AudioBooks: Can you hear me now?

An evolution in transforming the printed word into accessible media for

people who cannot read standard print

Talking Books: Bookshare and beyond

Presented by Pat Herndon, Director GLASS

Georgia’s Talking Book and Braille Library

Georgia Libraries Conference October 5, 2017

Two systems that developed in tandem

Non-commercially produced content

Commercially produced content

Who is reading audiobooks?

• Readers

• Multi-taskers

• Smartphone user

• People who cannot

read standard print

Some statistics

• More than 67 million Americans listen to

audiobooks each year

• Audiobook unit sales grew 33.9% in 2016 to reach

$2.1 billion in sales

• Georgia public libraries own 538,555 physical audio

books with a circulation of 1,563,837

GLASS • Serves 15,784 active

accounts

• In 2017, circulated 454,631

titles from the NLS

collection

• Circulated 10,637 titles

from Bookshare

• Encouraged 10% of

customers to use their

PINES library cards for

access to more content

Not-for-profit audiobook producersNarrator read

• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

• Learning Ally

Not-for-profit audiobook producersText-to-Speech

• Bookshare

• Numerous digital translation tools

Commercially Produced

• Brilliance• Hatchette• Recorded Books

Role of libraries

• Lots of competing vendors

• A variety of interfaces

• New ease of use

• Promote access of content for eligible readers—

GLASS/Bookshare

Next Generation

• Text-to-speech with integrated tools on PC’s, Mac’s and mobile devices increases access to content

• In 2017 19% of audiobook listeners report using Echo or Google Home voice-activated personal assistants to play their books.

• NLS is developing push technology to send audiobooks directly to a playback machine, providing service for persons who will never master complex technology independently

Resources:

Audiobooks Continues Double-Digit Growth, June 7, 2017

https://www.audiopub.org/uploads/pdf/APAC2017PR_final.pdf

National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped- History

https://www.loc.gov/nls/about/organization/history/

Bookshare-About

https://www.bookshare.org/cms/about

GLASS

http://georgialibraries.org/glass/