Mark Riccobono:
The next presenter is no stranger to us, as he's now come to our convention for a number of years, and this is a very important year for his presentation. We remain on high alert to make sure that our National Library Service for the Blind remains intact as changes are made in the federal government.
And this gentleman has been director of the library now for a number of years and has truly become a dedicated advocate, I'll say for the program and for continuing to expand the program. He said one Jason wasn't enough and could he bring a second one on stage today? Yes, sir.
So he brought another Jason with him and together these two gentlemen, they're not replacements for each other, but they do make a dynamic duo in heading up our National Library Service, which as we know there have been cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services and that has impacted many state libraries for the blind.
These gentlemen are helping to make sure that we protect the tremendous infrastructure we have at the Library of Congress, and they have been coordinating with us so we can do our advocacy work on the state level. Please welcome from the National Library Service, both Jason Broughton and Jason Yasner.
Jason Yasner:
This is my song. This is my song. I can't believe it. NFB, how are you? All right, tell me who here knows about NLS? Who here is using Bard? Who here has a digital talking book machine? And who here has a Braille e-reader? I could not be happier to be able to say those words to you and know that the National
Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled are doing everything we can to ensure that all may read. So good morning to all the visionary minds, advocates, and leaders gathered here today. It's truly an honor to be among those whose voices have shaped, refined, and energized this movement for the blind and print disabled equity.
My name is Jason Yasner. I'm the Deputy Director of NLS at the Library of Congress at the National Library Service or the Blind and Print Disabled. Our collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind is foundational. It's not just policy, it's partnership. Your feedback ensures our services remain relevant, inclusive, and empowering.
Together we continue to center dignity and independence in everything we build. And I want to give a special thank you to the President Riccobono and his team. You guys have been amazing partners in the past, in the present, and certainly in the future.
Alright, one of the most impactful ways we can empower people with vision impairments and disabilities is through meaningful collaborations between organizations like NLS and NFB, because when these organizations join forces, they bridge critical gaps, combining resources, expertise, expertise, and advocacy to create more inclusive systems of support. Here at NLS, we provide access to Braille and audio materials that enrich lives.
While the NFB brings the lived experience, grassroots advocacy and innovation needed to shape these services into something truly transformative. So together, they don't just distribute materials, they promote autonomy, lifelong learning, and social inclusion.
So think of all the thousands of individuals who thanks to these partnerships, can now pursue higher education, enjoy literature independently, or simply access the information they need to navigate daily life. It's not just about accessibility, it's about dignity, opportunity, and equality. So President Riccobono mentioned NFB-NEWSLINE, which we consider an absolute critical service. Yes, yes.
So we at NLS are doing everything we can to preserve this service. Just to let you know, as of now, the fiscal year 26 budgets that have been put forth by the House and the Senate both still include the money for NFB-NEWSLINE to go to NFB. And every time we've ever gotten a question about it, we wholeheartedly say, this is critical.
This is a core service and you can't cut it. So we look forward to our FY 26 budget, hopefully kicking in on October 1st if Congress does its job. And we will ensure that the National Library Service continues to provide the services that we all rely on.
So let's talk a little bit about technology. I mentioned Bard before. We have been undergoing a Bard monetization for years now. We've been talking about Bard 2.0 and most of what Bard 2.0 up to now has been on the backend.
We've been really making Bard better, stronger, and faster on the backend. It's been redesigned for maximum accessibility, especially for low-vision and mobile users. Now that Bard 2.0 is becoming a reality, some of the new features include smarter search tools, subscription and wish list management, reading history, and enhanced privacy.
And thanks to our migration to the cloud two years ago, Bard now supports up to 800,000 users, which is a fivefold increase, ensuring faster performance and broader availability. So this isn't just a tech upgrade, it's about making information feel intuitive, personalized, and dependable. Just to let you know, we have been migrating all Bard patrons to the new platform.
