To Posterity -- and Beyond!

A bit of LibriVox fundraising

Cori — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:55:19 +0000

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: Download audio file (librivox_needs_your_help_rg.mp3)

What Katy Did Next and language-learning at LibriVox

Cori — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:48:06 +0000

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.

Download audio file (whatkatydidnext_05_coolidge.mp3)
(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!

Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_110.mp3)
(20:21)

Back to Graustark, podcasts and blog-meta

Cori — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:19:03 +0000

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.

Download audio file (beverlyofgraustark_04_mccutcheon.mp3)
(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!)

“Levelling up” in 1873

Cori — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:03:53 +0000

I was reading “The Intellectual Life” by P.G. Hamerton the other day, as you do. It’s a book of hypothetical letters to some imaginary friends around the theme of being a proper Victorian intellectual (it was published in 1873.) And in one essay, I was much amused to find an unexpectedly-modern usage of the term “level up”. On a brief rummage around the internet, I find a number of people arguing whether the term first came from D&D gaming or video games a couple of decades ago. I’m sure Hamerton’s can’t be the earliest usage, but perhaps fairly early, since it was printed in scare-quotes, to make people think through the meaning of the phrase. Hamerton is talking to his fantasy recipient about how hard it is to be a modern languages student, learning a language that other people speak natively. By contrast …

The classical student has only to contend against other students who are and have been situated very much as he is situated himself. They have learned Latin and Greek from grammars and dictionaries as he is learning them, and the only natural advantages which any of his predecessors may have possessed are superiorities of memory which may be compensated by his greater perseverance, or superiorities of sympathy to which he may “level up” by that acquired and artificial interest which comes from protracted application.

(Part III, Letter VIII of The Intellectual Life by Philip Gilbert Hamerton. archive.org free book link)

Mrs. Beeton’s – an unlikely audiobook?

Cori — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:38:12 +0000

Well, if it’s out of copyright, LibriVox is going to record it sooner or later … but I’m not at all convinced anyone’ll listen to the whole of Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, now that it’s finished. It’s a 58 hour behemoth, and it’s hard to imagine anyone sitting down to quite so many hours of recipes. The fun is likely to come from dipping into random sections, especially the very dated chapters on the “Rearing and Management of Children” (recommending leeches for measles and laudanum for whooping cough and noting eating unripe plums causes cholera) and “Domestic Servants”.

I did contribute a chapter, on General Cookery, but mostly it was a giant glossary of French cooking terms, so I’ll spare you the horror of my Franglais here, and if you’re truly curious you can click through.

http://librivox.org/the-book-of-household-management-by-isabella-beeton/

On the plus side, this IS a very big deal as books go, as it was a “household-bible” for many, many years (in the UK at least) and sold like the hot cakes it taught you to bake. LibriVox doesn’t hesitate to tackle large books (c.f. Decline & Fall!) and the proof is in the pudding … this took just over two years! One surprising thing, that I’ve just noticed, is that only 33 people read for the project. It feels like it ought to have been so many more, but those recipe chapters were lengthy …

More D.H. Lawrence poetry: Malade and One Woman to All Women

Cori — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:31:15 +0000

I do like D. H. Lawrence’s poetry. It’s mostly well-written, thoughtful stuff, without (too often) being stuffy, pompous or boring. So, last month I recorded a couple for the LibriVox Short Poetry Collection.

Malade is a sickbed poem, straightforward and elegant.
Download audio file (malade_lawrence_cs.mp3)
(1:43min)

One Woman to All Women is harder for me to get my head around. There’s some sexist bits and some feminist bits, and mostly I like it and sometimes I’m oddly annoyed by it. So, I recorded it, and people can decide for themselves.
Download audio file (onewoman_lawrence_cs.mp3)
(2:34)

Visit the LibriVox catalogue page for the links to sources (both taken from Gutenberg texts) and more free poetry. And so far this month, I’ve only recorded one poem for the next collection, but there’s time, there’s time …

Kipling’s Explanation and a Navajo Liturgy

Cori — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:10:28 +0000

Yes, I have indeed been at the poetry this month … another two pieces of mine have just hit the catalogue.

Rudyard Kipling’s The Explanation was last week’s LibriVox Weekly Poetry, and saw quite a good turnout – I’m one of 16 people who recorded it. A simple little poem, it was something quick to warm up the vocal cords and test my new recording arrangement. (That still needs some work.)

Download audio file (explanation_kipling_cs.mp3)
(1:08)

A very different piece can be found in the Coffee Break Collection #2 – Multi-Faith. These “Coffee Breaks” are themed collections of short recordings (up to 15 mins. Actually, the entirety of this particular collection would fit into a decent-length lunch break, but anyway.) A number of religions were represented, but it took me some hunting to find something suitable, since I don’t know any religious literature all that well. And, although the book I read from was titled Pagan Prayers – that’s pagan with a little ‘p’, being the old-fashioned definition of “any belief not Christian, Jewish or Muslim”. I’ve no idea of the provenence of the Navajo Liturgy, nor am I quite confident it fits into the collection in terms of being uplifting or thought-provoking in quite the way some might find Psalm XXIII for instance. But I think it’s a lovely piece, and I hope listeners like it.

Download audio file (coffeebreak002_navajoliturgy_cs.mp3)
(4:40)

New solo complete: Royal Children of English History

Cori — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:31:56 +0000

I came across this lovely book about a month ago. Shortly after, a partner-in-crime whizzed it through Distributed Proofreaders in most accomplished style, and it was stored at Project Gutenberg. Preserving all its charming illustrations, and quite a bit of the book’s layout, I might add!

And then I took a holiday and recorded it, and now, here’s the free audiobook version of Royal Children of English History by E. Nesbit.

Download audio file (royalchildren_1_nesbit.mp3)
(First section, 12MB, 12:37min)

It’s a retelling of the stories of a number of kings and queens of English history, in full Nesbit style. Aimed at older children (there’s a scene of quite grim threat/peril in “Prince Arthur” and there’s a number of battles / wars described,) she’s attempting to make the “people behind the headlines” real. Not to mention that these were the headlines of the day, which, as she sort of says at the start, is a helpful way to think about History when the names and dates threaten to overwhelm. Fun stuff!

http://librivox.org/royal-children-of-english-history-by-e-nesbit/

October recordings

Cori — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:12:13 +0000

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:
Download audio file (blackbeauty_01_sewell.mp3)
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. :)
Download audio file (downthebayou_townsend_cs.mp3)
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:

Download audio file (piratesownbook_26_ellms.mp3)
10:04min (128kbps)

I have a few other things very close to finishing … this will have been a super-productive month, all in all!

StarShipSofa story: The End of Oil by Gwyneth Jones

Cori — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:26:30 +0000

Having done a few round-number celebratory podcasts myself, I’m absolutely chuffed to bits to find myself included in someone else’s. Tony C. Smith’s StarShipSofa is a great podcast, full of short and longer-form science fiction stories and articles. It’s been running a show a week for just over two years, now – this is the 100th episode! It’s a long ‘un … I’m only halfway through listening, but it’s most entertaining.

The story I’ve read, End of Oil, is by Gwyneth Jones, and is a neat little piece of speculative fiction. I’m 98% happy with how it’s turned out; just thinking that I should have left even longer pauses in between the acts. They seemed very long when I was recording and editing!

Listen here (hopefully!) Download audio file (StarShipSofa_Aural_Delights_No_100_Special.mp3)
…
(My reading at 14:00, overall it’s 132 mins)