The National Library Service (NLS) has provided our library with a limited number of the newest Digital Talking Book Machines — the Digital Advanced Player 2 or DA2. These players are now available to patrons by request, on a first-come, first-served basis. If all available units are distributed, a waitlist will be created.

Some of the new features of the DA2 are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and 28 GB of internal storage. That means DA2 users can connect to BARD, the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download website, and download audiobooks and magazines, store them on the player, and listen to them over Bluetooth-enabled speakers, hearing aides, or headphones. A typical NLS audiobook is 120 MB, so the DA2 may hold 200 or more titles. Other new features include a detachable power cord and the addition of a dedicated Bookshelf Button. The DA2 also includes a built-in speaker and a port for digital audiobook cartridges, along with all other features of the previous DA1 model.

Again, the library has received only a limited number of DA2 players, so availability is first-come, first-served. The NLS plans to provide additional units in the future, but no timeline has been announced.

Award-winning Native American childrens’ author Laurel Goodluck, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, and an Alaska Native Citizen of the Tsimshian Tribe, is completing her project with the New Mexico Library for the Blind and Print Disabled through the narrative recording of four books, which will be added to the National Library Service’s BARD audio collection allowing wider access.

Goodluck worked closely with our own Yavar Moradi in writing new culturally informed image descriptions for two of the books, which accurately reflect Native American heritage and experiences for readers. The inclusion of these detailed descriptions in Goodluck’s narration will help young readers with little or no vision experience the full content of the books’ visuals, accompanying the author’s original written text. Yavar explains, “While not the first time an author has narrated their own book in our recording studio, this is the first time an author has been involved in original image narration for its illustrations.”

The newly recorded books include: Yáadilá! Good Grief!, Too Much: My Great Big Native Family, Fierce Aunties!, and Rock Your Mocs—the latter two featuring new image narration.

The National Library Service will feature these new audiobooks along with two previously recorded titles by Goodluck. Earlier this year, Goodluck’s book, She Persisted: Deb Haaland (DB128919), was chosen as one of the 2025 New Mexico Great Reads titles by the New Mexico Center for the Book, representing the state’s literary landscape at the National Book Festival in September.

We are immeasurably grateful for the time that Laurel has given to make these books accessible to patrons of the National Library Service. We hope to have these titles available for download in the coming months.

Impacts from the Government Shutdown

The recent, 43-day government shutdown had and will have some impacts on the services of LBPD. Regular circulation from the library has continued. Books and Talking Book players continue to be sent out and returned on a normal basis; however, the inclusion of new books to the NLS Catalog and the availability of these titles from BARD has created delays. While the federal government has reopened there will be a backlog of new titles, which may take a few months to return to a consistent issuing cycle. In the meanwhile, we can reserve titles that will be sent as soon as they become available for patrons.

 Also,  there will be a limited supply of Humanware EBraille readers for the near future. We are working closely with the NLS to ensure we have the necessary stock to accommodate everyone, but please be aware there may be a delay between the request of the EBraille reader and it being mailed out. We apologize for the inconvenience.

New from Our Recording Studio

DBC10492 – The Three-Two Pitch

by Wilfred McCormick and read by John Pound

With a new coach in Cap’n Al, a former big league ballplayer, Bronc and his team learn the fundamentals of good baseball. Can Bronc learn to not listen to the crowd, and learn to be a pitcher without nerves? Can they win the championship as they face their toughest opponent? This 1948 young adult novel is part of a series about Bronc Burnett, a high school sophomore, who meets a succession of obstacles before he wins his spurs as a pitcher and a championship for his high school team.

DBC10481 – Taken by the Shawnee

by Sallie Bingham and read by Shelia Brown

A most unusual portrait of early America based on a rare family document, in which a young mother’s years in captivity with the Shawnee prove to be the best years of her life. It’s 1779 and a young white woman named Margaret Erskine is venturing west from Virginia, on horseback, with her baby daughter and the rest of her family. She has no experience of Native Americans and has absorbed most of the prejudices of her time, but she is open-minded, hardy, and mentally strong, a trait common to most of her female descendants – Sallie Bingham’s ancestors.

Bingham had heard Margaret’s story since she was a child but didn’t see the fifteen pages Margaret had dictated to her nephew a generation after her captivity until they turned up in her mother’s blue box after her death. Devoid of most details, this restrained account inspired Bingham to research, imagine, and fill the gaps in her story and to consider the tough questions it raises. Adult. Some descriptions of sex and violence.

Sallie Bingham was a long-term Santa Fe resident before passing away earlier this year. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, she was involved in writing her entire life, publishing her first novel After Such Knowledge in 1960. She spent several years on the board of the Louisville Courier-Journal, the paper her father ran, before leaving in the 1980s and moving to Santa Fe shortly thereafter.

