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Borrowing Books from TBBL

Download Books

If you have access to a computer and internet connection, you can select and download the complete digital collection yourself through BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download). This service is easy to use and provides immediate access to every book in the digital audio book collection. For more information, along with downloading instructions, see our BARD web page. Downloading is the best way to obtain our books.

BARD mobile apps for Apple and Android devices are now available.

Receive Books Through the Mail

If you prefer to receive your books delivered through the US mail, you may choose from two service options:  

  1. Choose all your own books.
  2. We will set up a request list for you and send you only books that you have put on that list. You can request books by title or author, and we also send you catalogs to help you choose books. Under this option, if there are no books on your list, or none of the books on your list are available, we will not be able to send you any books. Please be sure to keep enough titles on your list.

    • You can use TBBL's online catalog to search for books and add them to your request list yourself. Please reference our online catalog help guide to learn how to search and request your own books.
    • You may also contact TBBL to give us titles to add to your list at any time. Please contact us by email, mail, or phone (please limit titles given over the phone to about 15-20).
  3. Let TBBL choose books for you, based on your reading interests.

    With this option, you give us a list of your reading interests (mysteries, biographies, history, etc.) and our computer system will randomly select titles in this category for you. It will also keep track of what books we have already sent to you, so that you will not receive the same book twice.

    If you are having books selected for you, you can still set up a request list and we will send you books from that list first. When there are no books on your list, or none of the books on your list are available, we will send you books the computer has selected based on your reading interests.

    If you are having books selected automatically but are receiving a lot of books you don't want to read, please call our office. A staff member can help you fine-tune your selection profile to improve the books chosen for you. 

For either type of service, you also choose your quota, or how many books you receive at a time.

Mailing Books

Your braille or audio books will be sent to you via the US Postal Service without cost, thanks to a Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped mailing privilege, and you can return books to us the same way. If you are receiving audio books, we will also mail you a digital player.

When you first start the service, we will send you 3 audio cartridges with 6 books per cartridge. If you have selected to receive books in braille format, we will send 1-3 braille books, depending on your preference.

Every time we receive a cartridge or braille book back from you, we will send a new one, selected from your request list or based on your subject selections.

You can ask us to lower or raise your quota at any time, if you find you are receiving too many or too few books.

Last Updated: November 29, 2021