Indiana Insights - Fall 2017

Indiana Insights Talking Book and Braille Library

Holiday book requests

With the holiday season in full swing, it's time to start thinking about closures at the library and the post office. This year, the library will be closed on Monday, Dec. 25, Tuesday, Dec. 26 and also on Monday, Jan. 1, 2018. As a result, there will be no incoming or outgoing mail on those days, so your book deliveries may be interrupted or delayed.

We encourage you to take a few moments and order extra books to have on hand during that time; please have all requests in before Monday, Dec. 18, 2017 to ensure that your books have plenty of time to get to you. Since our mail goes out first thing in the morning, book requests made after Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017 will not be mailed until we re-open on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017.

The holiday season is a great time to think about signing up for BARD or downloading the BARD Mobile app (now available for iOS, Android, and Kindle devices). BARD is a free download service for Talking Book patrons that will give you instant access to over 100,000 audio books, braille books, magazines, and music scores from the comfort of your home, even when the library is closed!

For more information on BARD, please visit www.nlsbard.loc.gov or call us at 1-800-622-4970. If you are interested in signing up for BARD, please be aware that we will not be able to approve your BARD application on days the library is closed, so be sure to apply before the holiday closures.


New books from Indiana Voices

Indiana Voices is the program that allows our library to produce books about Indiana or by Indiana authors. Please contact the library about ordering these books or about signing up to receiving Indiana Voices books regularly.

Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary (IDB00144) by Ray E.  Boomhower
On April 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrived in Indiana to campaign for the Indiana Democratic presidential primary. As Kennedy prepared to fly from an appearance in Muncie to Indianapolis, he learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had died. Kennedy broke the news of King's death in an impassioned, extemporaneous speech on the need for compassion in the face of violence. It has proven to be one of the great speeches in American political history.

Marking the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's Indianapolis speech, this book explains what brought the politician to Indiana that day, and explores the characters and events of the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary in which Kennedy, who was an underdog, had a decisive victory.

Scavengers: A True Story of Money, Madness, and Murder (IDB00146) by Dick Cady
When a band of predators came to believe eccentric widow Marjorie Jackson was a modern-day witch, it became the seed for the theft of $3,800,000--more than the famous Brinks robbery. Did the Jackson family grocery-chain fortune carry a curse? The money contributed to the mental illness of the heir and his wife, lured 24 people into crime, brought about two murders, and led two men to the electric chair.

An American Tune: A Novel IDB00150 by Barbara Shoup
While reluctantly accompanying her husband and daughter to freshman orientation at Indiana University, Nora Quillen hears someone call her name, a name she has not heard in more than 25 years. Not even her husband knows that back in the ‘60s she was Jane Barth, a student deeply involved in the antiwar movement. An American Tune moves back and forth in time, telling the story of Jane, a girl from a working-class family who fled town after she was complicit in a deadly bombing, and Nora, the woman she became, a wife and mother living a quiet life in northern Michigan.

The Keeper of the Bees (IDB00153) by Gene Stratton Porter
Set in the author's adopted home of California in the 1920s, this is Gene Stratton-Porter's last novel, a story filled with wisdom, a love of nature, and her own abiding optimism. In it a master bee keeper, his bees, and the natural beauty of California restore a wounded World War I veteran to health.

Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio (IDB00158) by David L. Mowery
A military operation unlike any other on American soil, Morgan's Raid was characterized by incredible speed, superhuman endurance, and innovative tactics. One of the nation's most colorful leaders, Confederate general John Hunt Morgan, took his cavalry through enemy-occupied territory in three states in one of the longest offensives of the Civil War. The effort produced the only battles fought north of the Ohio River and reached farther north than any other regular Confederate force. Historian David L. Mowery takes a new look at this unprecedented event in American history, one historians rank as among the world's greatest land-based raids since Elizabethan times.


Book recommendations: Best of 2017

Here are some of the best books of 2017, as chosen by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Library Journal.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (DB 87691)
Set in an unnamed city with a strict social code, atheist Nadia rebels against the strictures put upon her. She falls in love with the gentle, religious-minded Saeed as their city falls into chaos and militias seize control, forcing the pair to flee together. Unrated.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (DB 87767, LP 20462)
An examination of the 1920s murders of wealthy Osage Indian Nation members in Oklahoma. When the newly-formed FBI bungled the investigation, young Director Hoover turned to ex-Texas Ranger Tom White, who put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the Bureau. Unrated.

Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night by Jason Zinoman (DB 87901, BR 21985)
A comedy critic for the New York Times examines the career of comedian and TV host David Letterman, especially his many years as host of two consecutive groundbreaking late-night TV shows. Includes interviews with Letterman and his collaborators. Some strong language.

Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran (DB 86763)
After being detained for illegally entering the country from Mexico, Solimar Castro Valdez is forced to give her son up for fosterage with Berkeley couple Kavya and Rishi Reddy. While Soli fights to get her son back, Kavya comes to love the boy. Unrated.

