Braille and Talking Book Library, Sacramento - BTBL

Happy Labor Day! The CA State Library is closed in honor of Labor Day and will reopen tomorrow for regular business hours. While you're enjoying hopefully a labor free day, peek at this photo from our online catalog , showing a 1910 Labor Day Parade in San Diego.

September is Library Card Sign up Month and it’s now easier than ever to sign up for the Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL)! BTBL is now offering a simpler, streamlined application to sign up for library services. Check it out here: https://www.library.ca.gov/btbl/apply/

Are you afraid it might be hard to use BARD (the Braille and Audio Reading Download online service from NLS)? Or are you already using BARD and just want to know more? The next online session of our Many Faces of BARD program will be an open forum (Part 2, since Part 1 was so popular!) with the NLS Download technical support team. The team will take more questions related to any BARD service—BARD website, BARD Mobile app or BARD Express—starting at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 8, on Zoom. Find details on how to join the session, and archives of previous Many Faces of BARD sessions, on our website, at www.loc.gov/nls/news-and-updates/many-faces-of-BARD/?loclr=fbnls.
[Image: Woman on couch using her tablet running the BARD Mobile app.]

We had a great time attending the American Library Conference in sunny San Diego, CA this weekend. BTBL's presentation on public libraries campaigns got the word out about the ways we're trying to serve all Californians. We're coming back inspired and ready to turn the page on some exciting new chapters for our community!

The CA State Library is closed today in observance of Memorial Day. Our normal hours resume on Tuesday, May 28.

Memorial Day started as Decoration Day in the 1860s and became more well known as "Memorial Day" after World War II. The holiday honors and mourns deceased servicemembers of the armed forces. In 1919, a celebration in Golden Gate Park was held. This picture shows a woman giving a literary reading during the event.

Last year, Californians visited their libraries 74 million times! April 9 is National Library Workers Day, a great time to thank the 15,800 library employees in California for their contributions. Remember – California libraries works because they do.

Happy National Library Week!

It's music to our ears: the Music Braille Wheel is back in stock! This unique tool is a great reference for students learning the music braille code and teachers who are unfamiliar with the code. Get yours today: https://bit.ly/46DRaha

Get your braille on with LEGO Braille Bricks! Join The LEGO Foundation on 02/27 at 1 pm ET for a free LEGO Braille Bricks Live Session featuring new pre-braille activities. Videos of the activities and facilitation tips will be included. Register: https://bit.ly/49csuOi

Are you looking for a love story to cuddle up to for ? You can search hundreds of thousands of titles on BARD by subject (like historical romance fiction or romantic suspense) or even subscribe to titles by your favorite romance authors like Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber and Kim Alkemade. For the little ones you love, read “Valentine’s Day (DB61431)” by Anne Rockwell, “Appolonia’s Valentine (BRA06648)” by Katherine Milhous or “Love, Violet (DB113057)” by Charlotte Sullivan Wild. Sign in or learn more about BARD at www.loc.gov/nls/how-to-enroll/sign-up-for-bard-and-bard-mobile?loclr-fbnls.
[Image: A couple embrace on a couch while reading on a tablet. iStock photo.]

February 2024 Webinars - National Braille Association Join us this month for these three free webinars! These webinars are entirely free to anyone and don’t require registration. As long as you have an internet connection, you can click the join link below each description a few minutes before start time, and you’re in! These are intended to run sh...