Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library

The Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library located in Faribault, MN, provides library service to all people with visual, physical and reading disabilities for whom conventional print is a barrier to reading.

The library is funded through Minnesota state general funds and Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant money from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Who can qualify?

National Library Service (NLS) provides service to individuals who fall into any of the following categories:

1. Blind persons whose visual acuity, as determined by competent authority, is 20/200 or less in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose widest diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees.
2. Persons whose visual disability, with correction and regardless of optical measurement, is certified by competent authority as preventing the reading of standard printed material
3. Persons certified by competent authority as unable to read or unable to use standard printed material as a result of physical limitations.
4. Persons certified by competent authority as having a perceptual or reading disability of sufficient severity to prevent their reading printed material in a normal manner.
5. Persons eligible for service (falling into any of the above categories) who are now living as residents of the United States (including its territories, insular possessions, and the District of Columbia), or are American citizens eligible for service who are now living abroad, or dependents of active military personnel or diplomats.

This includes individuals who:

• have had a qualifying disability from birth
• are disabled because of medical conditions or trauma
• become disabled as they age
• have a temporary disability (they may qualify for service on a temporary basis)

For more information, click on one of these links below:

NLS Eligibility

MN Audio Book Application

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