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LibriVox

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Librivox is a digital library of free public domain audio books, read by volunteers. The project started in August 2005, and as of April 2007 has a catalog of around 560 full length, unabridged books, and numerous shorter works. LibriVox recordings are primarily in English. However, recordings are available in nineteen languages altogether.

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."


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 Cooordinator 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. Judgements 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 Gutenburg 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.

What others say about it

According to the Baltimore Sun (February 9 2006):

"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):

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:

"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 says:

"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, be 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:
Librivox site
Librivox tools
Project Gutenberg
Full Catalog of Downloadable .iso CDs

Sources

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