In keeping with the mission of NAB it has striven to serve all the blind irrespective of their age, background etc.  In order to educate the blind, NAB started the Braille press in 1958 but all the blind did not read Braille.  For these blind individuals, NAB started the Talking Book Center in 1963.

History:

NAB started the activity in 1963 with a donation from of machinery from the Royal National Institute for the Blind, UK.  In the initial period, the center recorded some literature of recreational nature on spools, which was played back by  blind listeners on a huge playback devise provided to them by NAB.  Gradually, the recording hours increased and the activity was carried on in a more professional manner.

From early 60’s, as soon as the center started or even a little before that, NAB started Talking Magazines in 4 languages: Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and English.  These were recorded on a simple tape recorder and were played at various institutes of an for the blind. 

In late 70’s, the Center started recording textbooks, mainly for higher classes beyond the SSC level.  It also brought about a change in the technology of recording and started using compact cassettes. 

In 90’s this process continued and more stress was laid on recording books of general interests along with the textbooks.

Now, a new innovative activity has been initiated—that of converting the cassettes into digital format and preserving books on CD’s in compressed format.  Also, the recording itself is being done in two formats: analog and digital.

Activities:

The Center has 3 acoustically designed studios where recording is carried on in 2 shifts.  Presently, the recording is done on Compact Cassettes and Compact discs. 

Recording is done in 9 languages:  Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kanada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Urdu.  Special stress is however laid on the 4 main languages: English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati, as there are maximum number of readers of these languages.

The Center records both textbooks for higher classes as well as other literature.  This includes classics in the languages mentioned above.

This service is provided to the blind member absolutely free of cost.  A refundable deposit of Rs.10 per cassette for textbooks and Rs.30 per cassette is charged for recreational books. 

We have 3048 members as on 30th  September 2007.  On any given day, around 40,000 cassettes are in circulation all over India.  At times, our books are also sent to expatriate Indians.

How you can help:

We would request all of you to help us in whatever way you can:

• You may sponsor a title of approximately 8 cassettes by contributing Rs.7,000/-
• If you have good voice and inflections, you can volunteer to read at our studios;
• You may devote your precious time to help us maintain the library by writing/pasting labels etc.

List of Talking Books available at NAB

Bengali
English
Gujarati
Hindi
Kannada
Malayalam
Marathi
Punjabi
Tamil
Urdu