Well this was interesting wasn't it. The first site I tried, The world ebooks/Project Gutenberg site, raised some questions. Are they free or aren't they?? Some were and some weren't, some were easy to download and some weren't, some were easy to find and some weren't.
Then I did the tried and true, I googled free audio books and found the Librivox site, also alluded to in Mr Diems wonderful blog. Thanks to him I also listened to a little of the computer generated David Copperfield. Very funny.
The whole idea is a good one, and one that could be used very successfully in libraries. Copyright implications would have to be worked out and other issues such as does the patron provide the player for the file, or should libraries consider loaning mp3 players? There would then have to be staff who could explain how to use the equipment and deal with any problems that may arise with the equipment.
I think audio books in this format could be very useful for older or visually impaired patrons, if you could have a very simple player with large buttons on it. Some of the mp3 players these days have difficult to use scroll wheels and very very tiny buttons.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment