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LibriVox
LocationWorldwide (USA based)
EstablishedAugust 2005
Collection
Sizeover 8,603 free audiobooks (April 2015)
Access and use
Circulation90 new audiobooks per month in 2011
MembersWorld-wide volunteers
Other information
Budget$5,000 per annum
DirectorDirectorless - community shared
Employees6825 contributing volunteers
Websitelibrivox.org

LibriVox is a world-wide, USA-based, non-profit, volunteer effort to create audio records of the books in the public domain. These books are then provided as audio books to the public for free. It was founded in 2005 by Hugh McGuire as a non-profit with no legal personality. As of December 2014 it had over 8,640 items is its collection. Most releases are in the English language, but may non-English works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that are providing additional content. LibriVox is also closely affiliated with Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive that hosts their offerings. LibriVox recordings are available primarily in MP3 format, although many recordings are also available in other formats.[1]

History

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Hugh McGuire, founder of LibriVox

LibriVox was started in August 2005 by Montreal-based writer Hugh McGuire, who set up a blog, and posed the question.[2][3] The first recorded book[4] was The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

Original LibriVox logo, used until September 2013

LibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers. The LibriVox objective is "to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet".[5]

The main features of the way LibriVox works have changed little since its inception, although the technology that supports it has been improved by the efforts of those of its volunteers with web-development skills.

LibriVox etymology

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LibriVox is an invented word inspired by Latin words liber (book) in its genitive form libri and vox (voice), giving the meaning BookVoice (or voice of the book). The word was also coined because of other connotations (although not based on proper grammar) as liber also means child and free, independent, unrestricted. As the LibriVox forum says it: "We like to think LibriVox might be interpreted as 'child of the voice', and 'free voice'. Finally, the other link we like is 'library' so you could imagine it to mean Library of Voice."[6]

There has been no decision or consensus by LibriVox founders or the community of volunteers for a single pronunciation of LibriVox. It is accepted that any audible pronunciation is accurate.[7]

Organization and funding

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LibriVox volunteers are organized along the lines of their three core processes, individual contributors who read and record the text,s and submit audio files, individual contributors who "Proof Listen" the recordings, and an admin team who coordinates and manages all aspects of the organization.

LibriVox is not incorporated and exists legally as a DBA, address and bank account. (we need to find out this info I believe) It has no annual nor fixed budget. It relies on fundraising for operations and enhancements. In early 2010, LibriVox ran a fundraising drive to raise $20,000 to cover hosting costs for the website of about $5,000/year, and improve front- and backend usability.[8] In 2012, LibriVox applied for, and received, a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, helping the community to rebuild its technical infrastructure and improving accessibility of the website.[9] In July 2013, LibriVox started another fundraiser hoping to raise $50,000 to cover technical infrastructure additions, ongoing system administration and development costs.[10] How did this work out?

Affiliate organizations

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Production process

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Experienced volunteers can choose to start new projects to read themselves, allow other volunteers to join them, or record as a dramatic reading or a play. Volunteers and listeners who do not want to coordinate a project themselves can suggest the work.

Screenshot of an Audacity project

Finished audiobooks are available from the LibriVox website, and MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files are hosted separately by the Internet Archive. Recordings are also available through other means, such as iTunes, and, being free of copyright, they are frequently distributed independently of LibriVox on the Internet and otherwise.

Recordings are usually created with Audacity, a free open-source digital audio editor, but are occasionally recorded with other software such as Adobe Audition and GarageBand.

Popularity

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Prologues of Moby Dick
Stewart Wills' 2007 reading of Moby Dick is, as of July 2011, the most praised librivox recording of all their 6 years.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

LibriVox has garnered significant interest, in particular from those interested in the promotion of volunteer-led content and alternative approaches to copyright ownership on the Internet.

It has received support from the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg. Mike Linksvayer, Vice-President of Creative Commons, has described it as "perhaps the most interesting collaborative culture project this side of Wikipedia".[8]

The project has also been featured in press around the world, and has been recommended by the BBC's Click, MSNBC's The Today Show, Wired, the US PC Magazine and the UK Metro and Sunday Times newspapers.

