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New Catalogs Available |
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The Talking Book and Braille Service has just published two new cassette book catalogs: Books by Nebraska Authors and Westerns and Pioneer. The large print editions are available upon request to any active Nebraska talking book borrower.
Books by Nebraska Authors describes works written by authors who live or have lived in Nebraska. Some of the authors are well known; others are largely unknown. Some chronicle the days of the pioneers; others write of science, mystery, and inspiration.
Westerns and Pioneer is devoted to books about cowboys and pioneers, frontiersmen and settlers, emigrants and Native Americans.
Many titles are about Nebraska, the Great Plains or the Midwest. Others tell of the California Gold Rush, frontier towns of the Southwest, or fur trade in the Pacific Northwest.
Volunteers in the studios of the Nebraska Library Commission recorded most of the books found in either catalog. Additional sources include talking book libraries in other states and reissued recordings from the National Library Service.
To request a copy of either catalog, please use the order form on page seven.
A recently revised catalog, the Nebraska Descriptive Video Collection, is available only to borrowers who are signed up for the Descriptive Video Service.
This catalog, which lists home entertainment and public broadcast videos, will be sent only upon request. It is offered in large print or on cassette.
To request a copy of the Nebraska Descriptive Video Collection catalog, or to sign up for the descriptive video service, contact your Readers Advisor.
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How to Contact Us |
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Here are a number of ways borrowers or their family members can contact the Talking Book and Braille Service:
If your request list is typed or handwritten, a stamp would be required.
If you use a preprinted order form, your request list can be sent Free Matter. Complete the order form, including your name and address. Do not seal the envelope. Instead, tuck in the flap. In place of a stamp, write "Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped".
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Outreach Effort Targets Stroke Patients |
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The Talking Book and Braille Service staffed a display at the Nebraska Speech-Language-Hearing Association's state convention, held in Kearney, October 14 and 15.
The display centered on the theme "talking books restore the pleasure of reading" for stroke survivors. These individuals would qualify for talking book service if they cannot hold a book or turn its pages.
Among those in attendance were speech pathologists who assist stroke patients on their way to recovery.
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Staff Profile - Diana Dreith |
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A part-time Office Clerk II in our Book Circulation Department, Diana Dreith spends most of her work time opening and inspecting cassette books. She applied for a job at the Talking Book and Braille Service because she loves to read.
Diana's favorite authors are Danielle Steel, Lillian Jackson Braun, and Janette Oke. When she isn't working or reading, she likes quilting, crafts, gardening and camping.
In fact, Diana loves quilting so much that, if she had to choose another occupation, she would run her own quilt shop.
A lifelong resident of Lincoln and graduate of Southeast High School, Diana hopes to move to Colorado someday when she retires, along with her husband Jim. They have four children and three delightful grandsons.
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Staff Profile - Dan Hogan |
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Full-time Office Clerk II in Book Circulation, Dan Hogan is a recent Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from UN-L. Dan is a Nebraska native and a graduate of Norris High School near Hickman. He came to the Talking Book and Braille Service through the encouragement of a friend who works at Lincoln City Libraries.
Dan was a member of the ROTC and the National Honor Society of Pershing Rifles while at UN-L. He completed Personnel Administration Specialist School while he was a member of the National Guard and Army Reserve.
Dan would like to make a living exhibiting his drawings and paintings in galleries, but for the moment he is considering graduate school. He and his twin brother Dave share an apartment with a seven-year-old cat named Pookie.
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New Nebraska Cassette Books |
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Nonfiction
NE 733 Schoolwomen of the Prairies and Plains;
Personal Narratives from Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, 1860s-1920s
by Mary Hurlbut Cordier
3 cassettes
Lively book focuses on women responsible for educating prairie children. Most teachers were natives of the region, often teenage girls away from home for the first time. Teaching under difficult circumstances, they struggled to meet their students' needs and also used all means at their disposal to upgrade their own educational credentials.
NE 739 Rain follows the Plow; Homesteading in Hayes County, Nebraska
by Robert D. Clark
3 cassettes
Warren Clark and Ada Harris Clark homesteaded on the Great Plains in Hayes County Nebraska. Diaries, family narratives, legal documents, and newspaper accounts are woven into this story of why and how an ordinary family participated in "the Great Immigration" of land seekers in the 1880s.
