Eric's been holding out on me. I thought his Libtech blog was on the Radio servers, but he's actually elsewhere and I've been missing his posts. Today he posted a link to an Eastside Journal opinion about the King County Library System's MP3 audiobook program. I'm a big proponent of both MP3 audiobooks and the company they are partnering with, Audible.com.
In fact, our SLS Tech Summit last September featured Audible, with presentations by both a rep from the company (thanks for coming that day, Matt!) and Eric Welch from Highland Community College Library (Eric is also circulating Audible titles on MP3 players). I'm still hoping to jump start a group discount for SLS libraries, but the KCLS program is a great model, as well as proof that this works.
As the Up for Library Innovation editorial notes, "Thumbs up for the King County Library System, which is continuing its record of being on the cutting edge of information services. The latest is acquiring 200 MP3 players that allow patrons to listen to audio books. The 3-ounce devices are much smaller than ordinary cassette tape or compact disc players. They can hold the equivalent of 20 cassettes and the material is merely downloaded onto the device. If you want to use one -- you can check one out for 28 days -- be prepared to stand in line behind 753 people who already have their names on the waiting list. The good news? The library will double the number of MP3 players by year's end."
If you want to see the presentations from last fall, find them on the SLS InfoTech site.
If you want to find out more about the wildly successful KCLS program, visit their eAudio site. They used to have their quarterly reports available online, but I can't find them now. I'll look it up tomorrow at work and see if I can track them down.
If you want to know if your library should pursue this, then just take my word for it and do it. You don't have to be a big library system to offer a new, quality service to your patrons. Trust me - they'll thank you for it.
8:36:06 PM 
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