76 -- TALKING BOOK PUBLISHERS

Intend to award sole source: The Library of Congress, (LOC) through the National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS/BPH), has a mandate to provide audio books to blind and physically handicapped US citizens. While most audio books are produced from printed text for NLS/BPH, occasionally it is possible to purchase an audio version of a book that was produced by the publisher for sale to the general public, and to make minor modifications which will allow the audio book to be distributed to NLS libraries. The commercial audio version of books are not exempted from copyright protection by PL 104-197, the Chafee Amendment, so NLS/BPH must have permission from the performance copyright holder to modify and distribute these audio files. The contractor must be able to satisfy three conditions. They must: 1. have exclusive copyright permission from Random House AudioBooks to re-format and distribute the audio books to NLS libraries; 2. have the facilities and technical expertise to modify the audio files and produce the recorded cassettes for distribution; and 3) be able to meet the NLS/BPH specifications. The Library of Congress has identified Talking Book Publishers, Inc. (TBP), PO Box 1653, Englewood, CO 80150 as the only qualified contractor possessing all of these qualifications.