Welcome to Wolfner Library’s Show-Me Downloads.
This tutorial will give you step-by-step instructions on how to download books from
BARD, which stands for Braille and Audio Reading Download, from the National Library
Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. You must be registered as an eligible
patron and fill out a BARD application in order to download books.
Before you begin downloading books from BARD, create a main download folder on
your computer desktop in which you will save your downloaded books. You only have
to create a main folder once, but you will create a new folder inside that main folder
every time you download a book. For example, the main download folder on my
desktop is named “BARD,” and inside that folder are folders for each book I have
downloaded. Each time I download a book, I make a new folder for it; that way, every
book I download is easy to locate because it has its own folder inside of the main
download folder on the desktop.
To begin searching for books to download, go to the Wolfner Library Web site, located
at www dot s-o-s dot m-o dot g-o-v slash W-o-l-f-n-e-r.
You may access the BARD Web site from the Wolfner Library home page by selecting
the link in the middle of the page called “Show-Me Downloads: Wolfner Library’s Braille
and Audio Reading Download (BARD).” This link will open a new window containing the
BARD log-in page, from which you may search for books to download.
When you are at the BARD log-in page, enter your email address into the first field.
Press the tab key to move the cursor into the second field and enter your password.
Once you have entered your email address and password, press the enter key or select
the “login” button.
This brings you to the BARD “find books” page. There are several ways for you to
search for books.
The first link on the page is for “recently added books;” selecting this link brings you to
a list of books added to the BARD catalog in the last 30 days.
The second link on the BARD “find books” page is for “most popular books;” selecting
this link brings you to a list of the most popular books downloaded from BARD in the
past 90 days.
After that, is a “search the collection” field in which you may enter any search terms,
and the results page will display books in the collection that contain your search terms.
Next, is an option to search by the first letter of an author’s last name,
followed by an option to search for titles alphabetically.
The last book search option allows you to search the collection by subject.
Finally, there is a section to search for and download magazines. Selecting the first link
brings you to a list of the most recently added magazine issues. After that is an option
to search through the available magazine titles.
Once you have found a book that you want to read, you will begin the process of
downloading it. Each book has a description and a link underneath it that includes the
book title and book number. Select the link to download the book.
After the link is selected, a “File Download” dialog box will appear on the screen, asking
if you want to open or save this file. Choose “save.” Another dialog box will appear, for
you to choose where you want to save the file.
Find and open the main download folder that you created on your desktop. Then,
choose the “make a new folder” option.
Name the new folder the title of the book that you are downloading.
Open that book folder.
Now you are ready to select “save” at the bottom of the dialog box.
After you save the file, another dialog box will appear, showing the progress of the
download.
The download may take a few minutes, depending upon your internet connection speed
and the size of the file.
Once the download is complete, open your main download folder. Once that is open,
find the folder with the book title that you just downloaded, and open that folder.
Inside that book folder is a zip file.
Select or double-click the zip file to open the book files.
Now prepare the cable and cartridge to download the book. Plug one end of the cable
into the cartridge, and plug the other end of the cable into a USB port in your
computer.
On your computer desktop, open “my computer.” Then, select “removable disc E.”
Once the “removable disc E” drive is open, choose “make a new folder” and name the
folder the title of the book.
This is similar to what you did earlier, but what you did earlier saved the book to your
computer and now you are going to save the book from your computer onto the
cartridge. The cartridge needs separate folders for each book, too. Once you have
named the new folder with the title of the book, select it so that the folder is open.
Now you have two folders open: your download folder for the book, and the
“removable disc E” folder, which is connected to the book cartridge.
The files of the book that you unzipped earlier are in the computer’s folder. Select that
folder and press the “control” key and, while still holding the “control” key, press the
letter “a.” This will select all of the files.
Release the keys and then press the “control” key again and, while still holding it, press
the letter “c.”
This will copy the files, which you are going to paste into the “removable disc E” folder.
Now select the “removable disc E” folder, press the “control” key and, while still holding
it, press the letter “v.” Doing this will copy all of the unzipped book files into the book
folder on the cartridge.
A dialog box will appear, showing the progress of the download.
After copying the files from the computer folder to the book folder on the cartridge,
you may close both folder windows.
Safely disconnect the cable from the USB port in your computer, and remove the other
end of the cable from the cartridge.
Congratulations, you have now downloaded a book from BARD.
Turn on your digital book player, push the cartridge in, and your book will play.
Thank you, and as always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call your
Reader Advisor.
Lisa Stamm 2010