This narration of her final book, Taken by the Shawnee, was done by a close friend, Sheila Brown. Other titles by Bingham in the NLS catalog include Passion and Prejudice: A Family Memoir (DB029467) and Matron of Honor (DB039919).

Highlights from the New Mexico LBPD Catalog

DBC01280 – Inventing Los Alamos the Growth of an Atomic Community

by Jon Hunner and read by William Scheer

This is a civic and sociological account of Los Alamos, birthplace of the atom bomb, from 1942-1957. Hunner taps into memoirs of physicists and their children, but also the experiences of guards and maids. He studies how the city ultimately lost its security fence, and tracks development of civic organizations, governance structures, and the city’s then business–designing and testing nuclear weapons. Some violence.

DBC03313 – Plunder of the Ancients

by Lucinda Delaney Schroeder and read by William Scheer

An undercover investigation to recover sacred Native American artifacts. Illegal trafficking in tribal artifacts for huge sums of money peaked in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1998. Schroeder’s task was to bring criminals–at all levels–to justice, and to recover the artifacts and return them. Forces were at work to undermine–even destroy–her mission. Contains some strong language.

DBC03318 – A Vision of Voices: John Crosby and The Santa Fe Opera

by Craig A. Smith and read by Bruce Herr

The Santa Fe Opera, a thriving opera-lover’s destination, owes its existence to the vision and work of one man: John Crosby, who created the company when he was only 30, and guided its fortunes for the next 45 years. The book shows how the Opera reflected his passions for music and the arts.

DBC03319 – Turning Points in Women’s Lives: From the 20th to the 21st Century

by Shirley Louise Patterson and read by Patricia Jonietz

Fascinating–often poignant–stories about important junctures in the lives of 41 remarkable older women living in a retirement community in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time of the book’s publication in 2012. Unrated.

DBC03323 – My Own Story: the Autobiography of Billy the Kid, as Told to Ralph Estes

by Ralph W Estes and read by the author

The book purports to reflect Billy the Kid’s thoughts throughout his life, according to Estes’s research. All the history and events up to the shooting of Billy by Pat Garrett are true to the best available historical documentation. But did Billy die, or live on as Henry Carter until done in by cancer?  Unrated.

Patron Recommendations

Have you read a book which impressed you so much, you want to recommend it to your fellow LBPD patrons? Santa Fe patron Richard Logan was recently so impressed with a book that he wrote in to tell us about it: “Wow – Cassius Marcellus Clay: Firebrand of Freedom (DBC29389) by H. Edward Richardson is unreal, an incredible masterpiece of American nonfiction… Never heard of anyone like him.”

We invite anyone else to submit recommendations of a few sentences long, for us to pass along to fellow patrons. Though we may be limited for space, we will select the strongest recommendations for inclusion in a regular new section of the newsletter.

What Is the LBPD Staff Reading?

Liam– “I am enjoying Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown (DB098416).  Written in a screenplay format, the novel follows the story of Willis Wu, an aspiring Asian actor who is cast in a police procedural television series.  Wu knows that his acting career is limited to playing “Background Oriental Male”, “Generic Asian Man” or the dream role of “Kung Fu Guy”, and humor underscores the poignancy of the racial stereotyping Yu explores in Hollywood and society at large.”

Jon – “Stephen King’s Danse Macabre (DB015862). Written in 1981, this book showcases author Stephen King’s thoughts, theories, and reflections on the genre of horror fiction in America and his own contributions to it.  Looking not just at novels and short stories, but also film, radio, television and more, King discusses his influences and his own thoughts on what is frightening and why people like to be scared.  A great look at horror in general and an insight into the mind of one of the most popular authors of our time at a critical point in his long career.”

Jeremy – “Fall is always a great time to tuck into a mystery, and I’ve got a doozy this time. The Tainted Cup (DB118884) by Robert Jackson Bennett is not just a wonderfully modern riff on the classic Holmes and Watson dynamic, it’s a sweeping fantasy epic with wonderful worldbuilding and a sly sense of humor. Set in a crumbling empire beset by giant monsters, detectives Ana and Din must unravel the mystery of macabre murder before the world as they know it is crushed under the feet of hulking leviathans. The book is a successful amalgamation of genres, perfect for the fantasy fanatic and the mystery buff.”

Friends of the Library for the Blind

If you would like to make a financial contribution to the library this holiday season, our Friends’ group is able to accept your donation and use it for general library benefit.  The Friends of the New Mexico Library for the Blind is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports the mission of the library by funding special projects and equipment, particularly in relation to local recording studio narrations and staff and volunteer appreciation. If interested in donating, you may make out a check to: “Friends of the New Mexico Library for the Blind” and mail to:

New Mexico State Library

Friends of LBPD

1209 Camino Carlos Rey

Santa Fe, NM 87507

Thank you and Happy Reading!

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.