The National Library Service's Talking Books program for the blind and physically handicapped is going digital. And with last month's announcement, NLS' final analog cassette book machine left the assembly line.

NLS director Frank Kurt Cylke cites tech-savvy users for the shift: "Our patrons have heightened expectations of service improvements."

The new system, set to launch in 2008, will use flash-memory technology to give patrons better audio quality, reliability and longer playing time.

NLS will still provide cassette book machines and audio books for a transitional period (through a national network of 57 regional and 77 sub-regional libraries, NLS mails materials to participants at no cost); some traditionalists, they estimate, will continue using the outmoded media well beyond 2012.

Honolulu's NLS library is the Hawai'i State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped: 402 Kapahulu Ave., 733-8444, olbcirc@librarieshawaii.org, www.librarieshawaii.org/locations/oahu/lbph.htm. Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.