Category: Garage Sale
Each month, I receive Cricket Magazine from the NLS. It's for children but has wonderful stories in it. I've got alot of tapes but now have nothing on which to listen to them. I'm wondering if anyone has a recorder or player that they'd be willing to sell me? It doesn't have to be new. It just has to work. If you have a Handi Cassette I (the first one), a Sony Talkman or other portable machine or the old APH desktop recorders with the medal handle, that would be ideal. But I'll take anything that can play the four-track format from the NLS. I have an APH one like the one mentioned, and adore it, but one of the little spindles needs to be replaced. It's not the special one that you can feel through the window, just the ordinary one. How much do you think APH would charge to fix it? I' imagine that, since it's so common, they' still have that part in stock or one from another recorder that would work on mine.
Do they not offer this magazine in a digital format yet Tiff? It's just a thought but if they do it could save you a lot of trouble because you'd simply be able to download it instead of having to deal with cassettes.
Dan.
Indeed I have just looked and I presume that the magazine you refer too is National Geographic Kids/Cricket. If so BARD has the last 11 or 12 editions available for download on their site if you're subscribed to that service.
Hope that is of some help to you.
Dan.
No, I'm not subscribed to it. I prefer my tapes, unless you mean that it's in txt, rtf or regular mp3, which would be really cool. Still, I like listening to a voice other than my computer's reading things.
Can't you just call your closest NLS library and request a free NLS tape player? I assume they are still sending them out to people who prefer them over the digital players.
Actually, there are rumours that my local library might be closing. I'm not sure if they're true so please don't quote me. But if so, I might be able to get some tapes from them as well. At one point, they offered me actual records that they used to give out, but sadly, I had to refuse, since I didn't have the room for that. That would've been neat. Anyway, I should call and see if they can give me a player, great idea! I thought they only give the digital ones now.
they do only give the digital ones, they won't even except the old ones back now
That must be different for different areas Rat because not only will they accept players back in our part of Illinois, but they're actually insisting on them being returned. That said, we still haven't gotten round to returning ours yet. Oops.
Dan.
I'm keeping mine until there are no more books on tape I want to listen to. Right now I'm in the middle of several series, and unfortunately, due to their screwy way of not recording books in a series in order, some books in some of the series I like are still only on tape. If I want to continue with the series without waiting possibly years for the next book to appear on BARD, I need to keep the tape player.
I'll be calling the library soon, since I learned that they're still open and as soon as I get my APH recorder back from the house of the person who was supposed to repair it, I'll see if APH is willing to do the job. But I'd still be willing to take a recorder or player off someone's hands if they have no need for it. All the new ones are $99 and over and I can't seem to find a used one anywhere.
My NLS branch is actually suggesting we hang on to our tape players for a while longer, since the conversion is such a huge undertaking. I honestly don't know however, whether or not they are still giving out tape players, though I don't think they are. To be hoenst though, I prefer the DTP more. I have the advanced one and a subscription to bard. I couldn't be happier. though as Becky said, there are still a few series out there which are totally messed up with the way they're put on the bard web site, so that it would be more prudent to listen to them on tape. Hopefully they rectify this situation sooner rather than later, so I can send back my tape player and stick exclusively to the talking player.
I download all my books from the bard websight, much easier and I get to look for the books I want to read and get them right then. I have a tape player its one of those old qite ones that you can record on it. It works well, willing to sell it or whatever.
Coolness! I'll definitely contact you.
First, try your local nls library and if they are truely closing then they can give you the number of the one that will be handling all the clients they used to have. Yes, the tape players are still being given out and serviced as not all the books in the nls are being transfered to digital. Actually, while you're at it and asking them for a cassette player, you might want to think about getting signed up for a new digital player so you can download any book from the bard site onto a flash drive. But, go to the local library first as this is free and why not get a player for free instead of buying one from soneone? Besides, if there is something wrong with your old one, usually you can send it back to where you got it and they will replace it for free with a new working one.
