Librivox is a digital library of free public domain audio books, read by volunteers. The project started in August 2005, and as of 31st October 2007 had a catalogue of over 1000 full length, unabridged books and shorter works. LibriVox recordings are primarily in English, however recordings are available in twenty-one languages altogether. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats (as opposed to print, microform, or other media) and accessible by computers [1]. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Cassette recording of Patrick OBrians The Mauritius Command An audio book is a recording of the contents of a book read aloud. ... For other uses, see Volunteer (disambiguation). ... 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in August August 31: Michael Sheard August 26: Lord Fitt August 24: Jack Slipper August 24: Maurice Cowling August 24: Dr. Tom Pashby August 23: Brock Peters August 22: Lord Lane August 21: Robert Moog August... For other uses, see Book (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

The LibriVox website describes the project: "LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net (podcast and catalog). Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project." The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...

LibriVox has become the most prolific audiobook publisher in the world, producing 60-70 books a month. There are some 1,500 volunteers who have contributed audio to the project; and a catalog that includes Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Darwin's Origin of the Species, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Einstein's Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and other less well-known works such as Romance of Rubber edited by John Martin. Recordings are available in 21 languages. About half of Librivox's recordings are solo efforts by one reader, while the other half are collaborations among many readers. Jane Austen, in a portrait based on one drawn by her sister Cassandra House of Jane Austen (today it is a museum) Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817) was a prominent English novelist whose work is considered part of the Western canon. ... For films named Pride and Prejudice, see Pride and Prejudice (film). ... For other uses, see Moby-Dick in popular culture. ... Darwin most commonly refers to: Charles Darwin (1809–1882), renowned naturalist and thinker associated with the theory of evolution by natural selection Darwin, Northern Territory, Australian city and the capital of the Northern Territory Darwin (operating system), a low level computer operating system used as the lower layer of Apple... Charles Darwins Origin of Species (publ. ... “Alice in Wonderland” redirects here. ... Einstein redirects here. ... Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 – February 12, 1804) was a Prussian philosopher, generally regarded as one of Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ... Title page of the 1781 edition. ...

Editorial process

According to its founder, Hugh McGuire ^[1], the Librivox editorial process works as follows:

A volunteer willing to coordinate a book recording (meaning assign chapters, collect recordings, verify meta data etc) posts a project on its forum, in the Reader's Wanted Section. That volunteer is Book Coordinator. Then volunteers post to claim chapters. The Book Coordinator now sends all these audio files to a Meta Coordinator. The Meta Coordinator reverifies all meta data, then posts the recording in the Listeners Wanted section. This is the proof-listening section where people check recordings for tech problems. Judgments about reading style are not made, only things like bad sound quality etc. Then the audio is put into a validator, software that checks meta data, reads & generates info about file size and recording length, and then allows the Meta Coordinator to add things like the names of readers of each chapter, their URL, and the original online public domain text (Project Gutenberg e-text, Bartleby e-text, etc.).

There are also solo projects completed. These are the same as the collaborative projects described above, with the exception that there is only one or two readers reading the entire book. Librivox always welcomes new volunteers.

What others say about it

According to the Baltimore Sun (February 9, 2006): The Baltimore Sun is the major newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, with a daily press run of about 430,000 copies, and a Sunday run of 540,000 copies. ... is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"Libri Vox has 15 unabridged novels available, including Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes From the Underground, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, P.G. Wodehouse's Smith in the City and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Also available are readings of short stories, poems and documents such as the U.S. Constitution. The all-volunteer site also lists more than 100 works in progress. LibriVox is the brainchild of Hugh McGuire, an unpublished novelist in Montreal." ^[2]

According to the Red Hat on-line magazine (March 17, 2006): Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. ... Fyodor Dostoevsky. ... “Dickens” redirects here. ... Called English literatures performing flea, P. G. Wodehouse, pictured in 1904, became famous for his complex plots, ingenious wordplay, and prolific output. ... Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English romantic/gothic novelist and the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

LibriVox includes "a growing catalog of over 70 works in the public domain, including Frankenstein and Aesop's Fables [with] over 150 recordings in progress, both collaborative and solo projects [...] recorded in 128 kbit/s mp3 format, then uploaded to archive.org, where they are automatically converted to 64 kbit/s mp3 and ogg vorbis formats. [...] The dialects and accents add uneven charm to the recordings. The passion of the readers comes through most of the recordings. These aren't professionals. But they love to read. That's not to say that LibriVox hasn't attracted its share of professional attention. In Touch, BBC 4's radio show for the visually impaired, recently aired a segment on the project. NPR, CBC, and LA Times have picked up on the story." ^[3]

The Project Gutenberg Audio E-books page says: Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ...

"We are also working with Librivox, a similar effort to get people volunteering to read. Please consider joining them!" ^[4]

License

The books and the recordings are public domain. The site states: The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

"We had this discussion early on, and decided we didn't want to add any restrictions to the recordings we make, which are based on public domain books. This means others can use our recordings however they wish, including for commercial purposes. We would prefer if people acknowledged us if they do use our recordings, but we can't force them to. This makes some people uncomfortable, but the books we record are public domain, and we want our recordings to be public domain too." ^[5]

Examples

1. FINNISH: Aho, Juhani. Helsinkiin
2. JAPANESE: Bashō, Matsuo. Oku no Hosomichi
3. CHILDRENS: Burnett, Frances Hodgson. A Little Princess
4. SOLO: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice
5. COLLABORATIVE: Dostoyevsky. Notes from the Underground
6. COLLECTIONS: Various great writers. Poetry, Short Stories and Short Works
7. CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Further reading

Wikinews has related news:

Interview with LibriVox founder Hugh McGuire

Listen to this article ( info/dl)

This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2007-07-14, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

   

Librivox site

• Librivox home page
• about Librivox
• Librivox Catalog of Audio Books

Librivox tools

• Embed Librivox Audio in your Site

Project Gutenberg

• Project Gutenberg home page

Full Catalog of Downloadable .iso CDs

• Librivox CDs

Image File history File links WikiNews-Logo. ... Wikinews is a free-content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ... Image File history File links LibraVox. ... Image File history File links Sound-icon. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 195th day of the year (196th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links Sound-icon. ...

Sources

1. ^ wikinews
2. ^ Baltimore Sun
3. ^ LibriVox gives books a voice in the public domain by Rebecca Fernandez
4. ^ The Gutenberg Project Audio E-books page
5. ^ librivox.org