It's relatively seamless, and so we know that all barred patrons will be migrated to the 2.0 platform by September 30th this year. So we're really, really excited about it and we're looking forward to your feedback as well.
Alright, more about some devices. Some of you are familiar with our Alexa skill, which is called My Talking Books. So this was something we decided to investigate several years ago, and we created a new smart speaker Alexis Skill called My Talking Books.
And right now it's in an open beta with 5,000 users we’re collecting feedback and we're seeing how things can be improved, which was great, was two days ago I believe I met Peter Korn, the director of accessibility for Amazon.
He was doing a presentation here and he was talking about Alexa Plus, which is the next generation of Alexa. Well, we feel that this new Alexa Plus is going to help our Alexa Skill My Talking Books. And so we're hoping over the next year to see some vast improvements in that.
Some of the focus areas we've been looking at are streaming audio services, voice interaction and navigation, wifi, hot discovery and text to speech enhancement, all driven by inclusive design that centers real world usability and diverse user needs.
Whether your device is handheld, voice controlled, or as yet imagined where building pathways towards seamless independent reading. And of course we can't forget the new next Generation digital talking book machine, the DA two. And we want to thank all of you for providing feedback and user testing over the past couple of years.
And we especially want to thank Humanware for being our partner to create the DA two. Right now as I speak, thousands of DA twos are making their way to the state libraries. So you'll be able to have a DA two very, very soon. Once again, the DA two is an enhanced digital talking book machine.
It still takes the cartridges of course, but it has a wifi modem so you can connect to Bard and download your books directly to the machine. It also has Bluetooth connectivity. It's a better device in every way, shape or form. So we're really excited about the DA two.
So let's talk about some numbers. So in fiscal year 24, over 22 million items were circulated averaging more than 100 items per aum. This is significant 22 million items you guys are reading a lot and we love it. We want to make sure that we have stuff you want to read, so please keep giving us your suggestions.
Our expanded collections include 11,377 new audio books, 7,575 Braille titles and Bard's Holdings. Now total nearly 190,000 items with 152,000 plus Marrakesh acquired downloads in 26 languages. We're going to talk about Marrakesh a little bit. Jason Broughton will talk about that. But these numbers reflect more than access.
They reflect engagement, curiosity, and a thriving community of readers. And while we're talking about readers, who here is familiar with talking book topics? Alright, talking book topics has been around longer than I've been alive. I believe it has its limitations. We have something that we think you'll like even better.
It is an email newsletter called Collections Connections. And if you haven't heard about it, I'll tell you a little bit. It is once a month book list that includes recommended Braille and audio titles with the Bard links right there in the email for easy access.
So if you're interested in collections connections, please send an email to connections. The email is [email protected]. Once again, [email protected]. We hope that this will improve on talking book topics and you'll end up liking it better. So finally, the last thing I'd like to say before transitioning is we have a new patron enrollment online application.
We know that the enrollment process for NLS has been cumbersome. It is paper-based, it's not very efficient and it varies significantly from state to state. We have created an online patron enrollment form and right now it is in development, but tonight at 6:00 PM tonight at 6:00 PM everybody in Studio seven on the second floor, I invite you all to come by and try out the new patron enrollment form.
My team is going to be there. We've got some iPads and we're going to be testing, signing people up. And we need to know how easy or difficult it is for a patron to sign up via this web application. It is absolutely built for accessibility.
We made it as simple as possible, but we need your feedback. So once again tonight, 6:00 PM Studio seven on the second floor. So thank you for your attention. As we've explored the evolving technologies and services offered through NLS, these are more than tools, they are commitments to progress.
And now I'm honored to welcome a leader who embodies innovation, collaboration, and purpose. Please join me in welcoming Jason Broughton, the director of the National Library Service to the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress. Thank you.
Jason Broughton:
Good afternoon. You've already had one, Jason, now you have two. Alright, so good afternoon. I am Jason Broughton, director of the National Library Service for the Blind Print Disabled. And I am honored to be here with you once again in the big easy. I want to first start off by thanking you because of your strong support and your wonderful welcome.
