the one side which is
printed only contains the patrons address, and not the library address.

so, when that card is in the container as normal, it covers up the label to
return back to the library. hopefully that makes sense what I'm saying. in
other words, had I flipped that card over as you used to do, the card would
have been completely blank with nothing printed on it. what we wound up
doing was, we took the card out of the front of the plastic mailer, and
just sat it on top of the cartridge inside the mailer, and by doing that,
it revealed the return address to send back to our library. I should add
that this is not a goof on my local libraries part. a friend of mine who
goes through the Utah State Library told me that he / she had the exact
same issue with a recently mailed cartridge to them. going forward, I think
it is absolutely crucial that patrons know about this change! had I not
known this, I would have had a lot of trouble getting this cartridge sent
back out in the mail. there's no indication I can see anywhere that this is
how things now work. in fact, when listening to the beginning of the
cartridge I received, it's specifically States flip over the card, and
return the cartridge with the mailer within 30 days. it does not say to
place the card inside the mailer, and then return.

I know that there are people on this list who work directly for the NLS, or
at the very least, have contacts directly with people who do. so therefore,
I wanted to submit this feedback.

i, for one, would be extremely interested in others thoughts regarding this.

are Braille books the same way?

Chris.