According to the Audio Publishers Association June 2009 industry report, 21% of the market is downloading audiobooks. More and more people are listening to audiobooks on their MP3 players, iPods, and other mobile devices. Here are a few suggestions for downloading free audiobooks:
Free Classic Audio Books: Digital Narration for the 21st Century
This site provides free downloads for classic audiobook titles for both MP3 players and iPods. Audiobooks may be searched by title or author; however, the site does include a list of available audiobooks in no particular order. One of the drawbacks to the site is the advertisements.
Gutenberg: The Audio Books Project
Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 by Michael Hart and has expanded to include free audiobooks. The audiobooks are available in two categories: Human-read Audio Books and Readings by Computers. The audios are searchable by title, author, language, and subject. If an audiobook is downloadable to an iPod, it will state: Apple iTunes Audiobook.
LibriVox
LibriVox was founded in 2005 by Hugh McGuire and provides free audiobooks read by volunteers. All of their books are in the public domain. In addition, Project Gutenberg is working with LibriVox, so you may see some ebooks listed under a particular title as well as audiobooks.
There are directions on the catalog page on how to download audiobooks using iTunes.
Maryland's Digital eLibrary Consortium
The Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium is composed of sixteen public library systems throughout Maryland. The free audiobooks are available using your library card. In order to listen to the audiobooks, simply download the OverDrive Media software. Step-by-step directions are available under the Help link. The consortium also includes a list of supported devices.
Audiobooks are searchable by author and title. An advanced search option is also available to search: format, keyword, language, publisher, and subject. In addition, under the Browse Collections, there is an iPod Compatible Audiobooks! section to limit your search.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Your customer could use the time consuming approach and upload CD books on tape from the library. I say time consuming b/c they would need to import each disc individually, but then they could manage them like they would any playlist.
Post a Comment