NLS Digital Talking Book Player

To download, and play Maine Airs on the NLS digital Talking Book player, you must first have a thumb drive (also called a USB flash drive). These are available locally at any Radio Shack or Staples. Audio files can be large so get one that holds at least 4 GB.

Go to the Maine Airs Programming Page at http://www.theiris.org/maine-airs/programming. This page has a grid of all the recordings that will be playing that day over the airwaves. For each one of those recordings, Internet users have the option to "Play", "Download", or "Share" the recording. Select "Download" and follow the prompts on your computer. If the thumb drive is already in your computer, you may save the files directly to the thumb drive, or save the files to your computer, then transfer them to the thumb drive later.

Locate the USB port on you digital Talking Book player—it is next to the headphone jack on the right-hand side. Remove the small cover over the USB port, and install the thumb drive. If you have the basic digital Talking Book player (this is the player that has no buttons between the sleep button shaped like a moon and the speaker) you press and hold the right arrow or "FF" button to advance you through the files and to jump to the next file. The left arrow or "RW" reverses the process.

Users with the advanced digital Talking Book player (this is the player with a line of 5 extra buttons between the sleep button shaped like a moon, and the speaker) will use the middle rectangular button or "Menu" until you hear the command "file jump."  Pressing the "Prev" arrow to the left of the "Menu" button or "Next" arrow to the right of the "Menu" button will navigate to the next or previous files on the thumb drive.

Consumers who have a basic digital audio player and want the advanced may call the Maine State Library at 1-800-762-7106 to request the advanced player at no charge.

Consumers may also use the USB thumb drive to download books and periodicals from the NLS BARD website and play them on the digital Talking Book player. The first step is to apply to BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) by downloading the application from https://nlsbard.loc.gov/NLS/ApplicationInstructions.html. Once the application is approved and processed, users may log in to the site and select from a wide range of books and periodicals for immediate download.

As with the audio files, users who do this regularly will find the advanced digital Talking Book player a much better option--offering the ability to navigate the book more easily, save bookmarks, and select books more quickly from the thumb drive. This author's suggestion is to use separate thumb drives for audio files, like Maine Airs and Audio Books downloaded from Bard. The Talking Book player did not appear recognize audio files when both file types were on the thumb drive.