Official State of Rhode Island website

State of Rhode Island Office of Library & Information Services An agency of the Department of Administration

Questions? 

Contact Talking Books Staff at (401) 574-9310 or email us at talking.books@olis.ri.gov.

You can also contact:

Alicia Waters
Library Services Coordinator
alicia.waters@olis.ri.gov

Neshmayda Calderon
Information Services Technician: Talking Books
neshmayda.calderon@olis.ri.gov

Kelley Lima
Information Services Technician: LORI Services
kelley.lima@olis.ri.gov

Talking Times, Spring 2025 - Section 2

NLS New Parental Acknowledgement Requirement

The National Library Service now requires any applicant under 18 to have permission from their parent or guardian to become a  member of the Talking Books program. You can find the parental acknowledgement form in the Talking Books website.

Please Keep Your Accounts Current

NLS requires members to borrow at least one book in 13 months, or the account may be suspended. Talking Books staff will try to  reach out to members when they see no activity for 13 months, but please be mindful of the NLS guidelines. NLS automatically suspends BARD, Braille, and Audio Reading Download accounts if nothing is downloaded after 6 months. If you find that you are not able to use your account or login and you would like to keep the account active, please call the TBL staff at (401)574-9310 so that they may assist with reactivation.

International Language Quarterly

Thanks to the Marrakesh Treaty and expanded book acquisition, NLS continues to add more international language books to its catalog than ever before. To help patrons locate these titles, NLS is pleased to announce the current issue of the online publication International Language Quarterly (ILQ). ILQ highlights a selection of the most popular international language titles recently added to the NLS collection. The ILQ web pages also feature a Print button that generates a customizable, printer-friendly version for users' convenience.

Welcome to My Talking Books on Smart Speaker

My Talking Books is an Amazon Alexa skill that patrons can use to access and stream English language audiobooks from BARD. To  find everything you need to know about using My Talking Books on a Smart Speaker, including how to sign up. Once you are signed up,  please use your account with My Talking Books within 30 days, or the account will be suspended, and the patron will lose access to  the skill. You would have to re-register to regain access to My  Talking Books. If the limit of five thousand seats is reached, you  must wait until a seat opens. An email will be sent to the member when a seat becomes available. If a person does not use My Talking Books in 25 days, five days before suspension, the person will receive an email as a notification that access to the skill is at risk. You can still access BARD on other platforms if your account is suspended. You must use the skill at least once every 30 days to maintain access. To learn more about how to use the skill to search for and read books, you can ask for the tutorial at any time when using the skill. If you have any questions, please email talking.books@olis.ri.gov.