BARD 2.0 Offers New Features for Patrons!

 

BARD, the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download website, now offers expanded functionality and will serve as a gateway to new services in the future.

We are pleased to announce that if you use BARD on the web, you will have had access to BARD 2.0 since late July. If you’re not a BARD user, this is your chance to sign up for the service and get instant access to hundreds of thousands of audio and braille books and magazines for reading with an NLS digital talking-book machine, a personal smart device with BARD Mobile, a Braille eReader, or your PC with the BARD Express player. Contact us at sl.lbpd@dca.nm.gov to sign up for BARD.

Features of the new website include:

• Reorganization of the Wish List, Reading History, Subscriptions, and Account Settings under one menu.
• New sorting capabilities of book lists. You can now search through book lists and refine the results by format, language, and subject.
• An updated search engine, so finding books is easier and faster than ever before.
• Advanced search functionality.

Access to the new and improved BARD website requires a change in your login procedures. We will contact all BARD web users and provide instructions for the new login procedures. If you have any questions, need assistance, or just want to tell us about your experience with BARD 2.0, contact us at sl.lbpd@dca.nm.gov.

 

Talking Book Topics Delivery Issues

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) recently took over distribution of Talking Book Topics from Potomac Talking Books. There have been some difficulties during this transitional period and the distribution of Talking Book Topics on cartridge by mail has been indefinitely delayed. We are considering alternative arrangements for distributing Talking Book Topics audio cartridges and order forms to our patrons.

In the meantime, please know that Talking Book Topics is available in audio format on BARD, and a text version can be accessed on the NLS Website in the New Materials Section and at the following URL: https://www.loc.gov/nls/new-materials/talking-book-topics/.

What Is Talking Book Topics?

Talking Book Topics (TBT) lists a selection of audio titles recently added to the NLS collection and available from your library or the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) service. Short descriptions of each new title are included.

It also carries news of developments in services to people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical, perceptual, or reading disability that prevents them from using regular print materials.

New issues of Talking Book Topics are released on a bi-monthly basis.

New Mexico’s 47^th Conference on Aging in Glorieta is scheduled for September 23-25, 2025. This year’s conference will bring together seniors, caregivers, service providers and advocates from across the state for three full days of learning, connection, and celebration. With the theme “EngAGE as you Age,” this year’s event will focus on healthy aging and vibrant living. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in informative sessions on health and wellness, Alzheimer’s and dementia care, adult abuse, fraud prevention, caregiver support, and so much more. Additionally, there will be a wide variety of interactive and recreational activities, including:

• Entertainment, including cultural dance performances and a social dance.
• Resource expo featuring community partners and state agencies.
• Stargazing in the pristine Glorieta night skies.
• Pickleball, mini golf, and guided hikes.

 The cost for attending the conference for three days is $40 and includes food. Lodging is a separate fee. To find out more information and register: https://tinyurl.com/4x7vjp3x.

Get Set Up!

The New Mexico State Library has purchased a new online resource, GetSetUp designed specifically for people over the age of 55 and taught by those over 55. And no, you don’t have to be 55 or more to use it!  This online resource provides short online trainings in how to use digital technologies such as iPhones and Androids, how to search your Google email more efficiently, and more. In addition, there are also instruction and courses on cooking, health, and wellness. After each session, notes are included which are accessible by a screen reader.  You can access GetSetUp on El Portal @ https://www.elportalnm.org or https://www.getsetup.io/partner/nm. Follow the prompts to create a login.

New From Our Recording Studio

 

A Selection of Titles for Young Readers

 

DBC10498 – Georgia Rises by Kathryn Lasky; read by Else-Maria Tennessen

The artist Georgia O’Keeffe spends the day transforming the materials, colors, and landscape of her desert home into paintings. Includes biographical notes.

DBC10500 – Maria Paints the Hills by Pat Mora; read by Else-Maria Tennessen

 

Real-life Santa Fe artist Maria Hesch (1909-1994) painted innocent narratives of her life as a young girl growing up along the river next to her grandfather’s alfalfa field that linked the family to the nearby church. Acclaimed writer Pat Mora imagines the story of the young Maria revealed in the paintings.

