Beyond the Stacks - December 3rd 2021

Patron Services: BARD Mobile Download Limits Contributed by Amanda Gonzalez, Patron Services Librarian  BARD mobile download limits If you enjoy downloading books and magazines from BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download), you know that BARD gives you instant access to the entire NLS collection through your computer, tablet, iPad, and smartphone. With BARD, there’s no need to wait for books to come in the mail; all books are always available and ready for download, and you don’t even need to “return” the books after you’ve read them! When you are downloading books from BARD, your access to the collection can seem limitless, but it’s important to keep in mind that there are caps to the number of materials you can download from BARD in a 30-day period. If you’ve ever received the message that you are “not authorized” to read a book that you have downloaded, the likely cause is that you have reached your 30-day limit. When using the BARD Mobile app, a patron can download a maximum of 100 books during a 30-day period. This is a "rolling" 30-day period. So, for example, if you downloaded 5 books 30 days ago, then tomorrow, those 5 books will "fall off" the count, dropping you from 100 to 95. This creates space to download 5 new books. The other side of this is, that if you download all 100 books today, you will have to wait 30 days for all 100 books to "fall off." To avoid reaching your limit on BARD mobile, follow this rule of thumb: If you download no more than 3 books per day, you will never reach your limit. Even if you reach your limit, you can always still listen to the books you have previously downloaded. In addition, if you reach your BARD mobile limit, you can still download books to a flash drive and listen to them using your Digital Talking Book Player. If you would like to learn more about BARD, please contact the library.