Posted by Cori on February 27th, 2010 — Posted in About LibriVoxing
So, LibriVox has been running for over four years, on a budget of $0 … everyone at LibriVox is a volunteer, reading, listening and supporting audiobook production for free, because they think it’s fun in some way. Behind the scenes, all the costs have been taken care of by a few individuals, along with some generous donations from partners. We’ve made thousands of free audiobooks that have been downloaded by millions of people; our site gets 400,000 visitors every month. However, this success has a crappy downside — the costs have become too big to carry on managing in this way.
Hence, a big ol’ fundraising drive. There’s a specific target – $20,000; and in the first three days of the drive, we’ve raised about half of that! So, we still need a few more pennies in the pot. If you’re a satisfied LibriVox listener, please consider sending a little something to the Internet Archive, stating that it’s a “donation for LibriVox”. LibriVox is not an official entitity, doesn’t have a bank account or any kind of formal legal status … hence the Internet Archive (who host our files) managing the money side of this for us.
Here’s how the money’s going to be spent:
- to cover hosting costs for our website (about $5,000/year)*, which includes:
- the main LibriVox website & blog;
- the forum;
- the wiki;
- the catalog;
- a whole lot of back-end software to host and process audio before it goes to the Internet Archive
- but does NOT include hosting our finished audio files which is done by The Internet Archive at archive.org
- to redesign the site and improve its accessibility
- to make the LibriVox catalog easier for listeners to use
- to make the management software easier for admins to use
We are sincerely hoping that $20K will keep everything running for three years at least, including some room to keep on growing!
* See the main donation page for more information on how this is being spent, and why this probably ISN’T something that we can get “much cheaper somewhere else”.
I have donated already, and if you haven’t, and would like to — just click through to the LibriVox page that explains the process. The most important thing is to note, somewhere, that it IS a donation for LibriVox! Not that the Internet Archive in itself is not a worthy cause, but that’s for another day.
^^ CLICK ME ^^
P.S. Neither LibriVox, nor the Internet Archive, will store the emails of those donating: no spam threat there!
P.P.S. LibriVox’s Official Announcement, read by Ruth Golding:
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Posted by Cori on January 8th, 2010 — Posted in * My Recordings, About LibriVoxing, Fiction, LV Community Podcasts
My first release of the New Year – a chapter contributed to What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge. I nabbed the section on her visit to England, and although it made me a little cross in places (we Brits have NOT “forgotten” Jane Austen, and I’m not sure there’s ever been a time we had … ) it’s a fun read overall. Plus, her plan in visiting literary landmarks of London is a splendid idea.
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(24:26)
There’s also a new podcast out … I was sent an interesting contribution for the 2009-retrospective by Nicholas, which inspired me to do an entire show on the subject of actively developing resources for language-learning at LibriVox. It’s already a great place to find lots of recordings in many different languages, often by native speakers with varied accents, to help ‘train the ear’. However, we’ve also been working on Primers, Grammars and other intructional material, in several languages, to help people learn. The podcast includes an introduction to the subject, a perspective from Leni who’s recording a Portuguese primer, some samples from different books — and most splendidly, the slight downside of recording books over 100 years old … you’ll be learning how to ask your coachman how long the horses will need to rest, and how to request sealing wax and a light (for sending your postal cards!) Availle quotes from a German/English text, what a hoot!
Lest that put people off, Leni also mentioned this, and notes that most of the book she’s working on is as good today as it was when it was written — even in places you wouldn’t expect!
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(20:21)
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Posted by Cori on December 29th, 2009 — Posted in * My Recordings, About LibriVoxing, Fiction, LV Community Podcasts
So, another volume from the histories of that fictitious country, Graustark, has been released. No strange accents snuck into this one (in a previous volume, an otherwise innocent-looking character came out of my mouth with a deep, gentle Transylvanian lilt, which oddly, wasn’t inappropriate, but was a huge surprise since I hadn’t planned it in any way.) I only contributed one chapter this time, though, who knows what might have happened with more.
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(17m 24s)
Chapter 04 – The Ragged Retinue
http://librivox.org/beverly-of-graustark-by-george-barr-mccutcheon/
I’ve been recording a few other collaborative chapters, but nothing else has popped out into the catalogue yet. Mainly, though, I’ve working on a podcast duo — one looking back at 2009 (completed & released) and one looking forward to 2010 (due this Thursday). Hoping to receive a few more contributions for the 2010 one, since it’s a little short as it stands. The request-post is in the forum here, if you’re interested.