Downloads

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Scope of collection

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LibriVox only records material that is in the Public Domain in the United States, and all LibriVox books are released with a Public Domain dedication. The stated goal of the project is: "...to make all public domain books available, for free, in audio format on the

Internet".[9] Because of copyright restrictions, LibriVox produces recordings of only a limited number of contemporary books. These have included, for example, the 9/11 Commission Report.

LibriVox works per month

Offerings

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The LibriVox catalogue is varied. It contains much popular classic fiction, but also includes less predictable texts, such as Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and a recording of the first 500 digits of pi. The collection also features poetry, plays, religious texts (for example, English versions of the Koran and books from various translations of the Bible) and non-fiction of various kinds. In January 2009, the catalogue contained approximately 55 percent fiction and drama, 25 percent non-fiction and 20 percent poetry (calculated by numbers of recordings). By the end of 2014, the most downloaded item was a 2007 collaborative recording of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, downloaded a total of 2,437,586 times.[10] The most downloaded solo recording was Pride and Prejudice read by Karen Savage downloaded 1,862,675.[10]

As of April 2015, Internet Archive offered 8,645. LibriVox audiobooks in dozens of topics ranging alphabetically from Action to World War I[11] While there are offerings in 35 languages, the primary language is English. LibriVox also offers Artwork for CD Covers. LibriVox recordings were available in 31 genres, as well as 117 sub-genres. Reference help would be greatly appreciated. LibriVox also offered recordings in 35 languages.

Side-projects

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LibriVox's main goal is to produce public domain recordings. However, LibriVox does have lesser priority side-projects to help achieve it's goal and to give convenience to listeners.

Maybe a bit more information here?

CD covers

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Still to be added. :)

M4B production

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Still to be added. :)

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Still to be added. :)

Community podcast

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Stilll to be added. :]

Ideals

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Approach

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Community and culture

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Criticism

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A frequent concern of listeners is the site's policy of allowing any recording to be published as long as it is basically understandable and faithful to the source text.[12] This means that some recordings are of less-than-optimum audio fidelity, and some feature background noises, non-native accents or other perceived imperfections in comparison to professionally recorded audiobooks.[13][14] While listeners may object to those books with chapters read by multiple readers,[15] others find this to be a non-issue or even a feature.[16][17][18]

Other readers are praised by listeners for the quality of their output.[19]

Affiliated projects

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Silverman, Craig (2006-08-25). "Public Domain Books, Ready for Your iPod". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  2. ^ McGuire, Hugh (9 August 2005). "Welcome to LibriVox". LibriVox.org. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
  3. ^ McGuire, Hugh (February 12, 2007). "Clarity (blog entry)". HughMcGuire.net. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  4. ^ "The Secret Agent", librivox.org. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  5. ^ "About LibriVox", LibriVox website. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  6. ^ "What does LibriVox mean?", LibriVox forum, retrieved 29 September 2013.
  7. ^ "Pronunciation of "LibriVox"", LibriVox wiki. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  8. ^ Linksvayer, Mike (June 2, 2008). "LibriVox: 1500 public domain audio books (blog entry)". Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  9. ^ "LibriVox homepage". Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  10. ^ a b "Welcome to The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection", The Internet Archive. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  11. ^ "Internet Archive LibriVox collection page". Internet Archive. Retrieved 4/12/2015. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ^ "Quality of Delivery?", Librivox forums. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  13. ^ "The Return of the Native Audiobook (Librivox)", Review. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  14. ^ "On the absence of ratings at LibriVox", Review 2 May 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  15. ^ "Librivox - free audio books", Review. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  16. ^ "Librivox (free audio books)", Review January 09, 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  17. ^ "Librivox", Review October 1, 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  18. ^ "My Favorite LibriVox Readers", Review 12 March 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  19. ^ "Happy Birthday Librivox !", librivox.org, 31 July 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
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Category:Accessible information Category:Audiobook companies and organizations Category:Audiobooks Category:Book websites Category:Collaborative projects Category:Crowdsourcing Category:Discipline-oriented digital libraries Category:Open content projects

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