Recorded Books and
Large Print Materials
- About Large Print Books
- About Audio Books
- Local Public LIbraries
- Free Services
- Services with a Fee
- Publishers
About Large Print Books
Large print books and magazines have larger than normal print to
make them easier for visually impaired people to read.
Large print may also be called "large type" or "large font."
Among librarians "Large Print" is defined as print that is at least
16 points in size. However, in designing a large print edition,
the publisher may adjust other characteristics besides just the size
of the type in order to make the book easier to read. The color,
contrast, and shininess of the ink and paper, the style of type face,
the spacing between letters and between lines, the margins, and the
physical size of the book itself can all affect readability.
Many publishers mass-produce large print editions of the same books they print in other editions. There are also print-on-demand services, which print individual books as they are purchased. A mass-produced large print book has the type size selected by the publisher. With a print-on-demand service, you can often choose the type size at the time you buy the book.
About Audio Books
An audio book, also known as a recorded book, is a sound recording of
someone reading the book out loud. Depending on the source of the
audio book, it might be read by a professional voice actor or by a talented
volunteer. It is also possible to create audio books with synthetic
speech (having a computer translate the book's text to speech).
A commercial audio book may be published by the same publisher that produced the paper edition, or by a publisher that specializes in audio books. You can buy commercial audio books from booksellers or borrow them from your public library. Commercial audio books are available on audio tape cassettes or compact disks and can be played on the same player you use for your music tapes or CDs. You can also buy electronic audio books which you then download from the Internet and play on your computer or on a stand-alone audio book player.
Talking Books are produced by the National Library Service (NLS) of the Library of Congress and are loaned by participating public libraries in each state. To comply with copyright law, only people who cannot make normal use of printed books can borrow Talking Books, and only a special playback device can play them. The special players produced by NLS are loaned by the participating libraries, or you may purchase a commercially produced Talking Book player which may have different features from the standard NLS player. Older Talking Books are recorded on audio tape cassettes in a special format. In 2008, NLS began introducing a new Digital Talking Book format on a flash memory cartridge, and hopes to transition completely to the new format in 5 years. Talking Books are borrowed and returned by mail, and the new Digital Talking Books can also be downloaded through the Internet.
Local Public LIbraries
Besides special collections of large print books and other
material for the blind and visually impaired,
local public libraries have recorded
books and large print books in their regular
collections. Check your nearest branch library to
find what is available there. Local public library
systems also provide a variety of other accomodations for those
with low vision. Hand-held magnifiers, for use in
the library, may be available
at the information desk. Some locations have CCTV systems,
document scanners, or
text-to-speech machines, and many have computers equiped with
screen magnification or screen reading software.
Disability Resource Center at the Rockville Library (Montgomery County)
21 Maryland Ave., Suite 100
Rockville, MD 20850
240-777-0140
Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
415 Park Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21201-3603
410-230-2424
800-964-9209
Prince George's County Memorial Library System
6532 Adelphi Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
301-699-3500
Martin Luther King Memorial Library (District of Columbia)
D. C. Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Room 215 (2nd Floor)
901 G Street, NW
Washington, DC
202-727-2142
Access Service Library (Fairfax County)
12000 Government Center
Parkway #123
Fairfax, VA 22035-0012
703-324-8380
Arlington County Library
1015 N. Quincy St.
Arlington, VA 22201
703-228-6333
Alexandria Public Library
5005 Duke St.
Alexandria, VA 22304-2903
703-519-5911
Loudoun County Library Outreach Services
380 Old Waterford Rd.
Leesburg, VA 20176
703-771-5621
Other Free Services
The National Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped provides its Talking Books service through
public libraries in each state. In maryland, this service
is provided through the
Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
You can call the number listed above for your
local library system or visit the NLS web site
to learn how to sign up for Talking Books.
National Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped (NLS)
The Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542
202-707-5100
800-424-8567
Among other services, the Jewish Guild for the Blind provides
InTouch,
which broadcasts stories from major magazines and newspapers over
the Internet and by radio.
