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A service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress
The BARD Mobile app provides access to talking books from the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) site. BARD contains nearly 65,000 talking books, magazines, and braille music scores, with new selections added daily.
With BARD Mobile, you can play talking books and magazines on your Android device.
To use BARD Mobile, you must first be registered with a braille and talking book library in the NLS network of cooperating libraries. If you aren’t registered with a library but believe that you qualify for this service because you have a visual impairment or physical disability that prevents you from reading regular print, locate your local library at www.loc.gov/nls/find.html or call 1-800-NLS-READ to apply for service.
Once you are registered, you may then sign up for a BARD account and receive your BARD user name and password. Download the free BARD Mobile app and sign in with your BARD user name and password to get started. You will only need to do this the first time you use the app. The app contains a user manual that you may access through the Bookshelf feature.
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, administers the braille and talking book program, a free library service available to residents of the United States and its territories and American citizens living abroad whose low vision, blindness, or physical disability makes reading regular print difficult. Through its national network of cooperating libraries, NLS mails digital audio players and audio and braille books and magazines directly to enrollees at no cost. Music scores, instructional, and appreciation materials are available in large-print, braille, and recorded formats. Some materials may also be downloaded online or via Android devices. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/ThatAllMayRead or call 1-888-NLS-READ (1-888-657-7323).
My review
Review from
Reviews
4.2
192 total
5 116
4 42
3 12
2 7
1 15
S. Alfonso Brown
Good app, would like to be able to Search/Sort Wishlist I love this app. VERY convenient. However, the sound is extremely low. I can hardly hear content if I am out in public, whether in a waiting room or outside on a bench. Anybody else have this issue? Any updates to fix this? Also, it would be great if I could search and sort my wish list.
James Beardsley
Angry disappointed jump forward and jump back buttons keeps sticking fix this this is extremely annoying and upsetting I like to listen to my book not listen to it running by me and jump like I'm not telling it to jump. Would like to see a new tab added to the site labeled themes
Judy Savage
Better but still not there It now has headset controls which are an important part of accessibility, but it tends to forget about the pause/mute button after a few minutes. So that negates its ease of use since the app has to be reloaded to get it to pause, which was the problem with the earlier version.
Mary Saunders
Unable to download Everything was working great until last week. Spent 4 days requesting same two books to be deleted so I can add another one. Now I keep getting unable to download to this device. Help option is helpless. Please advise
Vicki Buffolino
Seems buggy this week Not sure what I did but the app crashed. I deleted it and started to reinstall. I get the the pick either internal or external memory question and an error message pop up saying. "Failed to authorize device from BARD." I guess a call tomorrow is part of my day.
John Watson
Works great but... I realy love this app. However, the headset conectivity stopps working after a while. Requiring one to restart the app. Otherwise, it's the greatest. Thing since sliced bread.
User reviews
Good app, would like to be able to Search/Sort Wishlist I love this app. VERY convenient. However, the sound is extremely low. I can hardly hear content if I am out in public, whether in a waiting room or outside on a bench. Anybody else have this issue? Any updates to fix this? Also, it would be great if I could search and sort my wish list.
Angry disappointed jump forward and jump back buttons keeps sticking fix this this is extremely annoying and upsetting I like to listen to my book not listen to it running by me and jump like I'm not telling it to jump. Would like to see a new tab added to the site labeled themes
Better but still not there It now has headset controls which are an important part of accessibility, but it tends to forget about the pause/mute button after a few minutes. So that negates its ease of use since the app has to be reloaded to get it to pause, which was the problem with the earlier version.
Unable to download Everything was working great until last week. Spent 4 days requesting same two books to be deleted so I can add another one. Now I keep getting unable to download to this device. Help option is helpless. Please advise
Seems buggy this week Not sure what I did but the app crashed. I deleted it and started to reinstall. I get the the pick either internal or external memory question and an error message pop up saying. "Failed to authorize device from BARD." I guess a call tomorrow is part of my day.
Works great but... I realy love this app. However, the headset conectivity stopps working after a while. Requiring one to restart the app. Otherwise, it's the greatest. Thing since sliced bread.
Extremely unfriendly app I I initially gave this a polo review because it did not have a sleep timer. Now it does! Also nice that it works with headphones now even though I don't use those. It is really nice to be able to get access to books on my phone instead of using the clunky Library machine. Thanks for the updates!
Braille & Audio Reading Download NOT FOR USE BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC. To use this app you MUST be a registered user of the free reading program through NLS and meet eligibility criteria for the service. This is NOT for use by the general public. This app makes my books more portable and there is no need to call the library to order books and I don't need to return them through the mail. It is real easy to use. Just downloaded to my Galaxy S7 128 GB phone and delete the books when I am done.
really slow on android this app is terribld on android marshmallow. the app takes forever to load. trying to find the exact book i want has become so tedious because of how slow this app is. this app is terribly slow wen using talkback.
E Worked just fine when I first downloaded but recently tried to download book from wish list and keep getting message "unable to download to device". Not sure what's wrong.
