Recently I searched Netlibrary for Howards End, and like so many titles it wasn’t available. One of the biggest complaints from our patrons aside from technical glitches is the selection available from Netlibrary’s service. Since Howards End by E. M. Forster is now in the public domain I searched Project Gutenburg’s Audio offerings and they did indeed have it.
Downloading an audiobook from Project Gutenburg is a bit different than from Netlibrary. Netlibrary provides each of their audiobooks as one extremely large file with DRM. Project Gutenburg’s audio books are a collection of files, one for each chapter. Having the recording broken up into chapters makes it much easier and faster to download. If you are unsure if you will like a book, you can test the waters by downloading the first few chapters. Likewise, you can download chapters all at once or as you go – a benefit to those who have smaller MP3 players. I also found it easier to keep track of what chapter I was on even though my player has a bookmarking feature. Project Gutenburg’s audio books are in the public domain so no need to mess with DRM licenses that expire.
Project Gutenburg’s audio books are available in numerous formats – Apple iTunes Audiobook, Ogg Vorbis Audio, MP3 Audio, and Speex. If you look at the page for Howards End, you will see lots of files listed for each format. The chapters are listed sequentially, though not specified. The actual file you download will be a code with a hyphenated chapter number. It’s very easy to download the files into a separate file folder and then sync them to your device.
I was pleased that each file is encoded so that it organized itself and displayed on my MP3 player with the chapter and book title. I have really enjoyed listening to Howards End – the reader is exceptional. One nagging thing about the audio book is that at the start of each chapter the reader tells you the book is in the public domain and provided by Librivox most likely because each chapter is available separately. And really, that nag didn’t really bother me.
Anyway, give Project Gutenburg audiobooks a try, you just might like it too.
Filed under: New Ideas | Tagged: audio books, netlibrary, public domain
I love audio books and like you, I find that NetLibrary doesn’t have everything I want to read. Thanks for the tip!
I really appreciate finding new sources for free audiobooks to download. We are using more and more audiobooks with our students and need inexpensive sources of materials. While LiLi is a trememdous source, many of my students need additional places to search.
Thanks for the write-up! I think that this is an extra good resource for public librarians to know about, especially when a child comes in looking for a classic book they need to read and do a report on and they are all checked out!
This is such a cool resource, and of course I am a huge fan of digitized content! Interested folk should check out the Internet Archive for more downloadable (and super cool) free content: http://www.archive.org