Digital audio books now on shelves at military libraries

[unhappycamper]

Digital audio books now on shelves at military libraries
By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, November 18, 2007

You may have noticed some small orange and white boxes on the shelves of military libraries throughout Europe lately.

Take a closer look: They contain the newest versions of audio books. These “books” are actually preloaded digital audio players, about the size of an iPod.

Karen Murphy, who runs the U.S. Army Library Program, said the Army began purchasing the audio books last spring for military units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now they are finding their way to library shelves on military installations throughout Europe.

The books are produced by Playaway. According to Caroline Barni, the company’s marketing director, Playaway has sold and shipped approximately 60,000 units (comprising nearly 300 titles) to military installations around the world. The company currently produces 1,000 titles.

The players come packaged with headphones, a spare battery for the longer titles, and even a lanyard so users can wear them around their neck. As the package indicates, the only requirement is two ears.

~snip~

According to users, this form of “reading” does take some getting used to. You’re not as mentally engaged with the material, and if you want to reread passages, it takes a bit longer to review than simply flipping pages. This is especially true of the longer titles — such as the 25-hour version of Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World Is Flat.”


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50357



uhc comment: I wonder how many copies of Ayn Rand, Bill-o and Limpballs drivel are there??????

[pnorman]

1. Here's that Playaway website:

http://store.playawaydigital.com/ For obvious reasons, I've been getting catalogs lately, aimed at "older folks". Many include such "talking books", usually preloaded with the Bible and other such "inspirational" stuff. A FAR better way to go, would be an MP3 player and downloads from Audible.com. An inexpensive 1GB MP3 player, would hold perhaps THIRTY such books. But computers & DSL connections, would most likely be rejected by most such "older folks". But military people who would feel naked WITHOUT an iPod, and with ready access to broadband? Sounds close to a ripoff.

Audible.com selections range from Ann Coulter to Noam Chomsky. I have absolutely NO problem with that. I wouldn't have it otherwise. But I too suspect that the choices on those shelves would be heavily weighted towards Chickenhawk authors --- almost certainly, NO Chomsky.

pnorman