Great It has made my life easier. I often travel and taking the player with was also an issue. Between the TSA and packing it safely. This is so much better.
audio when i hear it on my android tablet is low other wise love it add amp to head phone still low if can fix it i love it tablet volume is all way up also, if play you tube there audio is fine and loud hope fixed soon thansk
Grrrr Love the app but allot of times will not respond, have to delete and reinstall contantly. And wish list will not respond says timed out after just seconds. Cannot retrieve.
Uninstalled, reinstalled now refusing login. The library of Congress was hacked days ago, when are they going to fix???
I love my Bard Mobile app! Thank you for the app, now I do not have to carry my book machine with me on the bus. Bless you NLS!
Nice but Nice but it would be better if I could control the app ( like pause and play ) with my head phone controls.
Updating my review Thanks for adding the sleep timer - Woooohoooo!
Love it! Way better then snail mail delivery. 😁👍 Best app ever
Sweet deal! Yay sleep timer! Thank you! That is all.
Love it Love this and love i can be a low vision user and use android
Thank you for making the BARD library available on the Android platform. Useful observations: 1. The initial print for the instructions and search criteria is far too small. One needs an extra person or a magnifying glass to read it, even with the Android system font set to HUGE. 2. Saw no instructions explaining that I needed to add a book to my wish list FIRST, in order to download it. 3. Book does not appear in the wish list immediately after downloading. Must exit the app, reopen it, then return to wish list. Suddenly the downloaded book will appear. 4. Voice speed should be a slider in increments of five. The. jump from 100% down to 75%, is too large to be useful. The up side: 1. Once the book is downloaded, no internet connection is necessary to read it. 2. Navigating a book via the app is much more convenient than using the digital reader, because the titles of each section are visible. I gave it only 4 stars because the print is entirely too small for anyone with vision problems to read. Pinch to zoom would be a welcomed feature.
very friendly and no nonsense makes listening to bard books a snap. I love bard, so that helps too! I've been using the bard app on my iPod and anciously awaiting the time I could just use my phone. So I'm naturallly pleased with this just on that score. I've used it a lot, and I find it to be stable.
Needs a lot of work does not play downloaded books on att galaxy 4s 4.3. EDIT: works on andriod 4.4. Doesn't stop playbak when headphones are pulled out. Bluetooth controls not working. App runs in background constantly and is in bad need of an overhaul.
Worked grt then had to uninstall so glad for the fixes. Dont miss those tapes!!!!:) update for past few months books show fully initialized then just st stop playing part of the way thru..had to download one book 3 x before giving up. Very disappointed. Fix and I will change rating. See above
This site has been a portal to every possible reality, all from a hospital bed. When I get tired of the ceiling you are predictably available. Many thanks.
This is a good app. Seems to work pretty well with talkback. Buttons all appear accessible, and pretty easy to use, once you get the hang of it. I like the fact you can read your books or magazines anywhere you wanted to read them. I gave it a 4 rating though since it does take a bit of getting used to, does not seem to intuitive straight away, other than that, its wonderful, would deffinately recommend though..
Great app has small bugs Is there a way to increase the volume out put level. I have to turn up the volume too full on my phone love that I can walk around with it. old player very bulky. Thank you for fixing all the bugs. It's working much better. It still has a problem small pauses in the playblack. Sleep button would be great. Please try to fix this. Thank you:-D
Works great but could be improved. I want to move the program to my memory card this is important because I have lots of books. I would also like a sleep timer so I could go to sleep reading a book.
Excellent idea, extremely poor implementation. This app is mostly accessible, although working with it isn't very intuitive. Also, there appears to be some significant bugs that need to be worked out. For example, I have now added the same book to my wish list 3 times, I have downloaded it twice, yet I remain unable to read the book because of an alleged protected content error. I have signed into the service using my registered email address and password though, so to me that error makes no sense. Thoughts?
5/5/16 Still Cannot log in Have deleted, reinstalled, changed password, rinsed, repeated & never able to login. No problems signing in with iPhone app.
Unable to determine books in bookshelf because of useless message. Hi. It's no longer possible to tell the book I'm selecting in the bookshelf. On the bookshelf screens all I get is a message telling me to press to read book or press and hold for details. I can no longer hear the titles of the books I'm selecting, just this useless message.
Fix it! Takes to long to download if you can even reach a server then its never able to open the files. WTF???
Works really well! I have been waiting for this to be available on Android. I love the fact that I can listen to books any where without separate equipment!
Review deleted
What's New
Adds a sleep timer to the Now Reading screen
Now responds to wired and Bluetooth headphone controls (Android 5.0 and later only)
Play screen optimized for tablets
Supports Android Marshmallow
Numerous bug fixes
Additional information
Updated
May 31, 2016
Installs
10,000 - 50,000
Current Version
1.0.3
Requires Android
4.1 and up
Permissions
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Flag as inappropriate Offered By
Library Of Congress
Developer