Opensource AudioBook Community

"LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and releases the audio files back onto the net. The goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books."

Once the copyright time period has lapsed on text, it enters the public domain. That means anybody can have free access to it and use it how they wish.

LibriVox is encouraging a world community to come together and help achieve the goal. Anyone can participate - in any language.

What a great project for an English class to participate in! You can use free recording software such as Audacity

Different samples of volunteer project types listed on Librivox:

• collaborative: many volunteers contribute chapters of a long text
• solo: one volunteer reads an entire book
• short works (prose and poetry): short works and poetry!
• dramatic works: “actors” record parts, all edited together.
• other languages: projects in languages other than English.

How it all works:

1. a book coordinator posts a book in the Readers Wanted Section.
2. volunteers “claim” chapters to read.
3. the readers record their chapters in digital format.
4. the book coordinator collects all the files of all the chapters.
5. the book coordinator sends the collected files to a meta coordinator.
6. we check the files for technical problems in the Listeners Wanted section.
7. the book coordinator sends the collected, corrected files to a meta coordinator..
8. another public domain audiobook is made available for free.

Read the Forum for more Q & A.