Week 9: Thing 22 - Audiobooks & Project Gutenberg

I thought it would be great to look into downloadable audiobooks and experience it for myself. This is a wonderful example of how technology can make library services available to anyone, anywhere, with computer access. The concept of a library extends well beyond the brick and mortar building. As I had no experience with e-books, I listened to the introduction and installed the OverDrive module on my laptop. Back in BCPL's catalog, I selected and charged out 2 books of interest.

Up until now, the process was effortless, but when I attempted to download one of the titles and listen, it did not take me to OverDrive as I had expected. Instead, I was directed to a page from Abobe - "Adobe Digital Editions," asking that I download it to listen to my audiobook! There are numerous Adobe products already installed on my computer, and perhaps there is a default setting that I don't know about. How frustrating! I'll go back to this when I have a little more energy to figure out what's going on.

Instead, I explored Project Gutenberg - a very worthwhile pursuit! Imagine 20,000 free books (many available in a number of languages), either in text or audio format, all in the public domain! The most recent copyright laws put a major damper on this project. I view it as a positive step toward bridging the digital divide, but one still needs a computer! And unfortunately, computers are still out of reach for many, many people.