What are the opening hours?

Monday 8:30am - 4pm Tuesday 8:30am - 4pm Wednesday 8:30am - 4pm Thursday 8:30am - 4pm Friday 8:30am - 4pm

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

Home
United States
Washington D.C., DC
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

A free, accessible library service providing talking books and braille materials or its territories or are U.S. citizens living abroad.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) (formerly National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, provides braille and talking books and magazines to eligible readers, who live in the U.S. Individuals may be eligible for the program if they are blind, visually impaired, or have a physical disability that prevents them from reading

regular print. Library materials are distributed through a network of cooperating libraries, where they are circulated by postage-free mail. Braille and talking books are also available for download through the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) website and the BARD Mobile app.

06/11/2025

Novelist and essayist William Styron was born 100 years ago in Newport News, VA. His birthplace is less than two hours’ drive from the location of Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion, the topic of Styron's fourth novel, “The Confessions of Nat Turner (DB36339),” a fictionalized first-person account by the leader of the deadliest slave uprising in US history. “Sophie’s Choice (BR18694, DB13812)”—Styron’s last novel—focuses on a love triangle in post-WWII New York City; the players are a struggling writer from the South, a Jewish scientist from Brooklyn and the Catholic survivor of a N**i concentration camp. The film adaptation received five Oscar nominations. Styron’s nonfiction work shedding light on his struggles with depression, “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (DB32273),” remains a celebrated book of recovery, emphasizing the power of seclusion, perseverance and time to heal, as well as the stigma surrounding depression. Find other works by Styron by searching the NLS Catalog and BARD, www.loc.gov/nls/services-and-resources/catalog-and-bard?loclr=fbnls.
[Image: Portrait of William Styron by Bernard Gotfryd, 1967. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.]

06/10/2025

NLS offers several online events each month on broad topics such as using BARD, talking to the My Talking Books skill for Alexa-enabled smart speakers and making the most of our braille eReaders. We invite you to join us for two such events in the coming days: The Many Faces of BARD and the quarterly Patron Corner. The topic for the Thursday, June 12, Many Faces of BARD online program is the new BARD 2.0 website, with demonstrations of its highlights, including improved search capabilities. (BARD is the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download service.) The topic for the Monday, June 16, Patron Corner program is Cooking Without Looking: A Patron’s Perspective, featuring a panel of speakers known for their prowess in the kitchen. Both programs begin at 7 p.m. eastern. Find information on how to attend these and other regularly scheduled programs by visiting www.loc.gov/nls/services-and-resources/patron-services-and-events?loclr=fbnls.
[Image: A patron follows a recipe from a cookbook she's listening to on her NLS audiobook player.]

05/19/2025

"My alma mater was books, a good library," Malcolm X wrote in "The Autobiography of Malcolm X (BR22651, DB101533)," published in 1965 and coauthored by Alex Haley. "I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity." Today, we recognize the birthday, 100 years ago , of the man born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. You can satisfy your own curiosity about him with NLS titles such as "Malcolm X: As They Knew Him (DB36593)" by David Gallen, a sourcebook on the Black Muslim leader and Black Nationalism in the 1960s, consisting of oral remembrances by a variety of people who knew him, interviews with X himself and essays on his role in American and world history. In "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (BR23588, DB103798)," Pulitzer Prize-winning Les and Tamara Payne capture oral histories by siblings, friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI agents, police and political leaders. For those in grades 2-4, there is "Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X (DB97217)" by Ilyasah Shabazz, focusing on his youth and the lessons learned from his tight-knit family. Among Library of Congress online resources, check out the recording “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom” at www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/multimedia/views-of-kennedys-address.html?loclr=fbnls.
[Image: Malcolm X at a US Capitol news conference about the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Photo by Marion S. Trikosko. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Background: The 1999 US postage stamp honoring Malcolm X.]

05/17/2025

“Kids are the best,” author Grace Lin told the Library of Congress in an interview in 2020. “They are so honest, unpretentious and so full of hope. . . . The thing that keeps me going is knowing that the future is still being written and my readers will be the ones to do it.” Born in 1974, Lin works as both an illustrator and author to bring fantastical tales to life for all ages. Her middle-grade adaptation of Chinese folklore, “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (BR18712, DB70391),” was a Newbery Honor book, while its companion novel, “When the Sea Turned to Silver (DB85606),” was a National Book Award finalist. You can hear her discussing one of her latest picture books, “Once upon a Book (DBC29460),” in a recording from the 2023 National Book Festival: www.loc.gov/item/2025661365?loclr=fbnls. Or, if you want to share her illustrations with a child in your life, contact your network library to check out the print/braille picture book “A Big Bed for Little Snow (BR23179).”
[Image: Grace Lin holds up a copy of “Once Upon a Book" during the 2023 National Book Festival. Library of Congress video.]

