BookLink provides audio on demand from the Blind Foundation in New Zealand.
There are over 16,000 audio books to choose from, with new titles added every week. Current issues are available for each of the magazines recorded in accessible audio by the Blind Foundation studios, as well as articles produced daily in synthetic voice from more than 90 New Zealand newspapers.
BookLink is designed to work with your device accessibility settings, such as text magnification and TalkBack. Android operating systems 6.0 and above are supported. All audio content is produced in DAISY format, and the embedded media player provides navigation and bookmarking features. The player includes features to skip by different intervals, modify the speed of the narration, and set a sleep timer. Audio files are downloaded to your device, so you can listen to them later, when you’re off-line or on the go.
To use the app, you will need to be a current client of the Blind Foundation, and register with the Library to receive your account information. If you are already a BookLink Web user, you can use your current login details to sign into the app. If you are new to the Blind Foundation Library services, please call 0800 24 33 33, or email library@blindfoundation.org.nz to register.
Books
You can search the audio book collection by author, title, series, and subject. There is a basic search mode for flexible keyword searching, and an advanced mode for more specific results, or combining different terms for extra precision. You can also browse through the subject categories for both fiction and non-fiction books in the advanced search mode. As well as books recorded in the Blind Foundation studios, the collection features audio books received from partner agencies overseas (including Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom), and accessible audio books purchased from commercial publishers.
Youth Library
BookLink includes a Youth Library mode, which works the same as the audio book search, but only retrieves books catalogued at the Primary and Young Adult reading levels. Adult content is excluded, such as strong language, violence, or sexual references.
Newspapers
Newspaper articles are produced in synthetic voice from text content received directly from the publishers. They are grouped regionally by category for browsing, covering National distribution, Northland, Auckland, Central North Island, Wellington and the Lower North Island, Nelson and Marlborough, Canterbury and South Island, and Otago and Southland.
Magazines
Audio magazines are either narrated in the studios, or converted from text to synthetic voice. These are mostly New Zealand magazines, with some Australian content provided in partnership with Vision Australia. There are now more than 45 magazine titles available, grouped in broad categories: Current affairs and business; Health and disability; Home, garden and lifestyle; Leisure; Magazines in other languages; Science, technology, and transport; Special interest; Women’s interest; Youth.
Features
Featured titles list: In the book search screen, there is also a list of featured titles. These are selected and updated monthly by the Library staff from new book acquisitions, and titles promoted in the Library newsletters.
Recommended for you: BookLink lets you manage your own profile settings, and select the kinds of books that interest you, and your preferred reading languages and age levels. These settings are used to suggest books from the collection you might like, displayed in a separate list in the book search screen. You can keep removing those recommended titles from the list to receive new suggestions based on your profile.