From the April "Braille Forum"

ILLINOIS LIBRARY PROVIDING DIGITAL TALKING BOOKS TO PATRONS by Pat Price

Not wanting to make their patrons wait another five to eight years to enjoy
current popular titles in copyright-secure audio formats in CD audio
quality, the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center (MITBC) in Pekin, Ill. has
launched an innovative pilot program to distribute eAudio digital talking
books to its patrons. The technology is already here and is being enjoyed
by thousands of sighted readers, so librarian Lori Bell says, "Why make our
blind and visually impaired patrons wait for more testing and evaluation to
enjoy it?" With the launch of this service in January 2003, MITBC became
one of the first talking book centers in the country to offer digital
audiobooks to its readers through Audible.com.

The eAudio project, established in honor and memory of its former director,
Eileen Sheppard Meyer, involves the loan of a very tiny MP3-like player,
the Audible Otis, that has been loaded with two to three full-length,
unabridged, premium spoken audiobooks (not read by a speech synthesizer)
selected by the patron from the library's special collection of audiobooks.
The player has 64 MB of built-in memory which allows for approximately 20
hours of reading time. There are no cassettes or CDs. The package provided
each reader includes just the small player, headphones, batteries and
instructions for its use. The library patron will use the digital player
for 2 weeks and will then return it by mail to the library for use by
another patron.

Project participants need not be computer literate to participate in the
project.

At the close of the pilot program in June 2003, Tom Peters, a national
eBook expert, will write an evaluation report on the project and the
experiences of the readers who participated. The MITBC staff will then
decide if or how the project and service will be continued.

The source of the audiobooks is Audible.com, a private company and the
Internet's leading provider of digital, downloadable audiobooks. Its
services are available to individuals, public and private libraries and
K-12 school libraries on a fee-paying basis. The books can be downloaded
and read from one's hard drive, copied to a CD, or transferred to the
Audible Otis MP3 player. There are a number of plans to fit individual budgets.

Audible.com has experienced a significant increase in the adoption of its
program by sighted and vision impaired "listeners" who appreciate having
access to new releases and best-selling audiobooks as soon as they are
commercially available. As a growing number of blind and vision impaired
people are subscribing to the commercial service, Audible.com is doing
everything possible to enhance the accessibility of its service, including
the posting of ACB Radio director Jonathan Mosen's excellent tutorial which
aired last year on ACBRadio.org's Main Menu.

As a rapidly growing number of visually impaired readers are using and
enjoying the Audible.com service, an electronic user group has been
established. You can join by going to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BlindAudibleListeners/.

How very fortunate readers are if they live in the area served by the
Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. But for those whose libraries have not
yet caught the vision, just go to www.audible.com. There you will find more
than 18,000 well narrated talking books waiting for you! If you live in the
area served, contact: Lori Bell, MITBC, 845 Brenkman Drive, Pekin, IL
61554. Phone (800) 426-0709 or (800) 537-1274. E-mail
[log in to unmask], or visit the web site, www.mitbc.org.


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