Read all about it! We’re launching our new online library

Our new platform already has more than 26,000 titles, making it the UK's largest online library of Talking Books.

Our Library service sends out up to 10,000 books per day and lent more than 1.5 million titles last year on CD, USB and digital downloads. This number continues to grow constantly, with the latest new titles including The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel, Queenie by Kimberley Chambers and Westwind by Ian Rankin. 

The service also has a number of Welsh language texts for users across Wales, including titles by Geraint Evans, Joanna Davies and Dewi Prysor.

Stephen Lawrence, 62, from Talbot Green, has been registered blind since 2014 and has found RNIB’s Talking Books to be a lifeline during the lockdown. 

Stephen said: “I first found out about Talking Books a couple of years ago and they have changed my life. I was a pretty avid reader before I lost my sight. I would read anything from fiction to technical manuals that helped me keep up to date with my work as an electrician. It was so frustrating when I couldn’t read anymore. I felt like something had been taken away from me.

“But now I can enjoy books again and it has opened up a whole new world for me. I’m sent a list of new books every month that I can download or have sent to my house in the post. The Library has a great selection of books, I never struggle to find something I’m interested in. 

“Talking Books are especially helpful for me now that the world has ground to a standstill. I am usually very busy and volunteer for RNIB Cymru, Macmillan and the Council of Wales, but now that we are all staying home I have found that taking the time to enjoy a good book has helped to keep me sane! I would urge anyone living with sight loss to give it a try.”

As well as Talking Books, RNIB’s Online Library offers a growing number of books in eBraille which means people can download titles and read them on an electronic braille display, such as the Orbit Reader 20.