Question: I thought all your cassettes were four track. Why do I sometimes receive two-track cassettes?

Answer: Many years ago, the Library of Congress produced nearly 900 titles on two track instead of four. Some of these titles are still in circulation. They start with RC 6010 and continue through RC 9430. In addition, some titles in our own Nebraska collection are two-track. Our Nebraska collection is numbered RC 1000 and lower. Some titles in our single copy collection, with the prefix NSC, are two-track as well.

Most of our two-track books are identified by a special label taped on the inside of their mailing box. Some of these play on 1 and 7/8 inches per second instead of 15/16.

Two-track books can also be identified by the way they are numbered. A two-track book is numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on; while a four-track book is numbered 1, 5, 9, 13. Library of Congress cassette players can handle either two-track and four-track books, at a play speed of either 15/16 or 1 and 7/8.

(Adapted from What's Line, published by the Alabama Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.)

Spring is a time for celebration. Leaving the cold weather behind, we enjoy green fields, leafy trees, and flowers abloom. Here are some cassette books that deal with that magical time of year called spring:

RC 922 Flower Gardening in the Hot Midwest: USDA Zone 5 and Lower Zone 4, by Linda Hillegass

This handbook for flower gardening covers the basics for growing flowers in the Midwest where temperature extremes involve bitterly cold winters as well as hot summers. A veteran gardener shares strategies for gardening success in a region that extends from South Dakota and Nebraska east to Indiana. Advice includes choosing plants, preparing the soil, watering, pruning, and combating pests.

RC 26690 Spring Came on Forever, by Bess Streeter Aldrich.

This novel, by a prominent Nebraska author, depicts the lives of two German-American pioneer families who come to Nebraska in covered wagons.

RC 37750 Highway 50: Ain't that America, by Jim Lilliefors

During the 1950s, U.S. Route 50 was touted as "America's Central Pleasure Route." For years, Lilliefors had driven under the sign in Ocean City, Maryland, that announced: Sacramento, California-3,073 miles. And one warm spring morning he took to that road, rather than the one to work. He describes travels, people, and adventures as he followed the road originally mapped by George Washington and the westbound pioneers. Some strong language.

RC 41249 Charles Kuralt's America, by Charles Kuralt

Following his retirement from CBS in 1994, Kuralt set out to spend a month each at favorite places during their best seasons. In his easygoing style, Kuralt describes the places he went and the people he met from Alaska to Key West and Louisiana to Maine. He comments on Charleston in the spring; Ketchikan, Alaska, in June; the lakes of Minnesota in July; and New York City at Christmas. Bestseller.

RC 42040 Spring Collection, by Judith Krantz

Ex-model Justine Loring now has her own modeling agency, and three of her models have just been chosen to star in the first showing of clothes by new designer Marco Lombardi. Lombardi is backed by Jacques Necker, the father Justine has never met. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller.

RC 42485 Snow in April, by Rosamunde Pilcher

Caroline Cliburn is supposed to be married in a few days. But first she and her brother are determined to find their vanished brother Angus, who is working in Scotland. They only expect to be gone for a few days, but when a spring snowstorm hits and they have a car accident, they end up at the home of Oliver Cairney, a charming bachelor.

RC 48889 The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, compiled by Lawrence S. Ritter

The history of baseball in the early 1900s as recorded in first-person accounts by twenty-six major league players. Contains the complete text of the 1966 edition plus four later interviews.

RC 48991 The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich

1840s. In Omakayas's seventh spring, she helps her Ojibwa family build a summer home on an island in Lake Superior. That winter during a smallpox outbreak, Omakayas shows her devotion to her family and learns about her heritage. For grades 4-7.

RC 49405 The Nearsighted Naturalist, by Ann Haymond Zwinger

A nature writer depicts the flora and fauna of the wild in twenty-one essays spanning two decades of exploration. She describes Robinson Crusoe's island off the coast of Chile, the Snake River Canyon, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and other natural wonders.

RC 54750 The Ultimate Container Gardener: All You Need to Know to Create Plantings for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, by Stephanie Donaldson

Describes how to display flowers, herbs, and other plants in baskets, window boxes, or hanging containers for both inside and outside the home. Advice with instructions for year-round cultivation and selection of items for color, fragrance, and location.

Here are more books recorded in our own studios during past years that are still great to read. Please check the box next to the RC number and mail this page to the Talking Book and Braille Service; or contact your Readers Advisor.