The intent of this page is to share news regarding computer software that most of us use. Forthcoming release dates are posted along with links to free software and/or free software updates. This is a page for us techies!

NOTE: The page is Microsoft/desktop PC heavy but that is not the intention. Feel free to expand this to Apple, Linux and mobile technologies.

--- //[[dan.malosh@state.mn.us|Dan @ MN1A Regional]] Last updated: 2019/12/02//

• BARD Express (may need to log in to BARD before link will work)
• BARD Mobile app for Android devices | Amazon's Kindle Fire devices
• BARD Mobile app for iOS devices

• DTBC Write Protection Software (DTBC = __D__igital __T__alking __B__ook __C__artridge) Log in to PICS» click “Selected Reports and Documents” » find link under “Software Distribution” heading (See also instructions from 2014.)
• Gutenberg Cartridge Duplicator (For use on Fedora/Linux platforms to mass-produce Digital Talking Book cartridges)
  • As of Nov. 2019, you can update an existing version of Gutenberg in Linux follow these two steps…
    • # dnf -y install http://engineering.nlsbph.org/repo/LoCrepo-1.0.4-1.noarch.rpm
    • # dnf –y update gutenberg

• PBL (PBL = __P__rint/__B__raille __L__abels)

PBL Manual

• Did you know… that NLS releases updates to the PBL database on average a couple of times per month? These updates typically contain label templates for the books most recently released by NLS and also some retro “titles”. This saves the end users from always having to manually enter (by typing them in) the print and braille data for thousands of books.

How to Retrieve NLS PBL Label Templates

• Hindenburg Audio Book Creator - 30-Day Trail
• Digital Talking Book Content Protection (DRM) Software: Log in to PICS » click “Selected Reports and Documents” » find link under “Software Distribution” heading (See installation instructions from 2014.)

Offline installers are executable files that can be downloaded and used to install on computers without Internet connections. They are nice when the file is very large - like a Service Pack upgrade from Microsoft - or when a particular program is having problems downloading - like Adobe Flash not downloading because of Active X problems in Internet Explorer.

• ExtractNow (Free tool for unzipping multiple zipped folders quickly)

• Adobe Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud) updates: CC for WIN – CC for Mac
• GIMP (GIMP = __G__NU __I__mage __M__anipulation __P__rogram) - “a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X and Windows”
• Irfanview (Free, “poor man's” image editor)

• Apple: iTunes
• Microsoft: Windows Media Player 12 | Windows DVD Player
• VLC Media Player

• Windows 7: SP1 (Released: March 18, 2010)
• Windows 10: SP1 (Released: February 4, 2008) – SP2 (Released: April 28, 2009)

• Adobe Acrobat updates: DC – 11.x
• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

NOTE: Adobe Acrobat is software you purchase to create PDFs. Adobe Reader is a free program used to view and fill out PDFs.

• JAWS updates
• NVDA (Free screen reader)

• Adobe Flash (scroll to bottom of page)
• Java

• Apple Safari
• Google Chrome 64-bit | 32-bit)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (For computers running Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1)
• Microsoft Edge (CANNOT FIND AN OFFLINE INSTALLER; For computers running Windows 10)
• Mozilla Firefox

• Apache Open Office (Free alternative to Microsoft Office)
• Microsoft Office 2013 Service Packs: SP1 (Released: February 25, 2014)

• Starting with KLAS v7.7 updates should be pushed; users are no longer required to download files from Keystone. But for the initiall installtion file you'll need to modify the following URL with your library's NLS Library Code: http://updates.klas.com/klasclient///{NLS network library code}///
• See also KLAS Users Forum and Listing of WebOPACs for KLAS Libraries.