NLS Patron Survey

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), part of the Library of Congress (Library), provides free, accessible reading material to those with qualifying print disabilities (blindness, visual impairment, reading disability, and physical handicap). Through a national network of cooperating libraries (Network), NLS circulates books, magazines, and music in braille and audio formats, delivered by postage-free mail or downloaded from the Internet. NLS currently serves approximately 285,000 mostly older program users (patrons), primarily through the provision of audiobooks on cartridge and custom-developed digital talking-book machine (DTBM) devices. In 2021, 85 percent of content circulation was an audio cartridge sent through the mail with approximately 15 percent utilizing smart phones and the Internet to access NLS materials. Additional information about NLS patrons and the program, can be obtained from the NLS website http://nls.loc. gov. NLS has taken steps to modernize its operations, including developing relationships with commercial publishers to acquire audio content, piloting a new on-demand service to reduce the number of cartridges needed for content distribution, and in-progress efforts to migrate NLS information technology applications to the cloud. Over the past years, NLS has assessed further opportunities to increase its impact and considered new options for future devices and content formats with a future Implementation Plan (Plan) to grow the patron base to approximately 1 million patrons over the next 10 years. Part of this growth will include expanding the number of patrons with physical disabilities and expand the age groups of the people they serve. In 2018, NLS developed a primary research plan which established the methods NLS Contractors shall use to perform the patron survey. In 2019, NLS executed a patron survey using these research methods. Based on information gained during the survey, NLS updated the research plan. This contract executes a new patron survey using the modified research plan similar to the survey executed in 2019.