Finally, apologies to people subscribed to the RSS feed here, if old posts popped up all day yesterday marked as new! I had a big clearout of catagories, added some logical new ones, and did some behind-the-scenes tidying and planning. In 2010, I’m intending to write here more often, about the process of making audiobooks at home, LibriVoxing generally, and about the public domain. (And hopefully not use that as a way of procrastinating over producing actual audio, too!)
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Posted by Cori on October 22nd, 2009 — Posted in * My Recordings, About LibriVoxing, About Recording Audio, Drama and Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Solos
This month, I have catalogued a book, some collaborative contributions, and — finally, more pirates!
I’ve been working on my solo recording of Anna Sewell’s “Autobiography of a Horse”, Black Beauty, all summer, as its short chapters and positive attitude were a pleasant change from the intense modern non-fiction book I was recording for Audible (not yet released.) Black Beauty was catalogued at the start of the month, and is averaging 30 downloads a day, which isn’t bad going for a book which has previously been recorded for LibriVox.
Listen to Chapter 1 here:
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5:03min (128kbps)
Then there was a poem which I found for the LibriVox Weekly Poetry reading. This is more of a challenge than you’d think; finding a shortish poem, by an author who died more than 70 years ago (to maximise the countries in which their work is in the public domain) and which is in some way interesting for multiple readers to try recording, and hopefully, that then has differences in the interpretations that’ll appeal to listeners. Down the Bayou by Mary Ashley Townsend fits many of these criteria, to my mind. I did find I had to check I knew how to say “bayou” correctly, but once I’d done that, I was away! (Along with 11 others. :)
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1:15min (128kbps)
There are three other poems, pending cataloguing … that should happen shortly, since both collections are nearly full. I’ve not read poetry for a while, so it’s been really nice to come back to it.
And finally, lady pirates! Yes, my long-ago-read chapter on the “Adventures And Heroism Of Mary Read” has now been entered into the catalogue, and you can hear it as part of The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms (Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers)! Or here:
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10:04min (128kbps)
I have a few other things very close to finishing … this will have been a super-productive month, all in all!
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Posted by Cori on July 22nd, 2009 — Posted in About LibriVoxing
It doesn’t seem like a moment since I was making an excited post (and podcast) about librivox.org reaching its 2K book … and now here we are seven months and 500 more completed projects on from there. The numbers aren’t quite so notable once one hits four figures; the next biggie will be 5K, but at the current rate of production and assuming modest but steady growth, that’s likely to be late summer 2011, not so far away at all.
Of those 2,500, 359 are in languages other than English (14%). In fact, there are 24 other languages represented by at least one entire work … not to mention LOTS MORE languages which are held within ‘multi-lingual’ collections.
Contributing to those recordings have been 2,816 individuals, who didn’t think that this was too crazy an idea, and went for it with a microphone — and an uncounted number more who supported the readers with organisation, proof-listening, help with summaries and cover art and simple cheering-on.
I’m happy to be part of such a great project and love working with so many wonderful people from around the world … and if by some crazy chance you haven’t yet visited the catalogue, then may I present:
Basic search for totally FREE, no strings, no signups, no download limit audiobooks: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/
Search by genre: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/genres.php
Search by language, reader and other options: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/visitor_advanced.php
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Posted by Cori on April 4th, 2009 — Posted in * My Recordings, About LibriVoxing, Fiction
So, I read this story for the Sci-Fi Collection ages ago, and then it sat on my computer in an unedited state while I worked on other things. And in the end I got a round tuit … and decided that it really wasn’t science fiction at all, and might fit better as a general fantasy story in the Short Story Collection. It contains one of my splendidly bad attempts at a cod-Californian accent (don’t tell me how bad it is, it was just for fun!) and is a tres random story, all in all.
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(14:33)
It was catalogued today, and also in that collection is a group reading of a very silly Dickens story, The Lamplighter which I joined in with. I have yet to listen to how it came out — it was recorded on a handheld recording device, sitting in a chilly pub garden in London with some far-flung visiting LibriVoxers and a persistant blackbird. Very good company. :)
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(38:34)
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Posted by Cori on January 31st, 2009 — Posted in About LibriVoxing, Quotes from Books, Utterly Random
My New Year Revolutions didn’t really get made this year, but I have some ideas in my head about numbers that I’d like to hit this year, including 100hrs of LibriVox recordings, something about posts, something about podcasts, something about blog posts.
