AudioBooksForFree.com

Why haven't we heard more about AudioBooksForFree.com, based in Scotland? You can download free MP3 audios of dozens of classics ranging from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea to Enchanted Typewriter (a machine described in a summary as being able to "communicate with Hell"). I can't wait to see if in some way I can make this work with my Dell Axim PDA. For further details on the service, see the FAQ. At least to this sighted person, the UK site appears to be blind-friendly, with a text-only mode for screen readers. Perhaps David Faucheux can add his thoughts.

How long it'll take: With high-speed cable modem service, I downloaded Treasure Island (9 hours of listening time) in less than ten minutes. I put all the files in one folder on my PC and let WinAmp take off--reading them without my having to pause to reload. Nice!

Details: AudioForFree.com uses human readers--skillful ones at that. For high-quality audio, you must pay extra. Fair enough. Ideally, of course, a business model can be found to make even high-quality reproductions free. AudioBooksForFree also sells CDs, DVDs and MP3 machines preloaded with recordings. Librarians and others should check out the copyright page. Alas, there are few American authors compared to UK ones, but this is, after all, a Scottish site.

Lively chat on book accessibility is now downloadable

Today's accessibility chatcast featuring George Kersher is now available as a large WMA file from the Opal-Online archive. Just click here.

I was delighted to hear him talk about a maximum amount of mainstreaming of content from books and other media. Exactly! The blind and others with special needs should be able to download the latest e-books and other goodies without waits. I like the idea of the DAISY standards he's been pushing over the years. Imagine the same book available as text, as synthesized speech, as a dramatic performance from a human reader, as braille--as, you name it! Oh, the wonders of XML and the navigation techniques that Kersher and collegues have been working on.

The sponsor of the chatcasts is the Mid-Illinois Talking Books Center, and the moderator is Tom Peters.

Historical novels and accessible e-books: Latest topics from Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center

Just a reminder: David Faucheux, the author of the Blind Chance blog hosted on the TeleRead site and praised by Audioblogger, will moderate an audio chatcast at 7 p.m. CDT August 31, Tuesday, on the topic of historical fiction.

As any follower of David's audio blog can vouch, he is unfailingly articulate--and knowledgeable in his book reviews. David is a big fan of Gary Jenning's novels and now has a new enthusiasm, My Antonia, topic of another another forthcoming presentation from the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center--Audio Chatcast Central.

This is "good read" territory. No need for stuffy academic discussion. Dive right in and join David and share your own finds in the historical fiction category. While the chatcasts are sponsored with the blind and visually impaired in mind, anyone can join in. Tom Peters, host of MITBC's Meting of the Minds and eBookWorm, will participate in David's discussion.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 26, this Thursday, from 3 to 4 CDT, the featured guest on eBookWorm "will be George Kersher, Senior Officer for Accessible Information at Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, Co-Chair of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a division of the W3C, and Chairperson of the Open eBook Forum."

Related: Historical Novel Society.

My Antonia chatcast postponed--so top Cather specialist can participate

Tomorrow's chatcast on Willa Cather's My Antonia has been postponed so that Prof. Susan J. Rosowski from the Cather Project at the University of Nebraska can participate with a panel. Nebraska is prime Cather territory, the setting of Antonia, and we're terribly excited. Details, including the new date in September, will be on the way.

Sponsor is the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, and you can e-mail the MITBC's Lori Bell to learn the new date ASAP. While the seminar is for the blind and visually impaired, MITBC welcomes all to its "Meting of the Minds" net.audio seminars (yes, that's the right spelling--a play on "mete," as in "to distribute"). Tom Peters is moderator. See an earlier item.

Details: Prof. Rosowski tells me that, yes, as I suggested in the earlier item, F. Scott Fitzgerald paid much attention to Antonia while he was conceiving The Great Gatsby.

Historical fiction book talk with David Faucheux

From Lori Bell of the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center:

Interested in historic fiction? Do you like to take journeys back to the past? To visit strange and unusual cultures such as the Aztecs of Mexico or the Japanese under the shogun or even to the settling of South Africa or the world of the Byzantine Greeks? Please join us online in a chatcast to discuss your favorite historical fiction authors and books. Let us know what you like and why. An hour of fun book talk with avid reader David Faucheux, author of the audioblog Blind Chance.

The discussion will be held Tuesday, August 31, beginning at 8:00 Eastern Daylight Time, 7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific. Click here for more details on this and other MITBC programs.

Willa Cather audio chatcast Aug. 24

From Tom Peters--on an audio chatcast sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center:

Tuesday, August 24, 2004 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time:

The Meting of the Minds Online Book Discussion Group will be discussing the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather. A lawyer recalls his Nebraska boyhood and the girl who was a strong influence on his life in this novel about pioneering conditions and the assimilation of the immigrant. (RC 13491 and BR 11320) (2 cassettes). For your information, various digital versions of the novel are available at Blackmask.com. An online version in HTML format also is available from the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial in Red Cloud, Nebraska. An online scholarly edition is available from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

When you click on the MITBC's audio chat page, you'll download a small, safe program if you haven't participated in a chat before. You'l also need a computer with a sound card, as a well as microphone if you want to ask questions by voice rather than keyboard.

For more details on Willa Cather, see My Antonia chatcast is a 'must' for Gatsby lovers--and the Cather book is free online--a post in the TeleRead Web log. Elsewhere you can even hear a sound recording of Cather. While the audio quality is not the best, she is understandable in most places.

Audiobook and e-book expo features top experts

Audiobook and E-Book Expo: Exploring Digital Books and Content will be held Friday, October 29 in East Peoria, Illinois.

It will "explore where the library field has been and where it is going in the area of audiobooks for everyone--adults, children, the visually impaired, the learning disabled, and more. Experts will share the latest in web-based ebook management systems, handheld players, and collaborative projects.

"Keynote speakers include: Tom Peters of TAP Information Services, Steve Potash, CEO of Overdrive, Inc., Jenny Levine of the Shifted Librarian and the Suburban Library System, and Judy Dixon from NLS. Other speakers include Jane Chamberlain, Adult Services Manager at the Bloomington Public Library, Sharon Ruda, Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Services, and Diana Sussman of Southern Illinois Talking Book Center. There will also be time for exhibits and ideas!"

Sponsors are The Alliance Library System and the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Cost is $25. For more details, reach Lori Bell, 1-800-426-0709, ext. 2128.