NE 797 Wild Game Cookbook
by Nebraskaland Magazine
2 cassettes
This special issue of Nebraskaland Magazine is a cookbook for kitchen or camp. Its recipes for the preparation of mammals, fish, and waterfowl range from simple to complex; its flavors from everyday to the exotic. This book also provides kitchen tips and information about cleaning, preparing, and storing game, and about the tools and techniques of wild game cooking, indoors, and out.
Radio Dramas
All produced by the Blue Ridge Radio Players
NE 798 The Million-Pound Note
by Mark Twain
adapted by Jim Cort
1 cassette
A penniless young American is stranded in London. He's handed an envelope containing a bank note worth one million pounds.
NE 799 A Scandal in Bohemia
by Arthur Conan Doyle
dramatized by H. Booraem
1 cassette
A beautiful woman foils Sherlock Holmes and gives the King of Bohemia some very difficult moments.
NE 800 Sidney Carton
by Charles Dickens
dramatized by H. Booraem
1 cassette
Based on Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. Against the horrendous panorama of the French Revolution, Sidney Carton and his mirror image, Charles Darnay, play out a drama of love and hate, and supreme sacrifice.
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Flexible Disc Magazines Moving To Cassette |
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National Library Service will continue to transfer audio magazines from flexible disc to cassette. The following ten magazines will be added to the list of magazines produced only on cassette beginning with the first issue of 2000:
In 2001 all remaining flexible-disc magazines will be transferred to cassette format.
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Entire Mary Ann Series Now on Cassette |
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The Mary Ann series introduces the reader to the captivating Mary Ann Shaughnessy from the age of eight through her school years, her first romance, marriage, and motherhood. Through her adventures, the reader learns about working-class life in an industrial setting.
The Talking Book and Braille Service has recently acquired all eight of this series. Beginning with NE 785 A Grand Man, which introduces eight-year-old Mary Ann and the alcoholic father she adores, the story progresses through NE 786 Lord and Mary Ann in which Mary Ann assumes responsibility for keeping her father sober. In NE 787 The Devil and Mary Ann, she goes off to "convent" school to become a lady.
NE 788 Love and Mary Ann tells of her experiences with the mystery, wonder, and woes of love. These continue into NE 789 Life and Mary Ann in which her sweetheart goes to America leaving her behind. But in NE 790 Marriage and Mary Ann she does marry him eventually.
NE 791 Mary Ann's Angels tells of her eight-year marriage and the problems of raising six-year old twins. The final book NE 792 Mary Ann and Bill concludes the tales of Mary Ann's life.
Author Catherine Cookson was born in 1906 in northern England. After the deaths of her four young children, her husband encouraged her to write. She wrote more than 40 books that have been translated into eight languages.
In 1985, she was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire or the OBE. In 1993 she was made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight. She died in June 1998 and was followed by her devoted husband just seventeen days later.
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Braille Books Now Available Through The Internet |
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Web-Braille, the National Library Service's new system for distributing Braille books via the Internet, is now ready for use. More than 2,700 grade 2 Braille books are available for download or online use by eligible individuals and schools with Braille embossers or refreshable Braille displays. Users must provide their own equipment and must have an e-mail address and access to the Internet.
Print/Braille and grade 1 Braille books are not included in the Web-Braille collection. Both a user ID and password are required to use Web-Braille. To obtain an ID and password, Nebraska Braille readers must register with their Readers Advisors at the Talking Book and Braille Service.
Web-Braille files are copies of files created by contractors during production of Braille books embossed for the National Library Service. Web-Braille users will gain access to new books through the ongoing version of Braille Book Review.
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Order Form and Mailing Instructions |
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Please mark the books and catalogs you wish to order, then enclose this entire page in an envelope and mail to:
Nebraska Library Commission;
Talking Book & Braille Service;
The Atrium, 1200 N Street, Suite #120;
Lincoln, NE 68508-2023
The new catalogs available are: