[nabs-l] bard web site

[Joe]

Peter,

There are a lot of government programs for which I would say your points are
all spot on. However, I'm afraid you will probably be in the minority
regarding NLS. I don't think you're wrong to point out that people have to
prioritize their spending, but as long as we have difficult companies like
Amazon and Sony striving to limit our access to literature by restricting
the devices that can speak, we need an equivalent to the library down the
street. Can NLS take steps to save money? Definitely. We don't need as many
state or regional libraries as we currently have, not with the proliferation
of electronic Braille and the BARD site for audio.

Bookshare is a great service, but there is a difference between text and
audio books. I would rather have a human reading to me over synthetic speech
any day. Actually I was disappointed with the new Victor Stream's jerky
speech engines when reading documents.

As far as alternatives, I would encourage people to look into Overdrive,
which draws on ebook and audio collections from local public libraries.
We're talking contemporary titles in addition to the classics. You check
them out for a couple weeks before the book is no longer accessible.

Tyler,

Great post. My only correction would be that the free shipping is
independent of NLS being a government agency.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 10:41 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site

Good morning everyone,

    What you mean is that there would not be a Braille and talking book Web
site still available despite the government shutdown. The folks that really
shut BARD down is none other than us. Society didn't tell us to be overly
dependent on the government to provide this and other services. Folks we're
doing that to ourselves and need to stop being overly dependent on others to
fund and operate these programs for us. Thank God for the likes of Jim
Fructerman, Ray Kurzweil, and others. This should be an opportunity  for us
to rediscover what Bookshare.org and Blio have to offer. It should also
cause us to put our thinking caps on and find ways to protect BARD and other
services we've come to depend on from government shutdowns. A yearly
subscription to Bookshare.org is only $50.00. Forgo some of the booz and the
smokes and subscribe so the books can keep coming to you. These
subscriptions are far superior to BARD. We have found lots of books on
Bookshare.org not available through BARD. It's $50.00 well-spent if you
asked us. Since we're both Bookshare.org members the yearly charge is
$100.00 and we find the money to keep our subscriptions active. Furthermore
I believe Bookshare.org still has the free student membership. Check it out.

    If we keep going down the path of stinking thinking the next time
there's another federal shutdown we'll have no one but ourselves to blame
because we failed to protect BARD and other services we rely on from such
mayhem.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message -----
From: "I. C. Bray" <i.c.bray at win.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site


You would not have a braille / audio book collection if not for the federal
government.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
To: <jsoro620 at gmail.com>; "National Association of Blind Students mailing
list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site


: Good evening,
:
:    Paying a subscription to protect our accessible book collections from
: governmental boondoggling is okay in my book. Bring it on!
:
: Peter Donahue
:
: ----- Original Message ----- 
: From: "Joe" <jsoro620 at gmail.com>
: To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
: Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 7:16 PM
: Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
:
:
: I'm all for making government much smaller, but privatizing the NLS arm of
: the LOC is probably not the best case scenario. People would have to pay,
: not an issue for gainfully employed people but certainly a problem for the
: 70% unemployed folks already on a low income. Me, I'm really not sure why
: the BARD site is down. Skeleton crews consist of at least a few IT staff,
: and it seems odd there is not a single person who can keep an eye on the
: servers. Then again, the government is dumb enough to try to rope off
: national monuments here in DC that can easily be accessed outside. Red,
: blue, they're all a little cray cray.
:
: Joe
:
: -----Original Message-----
: From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
: Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 7:29 PM
: To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
: Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
:
: Good evening everyone,
:
:    Perhaps it's time to privatize the NLS making it immune to government
: shutdowns in the future. Bookshare.org and BLIO are our shining stars
during
: this time so we need not be without books to read.
:
: Peter Donahue
:
:
: ----- Original Message -----
: From: "Kirt" <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com>
: To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
: Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 5:48 PM
: Subject: Re: [nabs-l] bard web site
:
:
: That entirely depends on when Congress decides to get it's act together.
Ask
:
: your representative. :-)
:
: Sent from my iPhone
:
: > On Oct 1, 2013, at 4:45 PM, "justin williams"
<justin.williams2 at gmail.com>
:
: > wrote:
: >
: > Do we know when the bard site will be up again?
: >
: > _______________________________________________
: > nabs-l mailing list
: > nabs-l at nfbnet.org
: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
: > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
: > nabs-l:
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:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/kirt.crazydude%40gmail.c
: om
:
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