A few people had sent me a link to LibriVox before I left on the trip and it was in the queue to look at when I got back. I ran into Hugh McGuire at the Open Content Alliance Open Library Launch (his blog notes) and was happy to be able to say “Hey your link is in my inbox” and then get to talk to the man himself about the work that he does with group of dedicated volunteers. With a tagline like “acoustical liberation of books in the public domain” you’ve got to believe they have big plans. The specific project involves volunteers recording chapters of books and making the audio files available. The broader vision is to have “all books in the public domain to be available, for free, in audio format, on the internet.” You can have a copy of Call of the Wild to use however you want and whenever you want, thanks to LibriVox and the four volunteers who read and recorded the chapters. What are you waiting for, go volunteer to read something! Hugh is also on the board of Canda’s oldest lending library in case you were skeptical about his librarian cred.
Category: books
negative space
Do you see what I see here?
the illiterate libraran, a community library in an impoverished Brazilian neighborhood
The Community Library, 18th Street. A labor of love library in Sao Goncalo, Brazil.
The house has been christened, as the big, hand-painted sign on the roof proudly announces, the Community Library, 18th Street. On busy afternoons, it’s standing room only. Patrons vie for one of the mismatched chairs, which scrape along a floor lined with discarded tiles that Leite and his friends scrounged….
Brazilians are handicapped by lack of access. Government officials say that nearly 1,000 of the country’s 5,500 municipalities have no public library. Buying a book is even less of an option….
A study in 2001 estimated that 16% of the population owns nearly 75% of all the books in Brazil — hardly surprising considering that a standard paperback routinely sells for about $15, or one-eighth of the minimum monthly salary.
Moreover, illiteracy remains high; 16 million Brazilians older than 15 cannot read or write.
[thanks jesse]
tie-dyed librarian interviewed by mary minow
Mary Minow has a fun interview with the librarian responsible for editing and annotating the upcoming book The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics and discusses how the Dead’s policy of allowing free taping of all their shows helped the band, and also how that aesthetic does or does not translate into the world of print.
The marketing model of allowing free distribution of the music just flew in the face of all the common wisdom. In a way, the file-sharing programs that are the target of such vilification from the mainstream music business world today are the direct descendants of the Dead’s approach. That said, they have been (rightfully) quite cautious in allowing this project to go forward as a print-on-paper book.
using your author superpowers for good (causes)
This September, Neil Gaiman and other authors you may have heard of — John Grisham, Stephen King, Dorothy Allison — are having an unusual auction. If you’re the high bidder on these eBay auctions, these authors will put your name, or the name of your choosing I assume, in their upcoming books as specified. All the proceeds go to benefit the First Amendment Project. The auction page is fun reading, this is what King is offering…
“One (and only one) character name in a novel called CELL, which is now in work and which will appear in either 2006 or 2007. Buyer should be aware that CELL is a violent piece of work, which comes complete with zombies set in motion by bad cell phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap whiskey, it’s very nasty and extremely satisfying. Character can be male or female, but a buyer who wants to die must in this case be female. In any case, I’ll require physical description of auction winner, including any nickname (can be made up, I don’t give a rip).”