The time has come: Talking Book Topics (TBT3 / TBT4) is being handed over to the network libraries for duplication.
Per our previous article on the topic: you have two options for distribution.
- The quickest, easiest, simplest option is to send it with your other NLS serials (usually as the DS medium). If many of your TBT subscribers also get other serials, they can travel on the same cartridge to save you some labor.
- The option that will give you the most control and the best statistics is to give it a unique medium (such as TBT). This option allows you to send the TBT on a different day of the week from your other serials, and ensures that a patron already at cutoff for serials can still get the new TBT so long as they’ve returned the previous one.
Let us know which medium you want to use, and we’ll get the Serial title set up for you. Either way, new issues will load automatically ready-to-duplicate just like all the former MOCs.
The rest of this article discusses options for reviewing and weeding your subscribers list, sending a form letter, handling the TBT Order Form, and available support.
You have options for how to move forward depending on how hands-on you want to be: if you can invest some time and/or send an Opt-In form letter now, it can save you time duplicating TBT issues for patrons that won’t make use of them.
Reviewing your Subscribers
As discussed in the previous article, we recommend reviewing your subscriber list to make sure that you are only duplicating the catalog for patrons that actually want it.
If you only subscribe patrons to TBT on request and are comfortable duplicating TBT for your current active subscriber count, we can copy that subscriber list to the new serial. On the other hand, if you have a high number of subscribers, and if you have previously subscribed people to TBT by default, you might want to send a form letter (discussed below), and / or do some review and weeding of your subscriber list.
But how to go about doing that?
Patrons to Subscribe:
If you are going to send Talking Book Topics as a DS, you can leave anyone already getting other DS serials subscribed to it without any extra work. To find these patrons, Query in the Patron module for:
Quick Search
- Main Status | Equals | A
- Pat Medium | Equals | DS
- Medium Status | Equals | A
- Last Served Date | Is Between | 12/01/2025 | 02/26/2026
[optional parameter to narrow results to patrons that have gotten something in the past three months]
Advanced Search
- Subscription | KLAS ID | Equals | SER-TBT4
[or may be SER-TBT3 in your database] - Subscription | End Date | Is blank
Additional “Patrons to Subscribe” query options:
If your staff adds TBT requests to the Request list instead of directly to the Service Queue, requests can be queried (although the time elapsed since the last TBT makes these more likely to have all gone out by now):
- Media | Pat Medium | Equals | DB
- Media | # Requests | Does not Equal | 0
You could also try Querying for all subscribers with recent DB activity (just sub DB for DS in the first query in this article).
Patrons to Review:
Use Merge Queries to remove the above results from the full subscriber list to see who’s left. Start by running the above query and opening the Query Set by double-clicking any result.
Then query for all active patrons with a subscription to TBT4:
Quick Search
- Main Status | Equals | A
Advanced Search
- Subscription | KLAS ID | Equals | SER-TBT4
[or may be SER-TBT3 in your database] - Subscription | End Date | Is blank
Again, make sure to open the Query Set instead of just exiting the results screen.
Finally, use the Queries menu to select Merge Queries, and set the following:
- Query A: your most recent Query, with all active subscribers
- Query B: second most recent Query, subscribers that are already active in DS (or one of the other “patrons to subscribe” queries.
- Merge: in A, not B
Export this list to Excel with a high enough Max to include all the Merge results, Visible Fields only, for a list you can divvy between staff and/or make notes on.
Double-click any result in the table below to open the Query Set to print Labels for a form letter, to do another merge to subtract another “patrons to subscribe” query from these results, or to start reviewing results in KLAS.
If this still gets you an overwhelming number of results, feel free to get in touch with Customer support to talk through your options!
What to Check For:
Once you have a list of patrons to review, what are you looking for?
Other than general activity and known patron preference, check for signs that the patron has actively been requesting titles. In addition to the Requests tab, you can look at the Items Tab “Selected By” column for QuickRequest or Web. If a patron has just been getting titles by preference, and particularly if they have been requesting titles via the WebOPAC, do they really need or want a recorded catalog? But if they’ve been getting a lot of titles from Quick Request, they got those numbers somewhere–and TBT is a likely source.
You can also watch for BARD patrons. While just having a subscription to SER-DDB9 doesn’t mean the patron is comfortable using BARD, you can check for downloads on the patron’s Items tab as well. If you use a Serve Type of BARD or OB for your download-only patrons, they can easily be excluded from your subscriber list.
Finally, watch for blocks. If a patron just has a temporary block to hold their books while they are on vacation, that doesn’t need to impact your decision. On the other hand, if they have a block for returned mail and no one has been able to contact the patron for over six months, you probably don’t need to duplicate the TBT for that patron just for it to be returned to sender.
Form Letter
You may wish to send notification to all TBT subscribers, or just those targeted for review, letting them know about the change in distribution and asking if they want to remain subscribed.
Simply making the duplicated version of the TBT strictly Opt-In rather than trying to decide which subscribers to keep may be the best option for some libraries, although it does require a print cost for the mailing itself, and it places the burden on patrons who may not be able to easily read and reply to a letter or postcard.
For sending a letter, you can filter the SER-TBT4 subscribers tab to only show Active patrons, and export to excel with All Fields for a mail merge.
Or you can use either the all Active Subscribers query above or the merged query set with the Patron labels function. While in the Query Set, use the Functions menu to select Labels. Switch the radio button to “Entire Query,” and contact us if you need a new Label Stock set up.
About the Order Form
Do you want to print and mail the order form to your patrons? Or only to patrons that request it?
We can add a new Large Print serial for the TBT Order Form, allowing you to subscribe only the patrons that actively want the order form. The downsides of this approach:
- Timing: the new issue of TBT will show up and start going into orders as soon as NLS distributes the file, even if the order form isn’t posted or printed yet.
- Once the order form is available, you would need to manually add the new Issue as you would for a local serial.
Available Support
We will be getting the serial record added for all KLAS libraries. If you want it as a new Medium, we are happy to do all of that set-up as well.
Once you have the new record, you can start adding the subscribers you know you want to keep. If it’s an extensive list even after the review and curation above, we may be able to help.
There’s no particular need to cancel or remove the subscriptions to the SER- version. As with the big MOC transition, I’d recommend leaving them for now so you have the information available to reference. If you want them cancelled for cleanliness sake later on, we can do so.
Finally, remember that the forums are here to help you all help each other! If you create a form letter (or recorded announcement), have other ideas of criteria to check for (either for the “to subscribe” column or the “don’t subscribe” column), or have other strategies and ideas for serving your patrons better for this transition–please share in the comments below!
