Libraries for the Blind and Print Disabled

From Mike L. Martin, Director, LBPH, California State Library:

• Plug the cartridge in to the Stream using a male/female USB cable
• Press “3” on the VRS keypad and you will be prompted to transfer a book or magazine to the SD card.
• In order to accomplish this transfer the book or magazine must be engaged and not merely pointed to from a folder. A patron must press play or engage a specific book or magazine before he/she can transfer that item from cartridge to SD memory card.
• There is no way to mass transfer multiple items from a cartridge. Each book or magazine from the VR_DTB folder (bookshelf) must be transferred one at a time. This process works for blue, red, and gray cartridges, i.e. contractor-produced or patron downloaded items.

From Craig Hayward, NC LBPH:

• There is one method of doing a multiple item transfer to a Victor Reader Stream, provided you have computer access. This will not work for those who hook a cartridge to the Victor Reader Stream directly. The Humanware Companion, available for free from the Humanware website, will do multiple transfers of items from a cartridge to a Stream. Best of all the content goes directly into the correct folder and the program unzips the book or magazine for you.

• You need to attach the Victor Reader Stream and the cartridge each separately to a computer. Run the Humanware Companion and browse to the cartridge (it will appear as a hard drive on the computer). The Humanware Companion will at the same time read the contents of the SD card in the Stream and locate the $VRDTB folder automatically.

• To do a multiple transfer you need to check off all of the books or magazines from the cartridge you want to transfer. The Stream will calculate if everything will fit just in case you have lots of content already on the SD card.

• Then you select the button marked “Transfer/Remove Selected Talking Books” and automatically the software goes to work unzipping the books or magazines automatically and putting them right where they need to be to listen to them.