DBC10501 – Billy Blackfeet in the Rockies by Marc Simmons; read by Jack McCarthy

 

A fur-trading post for the Blackfeet Indians is home to Billy Jackson and his family in the Montana of 1864, as the ten-year-old faces danger from man, beast, and nature.

 DBC10502 – Friday the Arapaho Boy by Marc Simmons; read by Jack McCarthy

 

This is a true story of a young Arapaho boy’s life in both his indigenous world and that of whites in the nineteenth century.

The following titles are all part of the historic Mesaland series by Loyd Tireman. These books were developed in the 1940s to teach children about the animals of New Mexico:

 DBC10508 – Baby Jack and Jumping Jack Rabbit by Loyd Tireman; read by Emily King

 

The first in the historic Mesaland series. follows the adventures of Baby Jack, a rabbit that lives in the big Mesquite thicket near Mount Baldy.

DBC10510 – Hop-A-Long by Loyd Tireman; read by Emily King

 

Follows the adventures of Hop-a-long, one of a litter of four baby jack rabbits born in the early spring.

 DBC10509 – Quills by Loyd Tireman; read by Emily King

 

The adventures of Quills, a funny, lazy porcupine who stumbles into fresh trouble every minute.

DBC10512 – 3 Toes by Loyd Tireman; read by Emily King

 

Introduces the coyote named 3 Toes, a dangerous new face on the mesa

Other Titles

DBC10470 – True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America by Betsy Gaines Quammen; read by Maureen Ramirez

 

From the Northern Rockies to the Southwest deserts, Betsy Gaines Quammen explores how myths not only shape our identities, but also heighten polarizations and fracture our shared understanding of the world around us. As she investigates the origins and effects of myths of the American West, Gaines Quammen travels through small towns and big cities, engaging people and building relationships at every stop. Misperceptions about land, politics, liberty, and self-determination threaten the well-being of people and communities across the country, and Gaines Quammen interrogates it all as she seeks to reconcile the anger and misunderstandings that continue to be fueled by the West’s enduring myths and complex history.

 DBC10489 – Pursuit by Gene Hackman; read by Bruce Herr

 

In respect to the recent death of the legendary actor and Santa Fe resident, the New Mexico Library for the Blind has added his last novel to the NLS Catalog. The once-straitlaced officer Juliette Worth is unjustly demoted after a hostage situation gone wrong, and reassigned to investigating cold-case disappearances, a situation that turns sinister when her own daughter goes missing.

 

What is the LBPD Staff Reading?

Ursula Recommends Health and Wellness Bestsellers

DB128745 – Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green

 

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone.  John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world – and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

DB121023 – The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

 

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness. He investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the play-based childhood began to decline in the 1980s and presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this great rewiring of childhood has interfered with children’s social and neurological development. Most importantly, Haidt describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take.

DB114005 – Outlive by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford

 

Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.  Aging and longevity are far more malleable than we think; our fate is not set in stone. With the right roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.

Jon Recommends

DB100048 – Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

When the slimy, horrible looking space aliens arrive on Earth they’re going to need an agent? Agent to the Stars is a comedic sci-fi novel by prolific author John Scalzi that follows a Hollywood agent as he tries to help a friendly, but disgusting-looking, group of aliens deal with one of the greatest challenges of modern life, Public Relations.

Jeremy Recommends

DB128581 – The Buffalo Hunter Hunter  by Stephen Graham Jones.

 

At once a sweeping western, biting historical novel, and a chilling twist on the vampire story, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter digs into the bones of American history to tell its blood curdling tale. In this humble librarian’s opinion, one of the best new books of 2025.

Please call us at 1-800-456-5515 or 505-476-9770 or email us at sl.lbpd@dca.nm.gov to request of this newsletter in  large print, braille or audio cartridge or if you have any other questions or concerns.