Neil Gaiman on Audio Books

Did you hear the piece on Morning Edition this morning on NPR, where Neil Gaiman spoke about the audio book with David Sedaris and several audio book narrators, producers, publishers, etc?
Most interesting -- plus, he has that gorgeous voice:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120769925

Listen to Neil Gaiman books at Listen Up! Vermont
Listen to David Sedaris books at Listen Up! Vermont

Recorded Books participants -- the collection doesn't contain works by Gaiman or Sedaris, but don't miss the post over at the GMLC blog on linking your patrons directly to the login page.

2010 Agreements

Just a friendly reminder -- before things get crazy with the holiday season, be sure to return your 2010 Listen Up! Vermont agreement. You can drop your agreement in the mail to PO Box 264, Middlebury, Vermont 05753, or fax to 802/253.4808.

Your invoice will be sent after we receive your agreement; payment is not due with your agreement.

Also, think about making a two-year agreement to the GMLC's audio book projects: payment is not due at this time for the second year (membership year 2011), but making a two-year agreement will obtain your library a discount on your 2011 fee.

Thank you!

OverDrive Training Handouts

Thanks to our friends next door in New Hampshire, who sent along two links to training documents Bobbi Slossar from the New Hampshire State Library created. Take a look:

mp3 Audiobooks for Mac Users (Scribd)
mp3 Audiobooks for Mac Users (PDF)

Training Handout (Scribd)
Training Handout (Microsoft Word)

The website might look a little different, but the principle is the same. Thanks, Bobbi!

One Click Additions

If you'd like to see the newest additions to the One Click downloadable audio book program through Recorded Books, take a look at the newest list of titles:

Adult Collection Additions, October through December (PDF)
Children's & YA Collection Additions, October through December (PDF)

Four Things You Can Do... to get started with One Click Audio

Thanks to Joe Levy for coming around the state once again in October to re-acquaint us with the Recorded Books One Click Audio program. If you're currently participating, here are his suggestions for getting going:

1. Get an icon on your home page. You can choose icons from the Box.net widget.
   
   
2. Link the icon -- and any links off your website -- directly to your login page. You can get the URL for your login page by going to the list of libraries on the GMLC site, finding your library in the list, and clicking on it. When you see the page that is blank except for a little box asking you to log in, copy the URL in the address bar (it will start kite.middlebury.edu). This way, patrons can avoid that GMLC page and go directly to login.
   
   
3. Link to the help page and the list of supported devices on your website. The help page is at http://gmlc.wordpress.com/recorded-books/recorded-books-help/ and the list of supported devices at http://www.oclc.org/audiobooks/techspecs/devices.htm.
   
   
4. Advertise, advertise, advertise. Let people know through
   

• newspaper articles
• blog posts
• email newsletters
• posters and bookmarks (you can contact Recorded Books directly at oneclickaudio[at]recordedbooks.com for promotional materials)
• your library's Facebook site or Twitter feed
• business cards in audio book on cd cases
• shelf talkers on your audio book shelves
• on your SLIP printer receipts
• offering patron training sessions (and why not tape it for your public access channel while you're at it?)
• catchy phrases ("You can now download audio books at 3 am in your underwear!")
• on your overdue notices ("Next time, return it on time -- try downloadable audio!")
• don't forget posters in places around town where people might be listening to audio -- the local gym, the teacher's room at the school, coffee shops, bus stops...
• downloading the MARC records into your online catalog (I'm working on getting these downloaded into the Box.net Recorded Books folder for all of you)

All of these ideas are great for Listen Up! Vermont too!

For more information on using One Click Audio, see the post from the August trainings, and look for the help page to be updated.

Statistics for Standards

Hello all --

here are the numbers you need for your standards reports:

Listen Up! subscribers: 848 adult titles, 250 children's/YA

Recorded Books subscribers: 1990 adult titles, 821 children's/YA

Best of luck with your standards reports.

MARC records updated

I spent a little time this morning compiling the many MARC record files for Listen Up! Vermont into chunks by year, broken up by season. Hopefully, this will help ease the process of getting all those MARC records into your system!

Here's a link to the reorganized folder: http://www.box.net/shared/kyo801kt0o. They can also be accessed, as always, through the Box.net widget in the left hand menu panel here on the Listen Up! blog.

I also re-organized the exisiting MARC records by year.

Downloading the MARC records for the Recorded Books collection is a bit more of an undertaking -- I will get to work on that soon, hopefully this week.