Description: Offers books in braille and narrated audiobooks that can be accessed through the BARD Mobile App, using a loaned Digital Book Machine and a USB Drive/book cartridges, or using a Third-Party NLS-compatible player.Available to people who are blind or cannot read standard print material in the usual manner due to a visual or physical disability. Each patron is assigned a reader advisor to help with their library service.Submit a BTBL Application. View the BTBL Patron Handbook.
Hours: State Library Building: Tuesday through Thursday, 9:30 am - 4 pm, excluding state holidays;Phone/Virtual Reference Services: Monday through Friday, 8 am - 5 pm
Eligibility: Northern California residents who have a certified authority confirm that they are permanently or temporarily:- Legally blind, with vision in the better eye of 20/200 or less with corrective glasses, or- Have a visual field no greater than 20 degrees in diameter, or- Unable to see well enough or focus long enough to read standard print, even with corrective glasses, or- Unable to handle print books or turn pages because of a physical disability, or- Are certified as having a perceptual or reading disability of sufficient severity to prevent reading printed material in the usual manner
Requirements: Certification of disability by a certified authority. A certified authority includes doctors of medicine, doctors of osteopathy, ophthalmologists, optometrists, psychologists, registered nurses, therapists, and professional staff of hospitals, institutions, and public/welfare agencies.
Get Live Help!