05/16/2025

When it comes to your blood pressure, you don't want to get high scores. May is , so you may want to consult a health-care professional to get those numbers down if they are indeed high. Most people can manage their hypertension with regular physical activity, a healthful diet and low-cost generic medications. NLS has in its collection many books and magazines to help you with high blood pressure—which can lead to blindness, among other serious problems, if left untreated. Check out the Mayo Clinic’s “5 Steps to Controlling High Blood Pressure (DB108811)" as well as the latest articles in the Mayo Clinic Health Letter, one of the publications in Health and Nutrition Newsletters, found on www.loc.gov/nls/new-materials/magazines?loclr=fbnls and available for downloading from BARD.
[Image: A woman gets her blood pressure measured. iStock photo.]

05/15/2025

Born in 1890, Katherine Anne Porter was an American writer known for her complex, psychological writing and unique point of view.
Porter, who erupted onto the literary scene in 1930 with “Flowering Judas and Other Short Stories (BR01060, DBC14451),” had a knack for smooth prose and crafting collections of works that are linked not just by style, but theme. However, her output was limited, and her star power never truly took off until late in her career with the publication of her lone novel, “Ship of Fools (DB21086),” in 1962.
Much like her professional life, Porter’s personal life was also full of hills and valleys. Married four times, Porter lived across Europe and the United States and turned a specific memory from her travels from Mexico to Germany on an ocean liner into “Ship of Fools.” The novel was the best-selling book of 1962 and provided Porter with the financial security and commercial success that had long eluded her throughout her career.
In 1966, she won the National Book Award for “The Collected Stories of Katherine Porter (DB41186).”
[Image: Katherine Ann Porter in her living room in 1947. Library of America, public domain.]

05/14/2025

Join NLS on Thursday for this month's Smart Speaking to the Smart Speaker webinar. The topic will be the first part of a two-part series on the My Talking Books Skill Preferences. The second part of the program will be held in June. After the presentation and a demonstration, NLS staff members will answer any questions you have about the My Talking Books skill for Alexa-enabled smart speakers.
The webinar will begin Thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. Get more information and the Zoom link at www.loc.gov/nls/news-and-updates/smart-speaking-to-the-smart-speaker.

05/13/2025

He played in 14 World Series for the New York Yankees, had a lifetime batting average of .285, hit 358 homers and was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player three times. He was one of the best catchers to ever play the game. But Yogi Berra, born 100 years ago yesterday, might be best remembered for his “Yogi-isms”: “It ain't over 'til it's over." “The future ain't what it used to be." “When you come to a fork in the road, take it." In “What Time Is It? You Mean Now? Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All (DB55645, BR14563),” Berra shares tips for getting the most out of life with co-author Dave Kaplan. The pair also teamed up for “Ten Rings: My Championship Seasons (BR15426, DB58208),” a recap of the Yankees’ unmatched run of World Series titles between 1947 and 1962 with Berra (mostly) behind the plate. Yogi’s youngest son Dale offers a more personal look at Berra’s life in “My Dad, Yogi: A Memoir of Family and Baseball (DB96446).” And for readers in kindergarten through 3rd grade, there’s “Yogi: The Life, Loves and Language of Baseball Legend Yogi Berra (DB94932)” by Barb Rosenstock. (Career statistics from baseball-reference .com.)
[Image: Catcher’s glove over a background of New York Yankees pinstripes.]

