# 22 and 23 Gutenberg Overdrive, netLibrary

Downloadable audio booksare a great resource! For High School students doing summer reading--- they're all so "techno savy' and rather than having to wait for a book quick or hold or buy the book, they can download it! Especially when they wait until the last minute to do their reading and all of the books are gone...

I had a customer with her daughter come in a few weeks ago. Her daughter is vision impaired and we have very few books in LT for juveniles. Our audio selection is a bit limited as well, since her daughter loves reading and or listening to books. I was able to direct her to these sites and she was so excited. Kind of opens up her world. I have another customer who comes in specifically to find audio books for her husband who is vision impaired. He has rather eclectic tastes, so I also told her about audio books. Her husband is fortunatly one of those lifelong learners...maybe by necessity, and he knows how to do all of the downloads! He knows how to use an MP3 player too! She was quite happy, since we're usually only able to locate 50% of his requests.

I've also recommended audio books at my other job as well. Some children are "audio" rather than "visual" learners. Some children need to read AND hear. And some have learning disabilities that make reading impossible. Audio books are a great resouce for these children.

I visited the Gutenberg site from home. Looked at the list for the top 100 books. Pretty much anything is available. Even books one wouldn't think of as an audio possibility---such as Illustrated Manuals. I suppose its like listening to a podcast of a cooking show. Even if you can't see the actual demonstration, you can still visualize in your mind what it would look like.

I wish we could try the downloads at the library to see how it works. I've never seen/heard it in action since I have dial up at home and it would take days.... No one in my house has an MP3 player either. Maybe BCPL could offer a demonstration...