NLS on the Move
April 26, 2018
The latest on our new initiatives
Have you registered for the 2018 biennial conference, taking place June 17–21
in Nashville, Tennessee? To register, please fill out the online form by May 12.
2018 NLS Conference Registration
Updates on MOCA, the outreach campaign, and more
Two months into the
MOCA pilot, 113 volunteers who are patrons of 38 participating network libraries are now using the prototype wireless download devices. The last batch of devices—which allow users who don’t have computers or smartphones to download books from BARD via
public cellular networks at no charge to them—was shipped last week. The purpose of the pilot isn’t to test the MOCA device itself but to study the feasibility and cost of wireless downloading. “We’re looking at the behavior of an average user—how much data
they are using and the associated costs, how many books they are downloading, and how reliable different providers’ cellular service is,” Education and Training Specialist Paula Bahmani said. The pilot is scheduled to end in June but might be extended for
some participants in cooperation with network libraries based on available funds and the amount of data collected.
• • •
The second three-week flight of
TV and radio commercials began March 26 and ended April 15. Between February 26 (when the commercials began to air) and April 23, more than 10,000 calls came in to network libraries. The next flight of commercials begins May 14. Big thanks to all of
you for keeping up with the additional requests for information and getting eligible callers signed up!
By the way, the TV and radio
public service announcements (PSAs) that we launched in June 2016 continue to air in some markets, even though we stopped tracking the results after six months. In fact, our TV PSA,
“Our Stories: That All May Read,” was rated in the top
10 percent of TV PSAs in 2017 as reported by Nielsen Media Research! (Unlike the TV and radio commercials, PSAs are aired for free when stations have time to fill.)
• • •
The Regional and Subregional
Libraries of the Year will be honored at a luncheon in the historic Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress on May 17. Honorees will be announced via Operations Alert, news release, and on NLS’s Facebook page as well.
• • •
Let’s talk about
TBT
We are soliciting feedback on how your patrons use
Talking Books Topics. Are they making use of the large-print version or are they accessing information about new books via one of the other versions, like audio, braille, .html, or searchable PDF? Do they know they can find the current Issue, as well
as past issues, on our website? Please send
your thoughts about how TBT is accessed and enjoyed by our patrons to Kristen Fernekes, Publications and Media Section head, at
[log in to unmask] with the subject line “TBT” Thank you for your input!
Watch for the next issue of
On the Move in your inbox on May 31!