I’m signed up to the One-Book-a-Week challenge again, but knowing the pace I normally read at, I’ve had a binge this month on short novels, and am currently have completed 10. Ha!
I also spruced up this website a little, adding actual widgets and Gargle Analytics. I’m not completely happy with them yet, I can feel a little tinkering with the CSS coming on, but still, close enough.
And finally, it was suggested to me that it might be much fun to Wordle the recordings I produce when I announce them here. Which is definitely a plan. I’ve already made the picture for the next (very short) piece I plan to record, which I know will have an audience of about one, assuming I listen to it myself. But perhaps that’s what Posterity is all about. Talking to ourselves and hoping mebbe someone else will want to overhear. We shall see.
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Posted by Cori on December 31st, 2008 — Posted in * My Recordings, About LibriVoxing, Non-Fiction
All six volumes of Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire have been recorded, in full, and are now available for free through LibriVox. I’ve made a contribution to each volume, and in Volume 6, I even got to read the first section, all about the Crusades and Richard the Lionheart (bad guy) and Saladin (nicer guy). Listening to the entire lot will set you back 119 hours, 16 minutes and 14 seconds, and will make a lovely set for the various people selling our recordings on eBay.
It’s also the 2,000th book that LibriVox has sent to archive.org. It’s not quite the 2,000th book catalogued, due to a little confusion during the archiving process, which makes it actually 2001 in Librivox numbering, but the more the merrier. It took 26 months to record the first thousand projects, and 14 months to record the second thousand, so reaching the third is likely to happen in 2009. I’d note that the total includes things like the Weekly Poetry, Short Story Collections, classic literature, non-fiction, modern (but out of copyright) science fiction novels and so I really ought to talk about “projects” rather than “books” throughout, but let’s not quibble over definitions. The winter holiday has been flying by and I’m looking forward, tomorrow, to sitting down for a bit and planning my LibriVoxing for the New Year. Sooo many books, sooooo little time.
The start of Volume 6:
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(06:30)
Happy 2009 everyone — may all your ventures be productive and fulfilling!
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Posted by Cori on December 7th, 2008 — Posted in * My Recordings, About LibriVoxing, LV Community Podcasts
I do like a challenge. Like, apparently, a podcast a week for LibriVox between now and Christmas. I have a plan, and the first one went well … so I’m hoping the content rolls in for the others just as easily. And that I manage to find hours in the day for the edits and my own recording. I’ve decided that 15-20 mins is about the ideal length, both for my patience in putting the thing together, and for me as a podcast consumer. I’m not sure I’ve listened to anything podcasty that lasted longer than 30 mins without looking at the clock at least once and wondering how much more there was.
This week’s show is about people’s favourite children’s books, and whether they’d record them for LV. Plus an advert for some current projects and a really nice rendition of a nursery rhyme to round the thing out (not me singing, obviously. I only include that when comedy is required.)
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(16:37min, 7.1MB)
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Posted by Cori on August 31st, 2008 — Posted in About LibriVoxing, Utterly Random
I was tagged by LibriVox ductapeguy, Sean McGaughey, and while I’ve done my time as Meme-Servant and moved on … I thought I could spin this one on-theme, so … here goes.
* The most common background noise you may hear in my recordings is that of seagulls — their piercing shrieks go straight through double-glazing and my sound-dampener. Luckily for me, I love the sound.
* The modern book I would most like to read is The Hungry Cloud by Tom Ingram. it has cult-status amongst those of us who’ve read it — it is a formidably good fantasy story for older children. Sadly out of print and apparently unheard of by anyone who didn’t read it, I’d still love to meet its author and say thankyou.
* My microphone is a Samson C01U. It was probably the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought in pursuit of a hobby.
* I’ve contributed 293 audio-files to LibriVox, MCed 75 projects past and present, and recorded in 4 languages (mostly briefly and badly, though!) In addition to that, I’ve hosted 15 LV community podcasts.
* I have 3 solos on the go at the moment and am about to start a 4th (but will work on finishing up the others once it’s begun.)
* I like getting feedback. It’s fun knowing who’s listening to what, and which bits they’ve enjoyed or have reservations about.
At this point I’m s’posed to tag on to another six people, but I’m just going to leave it open to anyone who’s not done this meme in a while, and is in the mood … if you-who-are-reading fancy a go, the rules are below, and feel free to drop a comment here with a link to your own post.
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
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