Advanced Talking Book Player: The NLS Cartridge

Hi, I'm Vikki Vaughan, and today we'll explore the NLS cartridge. We've all heard the old saying, good things come in small packages, right? Well, that's certainly true of the NLS cartridge. This small storage device can hold a world of possibilities in the form of digital talking books. Let's explore these amazing little packages.

After requesting a talking book from our local talking book library, the NLS cartridge is shipped to our home address. It arrives in a plastic container for safe keeping. One side of the container has a print shipping label which rests in an indented area. The container measures five by six inches and comes with two identical tabs. These tabs wrap around one end of the container to ensure a firm closure.

To open the container, lay it with the label side down on a table or firm surface. Locate the two tabs on top of the container, place a finger under the end of each tab, and lift firmly. You will hear the tabs unsnap. Holding back both of the tabs with one hand, lift the container top with the other hand.

Now comes the fun part. Inside, we find our cartridge. One side of our cartridge has a print and Braille label in an area that dips down a bit to protect the embossed Braille. This is the top side of our cartridge. The label on my cartridge identifies my local talking book library. Your cartridge will have information about your local talking book library. Some labels might also include information about the book.

Our cartridge is the size of a cassette but with an angle at one end. It's shaped this way so that when that end of the cartridge is pressed down on a flat surface in front of the player, the other end of the cartridge tilts up and can slide smoothly into the player. We also see that our angled end has a round finger hole. This handy opening helps us push the cartridge into or pull the cartridge out of the machine. It also helps us remember which end goes in the player. With our finger in the hole on one end, we push the cartridge so that the other end goes into the opening on the player. It's nice to know that the cartridge is designed so it can only be inserted one way into our player. No need to worry about pushing it in the wrong way.

NLS Player: Three books.

Vikki: When we insert our cartridge into our player, it starts playing the book right away if the player is turned on. Restart and stop playback with our play stop button. If you'd like to learn all about your player and the various buttons, be sure to check out another workshop in this series.

Let's say we finished our book and we're ready to return it to our local talking book library. We place our finger through the finger hole in the cartridge and gently pull it away from the player. We then retrieve the shipping container in which our cartridge arrived, and place it on the table with the label side down. We slide the cartridge snugly down into the container, fitting it into the plastic guides designed to hold it in place. We then close the lid and snap each of the two tabs back into place. It's a tight fit, so we might need to press firmly to make certain the tabs are snapped into their openings.

Once we hear those snaps, we know the tabs are securely in place. As we discussed earlier, there is a label on the other side of the shipping container. Of course when we receive the container, the label is addressed to us. What's really cool is that when we are finished with our book, it's super easy to mail it back to our local talking book library.

Some libraries use a paper label with the library's address printed on the other side. The label is notched or has a small hole on one end to let patrons know which side has the library's address. Other libraries use a pre-printed label that is attached to the plastic container.

No matter which method your local library uses, it's easy to return our cartridge. We just drop our cartridge in its trusted container in the mail and look forward to getting our next book. It's mailed free of charge by Free Matter for the Blind. That's pretty convenient, isn't it? Today we learned about the NLS cartridge. I'm Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me.