No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts (DB 87902, LP 20515)
JJ Ferguson grew up poor in Pinewood, North Carolina, but he has returned with a fortune in hand. He begins to build an ostentatious mansion to woo his high school sweetheart, Ava--who is now married and desperate for a child. JJ's return upends the whole town. Some strong language.

Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan (DB 87768, LP 20523)
The Flynn sisters, twenty-one-year-old Nora and seventeen-year-old Theresa, leave their small village in Ireland for the promise of America. Fifty years later, they are estranged. Nora is a matriarch and Theresa a cloistered nun. Secrets they have hidden are revealed. Unrated. 

Fall 2017

Volume XL No. 3


Quick tips: Talking Book Topics

A few reminders about your Talking Book Topics catalogs:

  • Talking Book Topics is available as either an audio catalog or a paper magazine. The audio magazine comes in a cardboard container with an order form; magazine cartridge needs to be returned in order for you to receive future issues. The paper magazine can be kept forever.
  • Talking Book Topics is published six times a year or once every two months.
  • Each issue generally comes out no earlier than the last week of the first month of that issue. For example, the November-December issue will usually arrive during either the last week of November or the first week of December.
  • You can always order out of any issue at any time. In fact, ordering from an older issue makes it more likely that the books you want will be available right away. We keep copies of each issue for a year, so if you would like another copy feel free to give us a call.
  • If you choose to mail in your order form, send it to your local library in Indiana instead of the address on the back of the catalog.
  • Always remember to write your name on any order forms or lists of books you send to the library. 


Conversion of cassette books complete

In 2009, the Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library began sending audiobooks to patrons on digital book cartridges. The digital books come in blue containers and play on the small black Digital Talking Book Machine; this is probably the only type of book and machine many patrons have ever had. Since 2009, NLS has been working on converting the old cassette recordings into a digital format; this project is now complete.

As such, the library is no longer sending patrons the cassette books in the green containers or replacing the large yellow cassette players. This will not impact the library service you are currently receiving. If you still have a cassette player that belongs to the library and you are not using it, please return it to us by mail at 140 N. Senate Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46204. You can write “free matter for the blind” on the box you return it in so you do not have to pay postage.


2018 Braille calendar

We have a limited supply of small, spiral bound 2018 braille calendars, sent to us by the Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund, to give away. If you would like one, please contact us at 1-800-622-4970. 

NLS has also compiled a list of organizations that produce calendars in braille, print/braille, large print, or audio, which can be found online here.


New magazine available

The National Library Service recently added Kiplinger’s Retirement Report to both their Magazine on Cartridge Program and BARD. Kiplinger’s is published monthly and covers practical strategies to help grow retirement savings, how to make money last during retirement, maximization of Social Security and Medicare benefits, and other retirement related topics.

A full listing of magazines offered by NLS is available in the back of each issue of Talking Book Topics. Please contact us to subscribe to Kiplinger’s or any other magazine being offered by NLS.


Grant opportunity returns in January

Following the success of the program in 2017, the Indiana State Library Foundation, in collaboration with the Indiana State Library’s Talking Book & Braille Library, is once again seeking applicants for a grant supporting patrons with the purchase of assistive technology devices. The grants provide monetary reimbursements in amounts ranging from $50 to $1,000 towards the purchase of an assistive technology device of the grant recipient’s choosing. These devices remove many barriers to education and employment for visually impaired individuals and may include: video magnifiers, optical character recognition systems, speech systems, etc.

Grant requests may be submitted any time after January 1, 2018. The requests will be reviewed by a committee and awarded on a quarterly basis until the funds allotted for the calendar year are expended. Grants will only be awarded to a particular individual or institution one time every three calendar years.

More information, including application instructions, can be found online here. Questions may be directed to us by email.

The Indiana State Library Foundation was established in 2011 with a mission to serve citizens of Indiana through the support, enhancement and promotion of activities of the Indiana State Library, their programs and collections and to aid in development of library related programs benefiting libraries throughout the state and the library profession. To learn more about how you can help the Indiana State Library Foundation support the Talking Books program, contact donations@library.in.gov.


Indiana Talking Book & Braille Calendar:

Talking Books will be closed on the following days in 2017 and 2018:

Monday, Dec. 25, 2017
Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017
Monday, Jan. 1, 2018
Monday, Jan. 15, 2018
Friday, March 30, 2018
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Monday, Sep. 3, 2018
Monday, Oct. 8, 2018
Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018
Monday, Nov. 12, 2018
Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018
Friday, Nov. 23, 2018
Monday, Dec. 24, 2018
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018

Indiana Talking Book & Braille Library Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.


Maggie Ansty, Editor
317-232-3684 or 1-800-622-4970
e-mail: tbbl@library.in.gov
http://www.in.gov/library/tbbl.htm