Jewish Guild for the Blind
15 West 65th Street
New York, NY 10023
800-284-4422
The Metropolitan Washington Ear reads The Washington Post as well as selections
from the Wall Street Journal and some magazines via the telephone, radio, and Internet
everyday. To sign up for this free service, contact:
The Metropolitan Washington Ear
35 University Blvd East
Silver Spring, MD 20901
301-681-6636
Another free newspaper reading service is NFB-Newsline. It
uses synthesized (computer-generated) speech to read The Washington Post
and over 50 other national and local newspapers by telephone. Anyone
eligible for the
NLS Talking Book service also qualifies for
NFB-Newsline. To sign up, contact the library from which
you receive NLS services, or call:
National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore MD 21230
410-659-9314
1-866-504-7300
The Project Gutenberg site on the Internet (www.gutenberg.org) has a limited number of free, public domain audio books available for free download to your computer. Project Gutenberg also has a vast library of free, public domain books in plain text format; if your computer has text-to-speech capability, you can download a book from Project Gutenberg and have your computer read it to you.
Services with a Fee
The National Association for Visually Handicapped(operates a lending library of large print books. Services are free to members. A donation is requested from non-members.)
22 West 21st Street, Sixth Floor
New York, NY 10010
1-888-205-5951
E-mail: navh@navh.org
TIFLOLIBROS
(based
in Argentina, provides blind and visually handicapped people
Spanish-language audio books for download on the Internet.
Registration is free, but a semi-annual donation is requested.)
E-mail: tiflolibros@tiflolibros.com.ar
Audiotome
an Internet dealer in used audio books. The web site includes
some interesting musing by the proprieter on audio books
and the business of buying and selling them.
Huge Print Press
(creates large print versions of customer-selected books)
North Central Plaza I
12655 N. Central Expressway
Suite 416
Dallas, TX 75243
1-866-484-3774
LearnOutLoud.com
(sells audio and video materials for education and self-improvement. Their web site
also includes resources
such as a list
of audio book rental services.)
1322 2nd Street, Suite #35
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1131
1-800-550-6070
The web site of
AudioFile magazine includes a list of other suppliers of
audio books and related items.
http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/other_resources.cfm
Harvard Business Review on Tape
617-972-9117
Recorded Periodicals
Associated Services for the Blind
919 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-627-0600
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
5225 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 312
Washington, DC 20015
202-244-8990
Book Share
(provides books for download from the Internet in Digital Talking
Book (text only) and Digital Braille formats. Public-domain works
are available for free; copyrighted works require a paid subscription.)
www.bookshare.org
Most bookstores, public libraries, and Internet bookstores also have books on tape and in large print.
Some magazines and newspapers can be found in large print, too.
Reader's Digest
PO Box 262
Mount Morris, IL 61054
800-877-5293
New York Times Large Type Weekly
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
800-631-2580
Publishers
Here are some of the companies that publish large print and/or audio
books. Their products can be purchased from local book stores,
mail-order and Internet catalog companies, or directly from the publisher.
This is not a complete list of publishers. LVC does not endorse or recommend any specific publisher.
Recorded Books, LLC
(publishes, rents, and sells audio books; publishes and sells large
print books)
270 Skipjack Road
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
800-638-1304
Books on Tape (division of Random House)
(publishes and sells audio books)
Customer Service
400 Hahn Road
Westminster, MD 21157
800-626-3333
Audio Editions
(publishes and sells audio books)
PO Box 6930
Auburn CA 95604-6930
800-231-4261
Blackstone Audiobooks
(publishes and sells audio books)
PO Box 969
Ashland, Oregon 97520
800-729-2665
Reader's Digest Large Type
(publishes large print books)
P.O. Box 262
Mount Morris, IL 61054
800-877-5293
Simon and Schuster
(publishes some audio books, usually abridged)
800-223-2348