Books for the Blind (a.k.a. Talking Books) is a United States program which provides audio recordings of books free of charge to people who are blind or visually impaired. With additional legislation and appropriations, Books for the Blind began incorporating digital talking-book formats with leadership from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). Services include digital lending and distribution, the latter via the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) program (formerly Web-Braille), which is more convenient compared to a physical braille book or older audio formats provided under the original library lending system since both provide the whole book on single media (memory-card or USB drive) through digital lending, or via immediate download through BARD.