But that's just the thing. If I send mine back to be fixed, I don't want a new one. My counseler went through Hell to get this particular model for me, back when I was in high school, because it's the one that I really like when it comes to desktop recorders. Even then, it was old and very difficult to find. It's the tan one with the metal handle from APH. I believe the model number is 3-5194. My high school actually had one and they allowed me to trade mine for it because mine had a messed up microphone. So the one that I have has their name on it and I'm worried that APH will replace it with something else, not knowing that it's mine. I suppose I can attach a note to it explaining the situation... I don't use flash drives but I do use compact flash cards. In any case, the digital books that I like are either standard mp3, .txt, .doc or .rtf. I suppose these new players are great in their own way. But are they free like the tape players? I once had a golden opportunity to accept records from the NJ Library, the kind that they used before switching over to tapes. They were throwing them out and said they'd actually give them to me! Sadly, I had to refuse because I didn't have the room for them. It haunts me to this day as I know that I would've loved them.
Yes, the digital players are free. Actually, I didn't even ask for one and they sent it to me anyway. Now I'm annoyed as hell with them because A. I didn't want the player, so it's just going to sit around and go to waste and B. now they think it's ok to send me books on a weekly basis that I don't want. I had this problem with tapes too, but I called and told them I didn't want them to send me anything, and they stopped except for magazines, which I don't mind. Why should that change just because the format of the books has changed? I'm definitely going to call them on Monday and tell them to stop sending me books, but I do want to know why they would send me a digital player in the first place if I didn't request one.
As for the records, wow! I can't believe they would just give them away like that. But again, what kind of books were they? It would have been a shame to make room for them, only to find you didn't even like them. On the other hand, being a record collector myself, I can see how just having them would be awesome.
Oh my goodness! why is the library sending me the latest bit of technology so that I can continue reading NLS books? How could they be so caring!? I'm sorry, but I don't think I've ever heard such a...pointless complaint in my life. You should count your lucky stars. Some libraries don't take care of consumers that way. In fact, it's the consumer's responsibility to ask for the new digital book players within some of those branches of the NLS. yes, mine included. If you don't want to read NLS books at all, then I'd suggest not subscribing to the service. If you want to read NLS books, they've made it like a hundred times more convenient for you, and you seem to think they're bastards for it.
No, that's not what I said at all. I just don't like audio books, but I choose to be subscribed to the service for Braille magazines and such. If I don't want a digital player for a format I'll never use, I'm a bastard? That's the dumbest thing I've heard all day.
I agree with Screaming Turtle 100 percent. People have different levels of reading. I'm a audio reader, and not so much a braille reader Screaming Turtle is a braille reader. Its the same as them sending tapes. They used to and some times still send me books I don't ask for. I've asked them to stop and they still came for a while. Okay yes maybe I'd like the book, but I've been sent a girl book before which is the consept of sending someone a player that isn't going to use it, or sending someone a braille book who is going to go and get it off Bookshare instead of reading the book. Do to the person not wanting it they will be less likely to return it. Plus it makes more players available for those that would use it.
I see Screaming Turtle's point: there are so so many folks who need the service I wouldn't want one of their audio players either, because that's one less player which whent to some older person's house who can't see to read anymore and can't do much else. That's not being a bastard, it's just thinking about the limited resources. And there are so many older blind who aren't like us: They won't be on the net, they can't do much anymore. Even my grandmother who is still alive (believe it or not, with me at 39? Was never heard of when we were kids). But Barely so, and audio books is all she has now. People like her need access to all this equipment. So does anyone who uses talking books, but for those of us who don't it's definitely worth being considerate and contacting the library so the resource goes to the massive number of people out there who do.
NLS serves tons and tons of people, not just the working or student blind, many elderly / multi-handicapped.
I don't see why not wanting something would make someone less likely to return it. I'm actually the opposite and wish that they'd send me random books on tape. I used to love when they did that. Sure, some of the books I didn't like and sent back right away but others were really great!
cool. i like the books. from nls. smiles.
You can get the new digital player from Nls.
Consider your self lucky to have a library that cares about there patrons, some people or most people don't have this service.
Or that goes to say, who cares about the new digital players anyway, when you have the portible digital players like the stream and the booksense? They have much more capibility on doing more functions.
Thanks. But I'm looking for a regular cassette player/recorder.
Oh, I just returned a tan player with the metal handle to the library, about three weeks ago. Why can't I ever see this stuff on time?
No!!! Those are the best ones! Ah well. *sigh*
I just wanted to update you guys on my progress. I've seen several players and recorders on Ebay but am glad I didn't buy one because I found someone who's willing to send me one of her's! She's a friend of mine from the NFB Krafter's Korner and Facebook. It seems as if she's willing to give it to me for free, but I asked how much she wanted for it in the e-mail with my address just to make sure, as I would never want to assume such things. In any case, it looks like I've got one headed my way!