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Equipment
Special equipment is needed to play recorded books supplied by the Montana Talking Book Library and the National Library Service (NLS). An NLS player may be loaned for an extended loan period, free of charge, to eligible active patrons to Montana patrons through the local Montana Talking Book Library.
DIGITAL PLAYERS: In 2009, a transition to digital services started with the NLS supplying a specified amount of digital players to Montana to be distributed in the following order until every patron has been served:
1) Veterans - By law, all patrons who are veterans of the US Armed Forces will be given first priority. This includes both current and new patrons.
2) Centenarians (people who are 100 years old or older) – As request by the Library of Congress National Library Service. This includes both current and new patrons.
3) All other active patrons who requested digital service and are in good standing, according to the date of request.
4) Institutions – Nursing homes, schools and other institutional accounts will be served when all interested individual patrons have received a digital player. Students and nursing home residents can request individual service.
Patrons who receive a digital player are encouraged to retain a cassette player as well. Until the digital book collection builds to supply adequate copies of digital books on cartridges, many older titles will ONLY be available in cassette, including our local recordings of Montana books. Transitioning our local Montana collection to a digital format has been delayed.
NLS APPROVED 3RD PARTY PLAYERS FOR BARD USERS: Patrons who are signed up for BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) services and who have purchased their own NLS approved MP3 player (BookPort, BookSense, Braille Plus Mobile Manager, LevelStar Icon, Plextalk, or VR Stream) are requested to return the free NLS digital player to be distributed to other patrons who do not have access to computer download resources.
For More information on BARD services, go to BARD Instructions.
Please call Montana Talking Book Library at 800-332-3400 if you want to be added to the waiting list for digital service or if you have any questions.
CASSETTE PLAYERS: Each patron is allowed to have one cassette player at a time.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLAYING EQUIPMENT: When your player arrives, first listen to the recorded instructions.
Cassette Player: Instructions are on a cassette tape inserted in the player.
Digital Player: Instructions are called the “User Guide”. There is no instruction “cartridge”. The “User Guide” is built in to both the standard and advanced digital players.
Standard Digital Player: Access the User Guide by pressing and holding down the play/stop button (with NO cartridge inserted).
Advanced Digital Player: Access the User Guide by pressing and holding down the white diamond-shaped button with raised dot in middle (located at the far left side of player, above the raised line) for 1.5 seconds.
If you have questions after listening to the instructions, call a Reader Advisor at 1-800-332-3400.
Please keep each box in which your player arrived. DO NOT throw away the mailing box. You may need to return your player at some point for replacement.
For further information on both the cassette player and the digital player, go to the links below.