(Editor's Note: If you have a program to share that you would like to "spotlight", please send along to Susan Babb for the next Newsletter!)
What's the coolest new service we offer at Memorial Hall Library? Definitely eAudio. And what is eAudio, you may ask?
Well, eAudio is the latest development in audiobook listening -- portable electronic MP3 players adapted for spoken audio. Memorial Hall Library owns and lends forty of these devices. Patrons request a title from our online database, we load the content in digital form onto a device, the patron picks up the device and they are ready to go.
All the details are on our web page, including information to help librarians get started. So I won't bore you with details, but will try to dazzle you with our success.
We have been offering the service for two years now, and our patrons love it. We buy content from www.audible.com/, a great vendor very interested in partnerships with libraries. We focus on current bestsellers, mostly unabridged fiction and some abridged nonfiction. Audible licenses the content from the same publishers who produce the physical product, so Bill Clinton's My Life is virtually the same as the Random House Audio edition. We are able to purchase multiple "copies" to meet demand, because the content is much, much cheaper than physical audiobooks. We paid $112 for 4 unabridged copies of The daVinci Code, read by Paul Michel. We would have had to pay $420 for 4 copies of the B-O-T CD edition.
Our Assistant Head of Circulation, Gerry Deyermond, is our eAudio maven. She handles the downloading, the patron and staff communication and training, the record keeping, and all the myriad details that go along with supporting a new service. Dean Baumeister designed the database of titles. Barbara McNamara cataloged the devices, and Nancy Richards figured out the packaging. Our audiobook librarian selects the titles. My job as instigator is long past. I just get to write the articles.
We wriggle with pleasure when we get to talk about eAudio, so if you want to see it all in action, don't hesitate to call and arrange a visit.
If you want to try one of our devices, just select and request a title at www.mhl.org/collections/eaudio/. We'll let you know by email when it's ready for you. You'll have to pick it up here, but that's a small price to pay for the chance to test drive a really nifty device.
Want a personal eAudio recommendation? Skinny Dip is a funny light "read". The Human Stain is Philip Roth at his best. Pat Conroy's My Losing Season is not to be missed.
Beth Mazin
Assistant Director
Memorial Hall Library
bmazin@mhl.org
978-623-8401 x33
