Ouch is “a website from the BBC. Its aim is to reflect the lives of disabled people right here and now in the third millennium. It’s not a help and support site. If we were to give it a label, it would probably be closest to lifestyle.” In any case, they wrote up a nice little review of LibriVox.

There’s a lengthy article/interview with LibriVox over at wikinews. Very nice opening:

Old books never die. They don’t even fade away. Instead, their copyright expires and they are released into the public domain, where hordes of volunteers breathe new life into them.

LibriVox is the first (we believe) to publish a free, public domain online version of Mark Twain’s Autobiography.

“Mark Twain’s Autobiography” was published in 1924 by New York’s Harper & Brothers Publishers. Published after 1923, this edition is not in the public domain in the USA. However, much of the book was published previously in serial form, as “Chapters from My Autobiography” in the “North American Review” during 1906-1907, which does qualify as public domain.

LibriVox.org is pleased to announce the first (we think!) online public domain publication of the entire selection from the North American Review, in audio form. We are also in the process of helping Project Gutenberg include an etext version in their collection.

For the audio please see the LibriVox catalog page:
http://librivox.org/chapters-from-my-authobiography-by-mark-twain/

Thanks to John Greenman for preparing this audio version.

About LibriVox
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net (podcast, catalog, and bit torrent). Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

Consensus is, this is the best media article yet on LibriVox. Captured the history, the spirit, the mechanics all in a very comprehensive package. Thanks Rebecca!

Is your daily commute filled with blaring morning talk shows and radio traffic reports? If you’re like most commuters, your audio book collection is limited to “Who Moved My Cheese?” and the latest Danielle Steele romance.

When you see flashing lights in your rear view mirror, do you reach for your license and registration… or jab frantically at the volume buttons? If you’re looking for something more substantial to tune into, check out the classic book downloads available at LibriVox.

You won’t find modern romance novels, but you will see a growing catalog of over 70 works in the public domain, including “Frankenstein” and “Aesop’s Fables.” These free files are available in mp3 or ogg format, and every recording remains in the public domain. So spread the love. Share the files. [more …]