Who we are and how we help.

Our mission

The Arizona Talking Book Library provides audio and braille reading materials to those who cannot read standard print due to a visual, physical, or reading disability. The Friends raise the money that public funding does not cover.

Arizona Friends of Braille and Talking Books was established in 1999 as a nonprofit organization to support the Braille and Talking Book Library, its volunteer programs, and its local recording studios through fundraising. We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity organized for the purpose of supporting and enhancing the Arizona Talking Book Library through advocacy, outreach, and development.

How we support the library

Public funding pays for staff, postage, and the national collection. Your gifts pay for:

• Local recording studios. Over 2,000 Arizona-interest books and magazines have been recorded by volunteers and made available to patrons on digital cartridge and through BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download). The Friends fund the studios.
• Audio-described movies. The Friends provide a collection of audio-described DVD movies for patrons, which state funds cannot buy.
• Volunteer programs. Training, equipment, and recognition for the narrators, reviewers, and technicians who give their time.
• Outreach. Presentations, materials, and community events so that eligible Arizonans, and the doctors, teachers, and caregivers around them, learn that free service exists.
• Advocacy. A citizen voice for the library with state and national decision-makers.
• Development. Fundraising events such as the Art of Whine, individual giving, sponsorships, and planned gifts.

The library we serve

The Arizona Talking Book Library is a regional library of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), a program of the Library of Congress started in 1933. It lends audio and braille books, magazines, and digital players by postage-free mail to more than 5,000 Arizona residents, and provides access to BARD downloads and NFB-NEWSLINE.

How to sign up for free books