Materials in NNELS are produced from available open content whenever possible. When copyright materials are produced at the request of system users, we rely on copyright exemptions that extend equitable access for public library materials to print-disabled persons.

Section 32(1) of the Copyright Act states: “It is not an infringement of copyright for a person with a perceptual disability, for a person acting at the request of such a person or for a non-profit organization acting for the benefit of such a person to (a) make a copy or sound recording of a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability".

Access to digital books and the costs for equipment to digitize books have lowered substantially for libraries and consumers over the years. Possibilities for production have shifted for talking book collections and for digital distribution. At this time, library services, alternate format materials and digital delivery offer many options. The NNELS collection of materials is produced using open source software on library-owned community infrastructure. The NNELS system:

• provides digital files in text, audio, and text-and-audio formats to meet the needs of multiple users.
• prefers publisher-supplied electronic text over manual digitization of material.
• supports digital transition in libraries.

We do not produce large print materials, or create productions from large-print items.