And Dr. Hayden was appointed to the Library of Congress. So with that, NFB has been a wonderful supporter of the Library of Congress and with that, that extends beyond traditional boundaries. Her work in championing access and inclusion across platforms will always be remembered. With that, she has now transitioned to the Mellon Foundation and we remain inspired by her legacy and are guided by the blueprint that she helped create. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm going to my comments brief, but we have finally, finally relocated back to the Capitol complex. After 57 years of being away, there's still a little bit of work that we need to do, but proximity matters not just geographically, but institutionally. We are now more connected than ever.
We are at the table and are being served because we are marked closer and so that it will definitely be able to help us shape access and equity as we go forward in library services. On a global perspective, we last summer ended up hosting 37 countries for the International Federation of Library Associations, libraries serving print disabilities.
And it was an amazing exchange, something before the library had never done. Our collections team with Alice O'Reilly heading that, put that on. She is here in the audience to talk about collections when you would like to meet with her.
And with that, we definitely learned a lot of what is going on worldwide across libraries. With that, however, I do want to make a more domestic update when it comes to reading disabilities, which is a part of our legislation, particularly with an emphasis on dyslexia to the great state of Texas. You are our number one subscriber of new patrons and enrollees for reading disabilities. Thank you.
But not to be left out. The state of Pennsylvania is right behind you. So whether it's local or global, these partnerships turn inclusion into action. Our umbrella and demand program, we fulfilled 4,350 patron requests and selected from 16,000 titles.
It is offered to you on a long-term loan. This program affirms that Braille is not only a format, it's a form of personal expression. The top genres. Because you know I like to do this, cookbooks, spiritual guides, crafting, and of course, we have to throw in a large array of fiction. As mentioned, the Marrakesh Treaty.
We've now acquired over 2000 Marrakesh acquired titles, and they're available in Bard representing over 26 languages. So let me give you a little bit of what we have in there. It took me a little while to kind of practice this out.
English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Polish, Croatian, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Bengali, Finnish, Somali, Portuguese, Taringa, Albanian, Yiddish, Urdu, Basque, Dutch, America, Greek, Danish, and Chinese.
So as we look to the future, it's a little complex. I know that a lot of people are thinking about state actions, federal government and a whole variety of things in between we have shifting federal government landscapes, policy changes and economic pressures that will challenge us to be grounded in our mission at NLS.
But this movement, your movement is built to endure with persistence, resilience, and innovation. We move through uncertainty, not with fear, but determination, advocacy and education is not just about response, it's about a vision. And the members of NFB are at its most focused architects.
So as I close, I want to offer deep gratitude, not just for listening, but for helping to shape, for demanding better, which you guys do very well. You know how to demand, dreaming bigger and daring to ask harder questions. Our collaboration between individuals, organization, institutions is what drives NLS.
When we face hard times, it's your voice, your persistence, and your leadership that carry us through. When we find joy, it's through storytelling, conversations that you've had all week at this conference, the technology that you use, or simply being amongst community. It's a reminder that the journey is not only vital, it's beautiful.
And as you know, as a librarian, it's always important to kind of give people a little bit more than what they had anticipated. A poem, Immortals Morning. Today I rise with quiet grace. No frantic pace, no bitter chase. The sun slips softly into my room. Its golden hand dispels all gloom.
I stretch and step into the light, no longer scared of fear or fight. The breeze, it sings a sacred song reminding me I do belong. I walk through work with a lifted chin, not just to lose, but love to win. The world feels wide. The sea feels near my heart, no longer filled with fear. We mortals dance.
We God's pretend, we break, we build, we bend, we mend. Yet in the now, the boldest key I find, the more I'm meant to be. Thank you to the membership of the National Federation of the Blind, for being fearless in your fight, your generosity, in your collaboration, and unwavering belief in NLS. It's been an honor to talk to you. Let's continue. And as they say, let the good times roll. Thank you. NFB.