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A flood of new audiobooks for you

Posted on October 12, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, For Volunteers, News, site & admin, Uncategorized | Comments: 12 Comments on A flood of new audiobooks for you

We are delighted to report that we have been able to recommence the cataloguing of completed audiobooks. Indeed, 29 have been added in the last 24 hours, and there are many more to come.

Most audiobooks have now had their RSS and iTunes links restored. The rest should be added within the next few days.

The New Releases feed had only appeared broken because there was nothing to put in it. It is now full of goodies for your edification and enjoyment.

Have fun!

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Scientific Studies

Posted on October 1, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, For Volunteers, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: Comments Off on Scientific Studies

Schools and universities have started again after summer. Why not use 10 gems of our catalogue to catch up on the vast field of science?

Now…where to start… Well, probably at the beginning: Charles Darwin waited over 10 years before publishing his results on evolution, and his seminal work applying it to humans The Descent of Man caused a great stir among scientists and the general public alike.

Once man climbed down the trees, shed his fur and started to walk upright, new challenges presented themselves: Finding food and shelter, producing clothes and weapons, watching the fire… Follow Ugh-lomi and his tribe as H. G. Wells tells A Story of the Stone Age.

At that time the world must have been an overwhelming sight: Enormous forests, vast grasslands, huge herds of all kinds of animals… Read Robert S. Yard’s Book of the National Parks for a tiny glimpse into that world.

Going Green is considered a good thing to do. Mostly. But… what if it goes too far? In Greener Than You Think by Ward Moore, a green invasion takes place – not of Martians, no, but of grass…

Scientists do have to push the boundaries to gain new insights. And often they have to leave their safe havens and explore unknown lands. This is what a square does when it leaves the realms of Flatland to explore life on a line and in space. Read the delightful novel with a mathematical tinge by Edwin A. Abbott.

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus is a classical story of a scientist yearning for knowledge and engaging the help of the devil to do so. Listen to our production of Christopher Marlowe’s drama

Frankenstein is another classic example of a scientist whose unleashed monsters haunt him for the rest of his life. Nothing more needs to be said about the best know book by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Electricity is the spark standing at the core of our modern world. In 1913, Robert A. Millikan published his famous oildrop experments in On the Elementary Electrical Charge, which won him the Nobel Prize 10 years later.

In our technological world, the majority of people have all they need and even more they want. But what would you do if there was a forseeable end to all the comfort? Check out E. M. Forster’s short novel The Machine Stops and decide for yourself.

Let’s finish with poetry: To Science is contained in a collection of Edgar Allan Poe Poems. Unusual topic you mean? Well, yes, but so are love poems written by the master of horror…

Enjoy – and never stop studying!

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Problems with newly catalogued items

Posted on September 27, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, For Volunteers, News, site & admin, Uncategorized | Comments: 8 Comments on Problems with newly catalogued items

Hello, everybody! We have another problem, I’m afraid. Plus ça change, eh? ;)

Further parts of the LibriVox site were migrated last night to a new server, and although it has restored the list of New Releases on the home page, it has unfortunately broken the catalogue pages of some of our new(ish)ly catalogued audiobooks.

If you encounter a LibriVox catalogue page which has no download links, all audio files can be obtained directly from the Internet Archive. Please visit the LibriVox page on the Internet Archive and search for the title in Audio Books & Poetry.

Additionally, you will find all our new releases by going to the LibriVox details page and scrolling down until you see This Just In.

We are hoping this will be fixed very soon.

EDITED TO ADD 10th Oct.: All book catalogue pages should now be complete, except for some which are still missing their RSS and iTunes feeds. We are working on this.

Also, it should not be many days before we can start cataloguing new audiobooks again. Recording has continued apace during this enforced break, so there are a number ready to catalogue. We are champing at the bit to get moving again. :D

Ruth

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RIP Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg

Posted on September 7, 2011 by | Posted in in the press, News | Comments: 26 Comments on RIP Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg

Very sad news: Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg (where most LibriVox texts come from), and the inventor of the ebook died this week.

Thank you for all you did, Michael.

Here is his obituary.

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