I really like the attitude of the people over on LibriVox.org. In one thread on the LibriVox forums a first time poster makes note that ‘LibriVox titles are being sold on eBay for $’. Like that guy I too was quite shocked and a little dismayed when I found that out. Here’s me thinking:

These audiobooks are available for free and yet some people are actually SELLING them!?!?! How dare they!

But as Puffin1, a long time LibriVoxateer so sensibly points out…

“It’s okay. We [LibriVox] don’t mind. Everything we do is in the public domain. Thanks for your concern. Welcome to LibriVox. Have fun!”

How cool is that?

It really sums up the LibriVox attitude too. Another LibriVoxer, David Barnes (AKA earthcalling), pointed out that… ‘

the seller credits LibriVox … and is providing a service that LibriVox doesn’t provide - namely audiobooks on CD.’

Their whole attitude is positive and relaxed, their idea is “the more recordings are ‘out there’, the better!” As it turns out, it’s actually a very good thing that a lot of the sellers on eBay are selling these audiobooks. eBayers looking for audiobooks can discover LibriVox that way.

…features a six category Award for ICT for Development projects. ICT stands for Information and Communication Technologies and the best projects will win the prestigious Stockholm Challenge trophies and receive a 5.000 Euro stipend… An extended program of workshops, conference, study visits and social gatherings will bring together the most inspiring ICT entrepreneurs, researchers and students from all over the world to share experiences and knowledge.

Our friends at Project Gutenberg (maybe you’d like to donate? to them) were kind enough to provide some financial support for travel, so I’ll be attending the event along with LibriVox’s resident philosopher, D.E. Wittkower.

In tangential news, we’ve upped production approximately 6000% in the past couple weeks, with a couple neat discoveries.
First of all, http://librivox.org is a free source for public domain recordings of public domain books. Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I likes me some literature, and all the sudden here’s all the Twain, Dickens, Wodehouse, and Thoreau you’ll need to keep you busy for a good while. You got’cher Oscar Wilde, yer Leo Tolstoy, and yer H.G. Wells. Edgar Rice Borroughs brings us the amazing Tarzan books, there’s Dr. Dolittle, Sherlock Holmes, and a hefty lot of Oz books. I’m pretty sure Mr. Armadillo is quite (Plato!) through with hearing me randomly (Tom Swift!) shouting out nice finds throughout the last week or so (Dostoyevsky!).

I love to have an audiobook running while I work. It keeps my mind busy and I love to spend an afternoon tuned into a reading while making neat things. Audiobooks are hard to come by, though. They’re pricey to buy, and it’s hard for me to get them back to the library on time. Plus, our little branch has a pretty dismal selection, and the good ones can be hard to get ahold of. Finding LibriVox is like I’ve suddenly fallen into this amazing treasure trove, I can’t even adequately describe how tickled I am over the whole thing.

I’ve already signed up to volunteer a reading, and I’ve got a really neat little collection of very old children’s and young adult literature that will be fun to share, most are about dogs or horses or general adventure-type stuff, pirates and shipwrecks. If you know anyone with a Scottish accent that would be willing to do a reading, I have copies of Bob, Son of Battle and Greyfriars Bobby that I would give a great deal to hear properly read.

[more…]

WHAT IS IT? pdsounds is like LibriVox for audio-other-than-text. Go there to find recordings of babies sneezing, cats purring and fireworks exploding. It’s all dedicated to the public domain, and therefore is available for people to use in all sorts of ways. Sounds from there make regular appearances in my LibriVox Community Podcasts, for example!

TAKE THE PDSOUNDS CHALLENGE!

A database of sounds is only as good as the sounds it contains. It needs more. LibriVoxers, by definition, tend to be audio-aware people, and many have microphones that could be turned away from the reader briefly to catch another noise. Or just upload your yawns, giggles and coughs as you snip them out of recordings!

BRONZE LEVEL: pledge to contribute one recording during May to pdsounds. Most files there are short (5-30 seconds) and are simple sounds. Every LibriVoxer with a microphone could do this. There is no sound too mundane!

SILVER LEVEL: pledge to contribute one recording a week. Come ON, the moment a yappy dog or low-flying plane interrupts your chapter, that’s your week’s contribution recorded!

GOLD LEVEL: aiming to upload a sound a day!

More info on the challenge, at the LV forum.

More info on PDsounds at PDsounds.

Your host this week is Cori Samuel.

Voices for the Addicted: musicmaiden, russiandoll, gypsygirl and Cloud Mountain. Please feel free to share your stories in that thread too.

New Projects Launch Pad - chocoholic explains all.

What are your favourite recordings? - Steampunk talks about this new thread — comments and suggestions very welcome.

Our most recently catalogued works can always be seen at: What’s New? — here’s a little sample.

Sound FX: Gong and Object Falling Noisily Off a Table found in the public domain at pdsounds.org.

Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast or hit this iTunes link to get you to the subscribe page.

Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in archive.org.

Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast
RSS feed for those shownotes

Dear Kayray ….I really am happy to send you this message ,since you are one of our favourite reader of the librivox.Me and my friends live in one of the nations in Africa,namely the proud and never colonized country Ethiopia.Though we are materially poor we enjoy here too much for the kind of calm civilization ,which exists here.We always listen,repetitevely,your recordings of “Letters of two brides” and we are impressed by your sweet and impressful voice which you arouse and ignite our passion for classic pieces like this.Please our dear lots people here in Ethiopia have started knowing you,we all are your fans and don’t hesitate to send us reply.We love you our dear sister!!!!! farewell
Voices from Africa

Your host this week is Cori Samuel.

Original thoughts by AmethystA and mlemmons.

Excerpts from:
Emma by Jane Austen - section read by kayray
Bleak House by Charles Dickens - section read by asy
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - section read by acrobatty

Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters by Austen-Leigh and Austen-Leigh - read by gypsygirl

Snippets of music from Fantasy in C Major Op.15 D.760 ‘Wanderer’ by Franz Schubert - played by Daniel Blanch.

To Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast, go to:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibrivoxCommunityPodcast
or hit this itunes link to get you to the subscribe page http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=203970211

Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in Archive.org

Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast can be found at
http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/
and the rss feed for those shownotes is: http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/feed

Your host this week is Cori Samuel.

Some LV stat-stuff, admittedly more random than usual.

The oldest known recording of the human voice — from 1860.
Please note this is licenced under a Creative Commons copyright. Please refer their webpage to find out how you are allowed to use this. (Under the terms of the licence, I’ll be emailing them about our podcast. :)

An interview with Andy Minter, conducted by chocoholic.

To Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast, go to:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibrivoxCommunityPodcast
or hit this itunes link to get you to the subscribe page http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=203970211

Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in Archive.org

Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast can be found at
http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/
and the rss feed for those shownotes is: http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/feed

0:00 — Daniel rambles about acoustics
10:45 — Excerpt from Twelfth Night
11:02 — Stats intro
11:24 — Stats read by Helen Elsbeth
13:19 — New users
13:45 — According to Wikipedia (music: National Anthem of the Soviet Union as performed by the United States Navy Band)
15:08 — A message from Hugh (music: Má vlast from Musopen.org)
18:51 — Talmage On Miracles recited by Len Spencer (1902) from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California
21:03 — Daniel says good-bye

To Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast, go to:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibrivoxCommunityPodcast
or hit this itunes link to get you to the subscribe page http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=203970211

Past and present Librivox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot in Archive.org

Archived shownotes for the Librivox Community Podcast can be found at http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/
and the rss feed for those shownotes is: http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/feed