Audio Books - Reading with Your Ears by Bruce Preston I've been legally blind for about 3 years, and have thus become a consumer of audio books, delivered via several modes. But, I’m reminded of that advertising campaign for a rye bread - "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's." Well, you don't have to be blind to enjoy audio books. They are great to listen to at any time or place - I know of people who get their "reading" done while commuting by car or train. If this is unfamiliar territory for you, perhaps you will find this of interest. Audio books have been available for years, but usually at a premium cost over printed media. There are several publishers such as Recorded Books who make books available on cassette tapes or now more commonly CDs. The tape cassettes are the standard 60 minute audio cassettes that will play in any cassette player - be it home audio system, "boom box", or car radio/tape player. A CD typically holds just over 60 minutes of audio, and may be played in any standard CD player. Many libraries have books on cassettes or CDs available for lending. One drawback is that the tapes are very fragile and susceptible to damage, and CDs get scratched. An average novel is about 6 to 8 hours playing time. Downloadable audio books - here is where things get interesting. If you have a broadband connection (dial-up will work but is painfully slow) you may download audio books to your computer and then in some cases transfer to a portable device such as an MP3 player or iPod. There are fee-based sources, and several free sources. I'll discuss the free sources I have used. eAudiobooks from NetLibrary.com - many libraries (such as Ridgefield) have entered into a contract with NetLibrary.com, one of several distributors. A typical arrangement is that you activate an account through your library, and once activated you may browse their catalog and download books from the NetLibrary site. The audio files are protected by way of Microsoft's WMA/DRM technology such that they have a 21-day lifespan, after which they won't play unless you obtain a renewal license for the file. A typical account may have 10 audio books (licenses) 'checked out' at any given time. There is no need to return the book; in fact, there is no mechanism for returning books before the 21 days. (In 3 years I have never hit the 10 book limit.) Once downloaded (typical book - 250MB or so), you open the file with Windows Media Player (version 10 or newer) which will connect to NetLibrary and obtain a license for the file thus unlocking it. Once unlocked, you may play it using Windows Media Player, and/or transfer it to a single mobile device (i.e. MP3 player) provided that the player meets these re-quirements:
Optional but recommended - removable storage. My MP3 player has a slot for an optional microSD card. With it I can store more than 80 hours of material. Note that the Apple iPod family of devices do NOT support Microsoft's WMA/DRM, so you would be restricted to unprotected MP3s or audio books purchased from the iTunes store. Curiously, Microsoft's own Zune player doesn't support their copy protection scheme either! My first eAudiobooks-capable player was a Creative Labs Zen V (about $90 in 2006) which worked fine but had a very hard to use manual control - a joystick about the size of a pin head - which broke off after several months of use. I now use (and love) Best Buy's Insignia Sport 2GB MP3 player with Bluetooth. Insignia is Best Buy’s house brand. This player also has a very good FM radio built in. (It was about $90 in 2007; I've since seen it on sale for about $20 less.) Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article I find that this particular model has been discontinued. In looking for other models on the internet, I find many in the $50 to $99 range that have the PlaysForSure certification indicating that they work with WMA/DRM (Secure), but none of the specification sheets indicate the format of the time displays. Thus, you really must examine the physical device before purchase. Check with your local library to see if it has a contract with NetLibrary or a similar service. By the way, about two years ago our neighboring Westchester County library system had a blanket contract with NetLibrary that covered all libraries in the county. I do not know if it is still in effect. Most libraries will issue a card and account if you either live or work in their area. Librivox.org - www.librivox.org - is a nonprofit, completely volunteer or-ganization with the goal of recording and distributing all literature that is in the public domain. Books published before 1924 are now in the public domain and the text for many of them is available via the Gutenberg Project. The recordings are available in several formats - MP3 at high and low quality levels, plus two other formats. Librivox's books are usually divided into chapters, each a separate file of typically 20 to 25 MB. You may play them directly off the internet using Windows Media Player, but I find it more convenient to download them by the usual right-click/save as process. Recordings are all done by volunteers (volunteers needed!) with simple and free recording software such as Audacity - the same software Scott and I demonstrated at a DACS General Meeting when we did our LP to CD/MP3 presentation. Volunteers may do either a chapter as part of a team, or after they have experience, may sign up for a full book. I have found many classic books this way. I've recently downloaded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, works by Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Dickens. I've also found some rarities - for example I'm currently working on the memoirs of a gentleman who was with the North West Mounted Police (now Royal Canadian Mounted Police – the “Mounties”) for 30 years, it was published in 1920. Project Gutenberg and Libribox books are available in many languages as well. As the audio books are standard MP3 files, any PC, Mac, iPod or MP3 player will work, so the player hardware requirements aren’t quite as restrictive as those needed to support copy protected media. In addition you shouldn't have a problem with the elapsed and/or total time indicator. But, you may still want a bookmark and/or fast-forward capability. Since there is little if any difference in price between an MP3 player that supports WMA/DRM (Secure) I’d suggest getting one with this capability so that you aren’t locked out of this source. National Library Service / Library of Congress. - Not everyone qualifies for this source - you must be legally blind or physically handicapped. If so, then you are eligible to order books from the NLS/LOC. The catalog is on-line and is very extensive. New books typically appear within a year of publication. The books are distributed by a participating central library, one in each state. For Connecticut, it's in Rocky Hill. They are delivered and returned postage free. Currently the books are on "4-sided" cassette tapes - monophonic recorded side 1 and side 2, left and right tracks yields 4 "sides". They are also recorded at a considerably slower speed, requiring a special (provided) tape player. (Without the slow-speed player they would sound like “Alvin & the Chipmunks” on steroids). The provided tape player is about the size of a lunch box, and due to its large rechargeable battery is quite heavy. The NLS/LOC is in the process of converting to digital media (USB flash drives) such that the recordings will be made "on demand" rather than requiring a library to maintain an inventory. The digital recordings are copy protected and require a special player about the size of a paperback book. Distribution is expected to start fourth quarter 2009. The NLS/LOC is also conducting a pilot program that will provide participants with the ability to download books directly to a USB memory device. http://www.netlibrary.com/ Bruce Preston is president of West Mountain Systems, Inc., a
database consulting firm in Ridgefield. He was a long-term board
member of DACS and conducted the Random Access sessions at the
General Meetings as well as chaired the Microsoft Access SIG.
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