05/09/2025

The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week, and you can find several of the winning books in the NLS collection.
Percival Everett’s “James (DB120063; coming soon in braille and Spanish audio),” the winner of the prize for fiction, is a retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the point of view of the enslaved Jim. The novel, which has been on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 44 weeks and counting, also received the 2024 National Book Award for fiction. The NLS collection includes several other novels by Everett, including “Telephone (DB113884),” which was a Pulitzer finalist in 2021.
This year’s winner in biography was “Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life (DB120621)” by Jason Roberts. It recounts the achievements of—and rivalry between—Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon, 18th century Europeans who attempted to identify and describe all of earth’s species.
“Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (DB121149)” by Kathleen DuVal was one of two books awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history. It traces the power of the continent’s indigenous peoples from the rise of ancient cities more than 1000 years ago to the present.
Finally, the Pulitzer winner for general nonfiction was “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement (DB126962)” by Benjamin Nathans. It tells the stories of Nobel laureates Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn and many lesser-known dissidents who challenged totalitarian rule in the Soviet Union.
[Image: Covers of "James," "Every Living Thing" and "Native Nations."]

05/08/2025

Earlier this year, a PBS production team visited NLS to collect information for a short video documenting how the creation of “talking books” for blind readers in the mid-1930s led to the audiobook revolution in the publishing industry. Tamara Rorie, head of the NLS Patron Engagement Section, was interviewed on camera about the first audiobooks, which were developed by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) in partnership with the Library of Congress. Rorie also talked about the evolution of NLS audiobook formats, from long-playing records to today’s digital downloads, and her own experiences as a lifelong NLS patron. The 6½-minute video, now available on the American Experience | PBS YouTube page, also includes interviews with AFB’s Tony Stephens and Audible’s Diana Dapito. It’s one of short four videos in “The Curb Cut Effect,” an American Experience series that explores how adaptations originally made to improve accessibility for people with disabilities—such as audiobooks, closed captioning and the addition of easy-grip handles to kitchen tools—now are used by, and benefit, everyone.
Links to multiple versions of the video, which include one with extended audio description and one with on-screen ASL interpretation, are in the first comment below.
[Image: The PBS production team with Tamara Rorie at NLS on February 10.]

05/07/2025

Ever feel overwhelmed by the size of the NLS Catalog? Is there a book you’re certain we should have, but you just can’t seem to find? If you’re a BARD Express user, this week’s Many Faces of BARD webinar is for you! Join us at 7 p.m. eastern this Thursday, May 8, for a program on Using the Find Utility in BARD Express. NLS staff will offer tips and tricks on sifting through long lists of titles, such as the Most Recent and Most Popular menus, and answer questions about anything related to BARD. For more information about how to join the program on Zoom (and to find recordings of past presentations), visit www.loc.gov/nls/news-and-updates/many-faces-of-bard?loclr=fbnls. And if you’re curious about BARD Express—an easy way for NLS patrons with a Windows-based computer to use BARD—you can learn more at www.loc.gov/nls/how-to-enroll/sign-up-for-bard-and-bard-mobile/welcome-to-bard-express?loclr=fbnls.
[Image: An image of a treasure map with the BARD logo. iStock.]

05/06/2025

Seventy-five years ago , teenage starlet Elizabeth Taylor married hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton Jr. in Beverly Hills. The Associated Press reported that the crowd of 2,500 fans outside the church “gasped at her beauty” as the 18-year-old bride—best-known then for her role in Hollywood’s 1944 adaptation of Enid Bagnold’s “National Velvet (BR15997, DB60250)”—stepped out of a limousine on the arm of her father. Despite the fairy-tale beginning, by December the couple had split, and Taylor was later granted a divorce on grounds of mental cruelty. Hilton died in 1969, while Taylor went on to win two Academy Awards—and to marry seven more times (twice to Richard Burton).
You can find many books in the NLS catalog about Taylor, her career and her marriages. For her 2023 authorized biography “Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon (DB111652),” Kate Andersen Brower interviewed 250 of Taylor’s friends and family members and plumbed her diaries and unpublished letters. Kitty Kelley’s “Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star (DB17326)” was a tabloid sensation when it came out in 1981. Taylor addressed her public battle with weight gain in the 1988 bestseller “Elizabeth Takes Off: On Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Self-Image and Self-Esteem (DB27577).” And you can read more about the “tall, handsome Texan” that Taylor married that day in “The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (DB78602)” by J. Randy Taraborrell.
[Image: Elizabeth Taylor in 1950. MGM publicity photo. Newspaper clip from the May 7, 1950, issue of the (Washington, DC) Evening Star.]

Address

Library Of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue SE (mail Stop #4960)
Washington D.C., DC
20540

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 4pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 4pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 4pm
Thursday	8:30am - 4pm
Friday	8:30am - 4pm

Website

http://www.loc.gov/nls

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled: