New York State Library | Talking Book & Braille Library | Newsletters
Fall 2006
Note (Listen): MP3 This issue of Upstate Update is available on this page in MP3 audio format, as well as text. MP3 files will play in many types of audio players, including Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and iTunes.
To hear an article, click on the "MP3" link next to each article title below. If you just want to read the articles, click on the titles you want, or scroll down the page. The entire newsletter is also available as a single MP3 (10MB), about ten and one half minutes in length.
| In this issue: | MP3 |
|---|---|
| [Listen to the Table of Contents] | MP3 |
| Why You Haven't Received Books | MP3 |
| Changes | MP3 |
| Multi-Part Books | MP3 |
| After School, We Can Still Help | MP3 |
If you haven't received any books in a while, here are some possible explanations. Take a look and see if any of these are appropriate to your own service. Remember that more than one may apply to you.
You haven't requested any books.
If you prefer the kind of service where we send you only the specific books
you ask for, your service depends on you sending book orders. Make sure that
your requests can adequately feed your reading needs, bearing in mind that some
of your requests may not be available to be sent out. Contact us if you would
like to switch to a service pattern where our computer helps choose your books.
Your request list is inadequate.
By this we mean that your list can't support your reading needs because, for
instance, you have requested new and very popular titles that are constantly
in circulation and hence rarely available. On the other hand, you may have requested
many books that are old and for which we have few or no remaining copies (the
lower the number the older the book). Or it may be that all copies of the books
you've ordered just happen to be on loan to others. When you choose all your
own books, the more you like to read the longer your request list should be.
You haven't returned any books.
As with any library, you must return what you borrow. It's best to return each
book as you finish it. The prompt return of books is not only a courtesy to
other readers but it's essential for your own service by alerting us to your
need for more books. When you keep books for many months or even years (as some
unfortunately do), this blocks the process of replacing books you've read with
new ones you've ordered. It also keeps the books out of circulation.
Your basic book supply is too low.
You may have reached your personal "maximum," or "quota"
but this may be too small. This number of books charged out includes those in
the mail, so it may well be that this number should be raised to counteract
that. You can choose your personal "maximum," so ask us to check this
with a view to increasing it.
Your reading interests are insufficient.
If you allow us to choose books for you whenever your list is empty or nothing
you want is available, your subject list may be out of date or inadequate in
some way, so you may want to review and add to the list of reading interests
you originally gave us. It's possible, over the years, to read everything we
have in a subject category. Also, you may have read all the books available
by certain authors (remember, some of them may be dead and not likely to write
more books).
Your "rejection categories" are working against
you.
If you told us, for example, that all you want is bestsellers and thrillers
but you don't want books containing violence, strong language, and descriptions
of sex, our computer is probably having a hard time finding books that match.
You may need to expand your reading interests or trim your objections.
You've changed your address without telling us.
We may have sent you lots of books-all to the wrong address! Be sure to keep
us up to date with your address changes.
Your service has been suspended for some reason.
We may have got something back in the mail that suggests that you may have moved
or are no longer interested in the service. Did you refuse something we mailed
you? Did you write "Send No More" on a returning book's mailing card?
You may have meant "Send no more westerns" but it could mean "Cancel
my service" too. We have to put your service on hold while we investigate.
There are several kinds of change that we can make to your service. Please be sure to let us know whenever any of these apply to you.
Permanent Changes: Please notify us if you move to a different address, get a new telephone number, or change your name.
Temporary Address Change: Please notify us if you are moving temporarily (i.e. for less than six months) to another address. For instance, if you are going south for the winter, or spending the summer by the lake. We can continue to send books to you at that address. However, because it takes so long to change magazine subscription information we do not change this, so you should make your own arrangements to have magazines forwarded to you. Don't forget to let us know when you return to your primary address.
Moving Out of State: If you move permanently to another state we will transfer your service to the library serving that state. Note that this includes moving to New York City or Long Island, as these locations are not within our service area. Please let us know so we can transfer your paperwork to your new library. We can tell you where that is so you can contact them after you move. You should take the cassette machine that we lent you with you; it will become part of your new library's inventory. Please be sure to return to us all the books that you borrowed from us; they are from our collection.
Temporary Hold: Tell us if you temporarily don't want to receive any books for any reason, such as a vacation, illness, or other personal reasons. We can put you on "temporary hold" or stop books going to you in other ways, such as by reducing your "maximum." If you ask for this, please provide us with a date for re-starting the service, or remember to tell us when you're ready for normal service again.
Service Cancellation: You should notify us directly, preferably by telephone or e-mail, if you want to cancel your library service. In such a case, you must return the cassette machine and all books on loan.
Service Changes: Lastly, there are changes of another kind - changes to the way in which you receive our service. For instance, we can make changes to your basic book supply if you're getting too few or too many books, and we can make it so that the library helps choose books if you have problems with that. Just let us know.
Some cassette books are so long that they require two or more containers. When we send you such a book, we send all the containers together. When you send the book back, please do the same.
We ask that you be sure to replace all the cassettes in the correct green plastic mailing container before returning a book, and we suggest that you have only one container open at a time to avoid errors. Doing this right is trickier when it's a long book that comes in multiple mailing containers. Note that for a two-part book the containers are marked "A" and "B;" the first four tapes, starting with sides 1, 5, 9, and 13, go in the part "A" container, and the rest go in part "B." Note that the book number printed on each tape tells you which box it belongs in, for example, RC 51028A and RC 51028B.
As a public library, our job is to provide general informational and recreational books to borrowers with the widest possible range of interests and ages. This means that our book collection is very broad, and that we are not set up to help you with formal educational courses. Simply put, we have no "textbooks."
However, if you've been using our cassette or braille books at school, remember that, depending on your future course of study, we may still be able to help you when you go to college. If you're studying literature or other areas of the humanities, we may have many books that you need. We have hundreds of classics, ancient and modern, drama, and poetry too. Moreover, many of the general interest titles that we offer may be curriculum-related and useful for background reading in areas such as the fine arts, history, political science, biography, religion, and philosophy.
The main source of recorded textbooks is Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. For more information about this organization, call RFB&D at (800) 221-4792 or go to their website: www.rfbd.org. We strongly recommend that you contact your college's Academic Support Center or Office of Special Services; they may already have arranged an institutional RFB&D registration, and can certainly help in many other ways.
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Mention of a product or service in this newsletter does not constitute endorsement by this library. Our intention is to increase your awareness of programs and items that may be helpful to you.
NYS Library Home | Talking Book and Braille Library | Newsletters
Posted: November 7, 2006/kd
(Recordings by Peter Douglas, Mike Romeling, and Kathy De Mers)
Comments? Contact
TBBL
URL: http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/tbbl/audio/fall2006/index.html