Audio Books in academic libraries?

[Rudy Leon]

Hi all,
I have recently taken on responsibility for collecting audio books, and am curious how other academic libraries approach these. (honestly, I'm having a hard time rationalizing the expense for what I'm thinking might be a purely entertainment collection)

Do you buy them?
Under what parameters? How do they fit your collection
About how many/how much a year?
What format?

If you have written policies on selecting audiobooks, I'd love to look at those too.

--
Rudy Leon
Learning Commons Librarian
Undergraduate Library
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
(217) 333-3503
http://www.deepening.wordpress.com
AIM: rudibrarian

[Susan Smith]

NetLibrary has a subscription that might give you a set of non-fiction as
well as fiction titles accessible from the web.
We made the decision to NOT buy physical audio books. The public
library is within 2 miles. They have an extensive collection & reciprocal
borrowing privileges.

Susan A. Smith
Ingram Library
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA 30118
ssm...@westga.edu
Phone: 678-839-6368

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[Chisato Uyeki]

Hi Rudy,
We did just start purchasing audio books last year at the request of
ESL students. With this group of students in mind we purchased Smart
Reader sets which are recorded at slower speeds than most audio books.
We purchased 2 different speeds as well as a few titles that are at
the standard speed. They come in box sets with the CDs and a copy of
the book (sometimes altered to be easier to read along). We have set
this up as a browsing collection- so the boxes are available on the
open shelves. This year we received a request from the Disabled
Students Programs & Services office to purchase about 15 audio books.
These are titles that are frequently requested by students affiliated
with their office. We are processing this request and will purchase
these titles.
smart readers: http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.search_books&search_by=program&program_id=1

In the past the library had not purchased audio books because the
feeling of Library Administration was that the public libraries were
doing such a good job in this area. The collection we have begun to
put together is quite different than what is available at the public
library in the types of titles that we carry (many are "classics" and
the varied speeds of reading.

If you are going to look at audio books you might also check out the
Playaways http://playawaylibrary.com/- I haven't taken a close look at
their title list but I think the technology and portability is great
for students. Another neat option is OCLC's digital audio book library
which has a academic collection and includes downloadable mp3s.
http://www.oclc.org/services/brochures/213618usf_RecordedBooks_Academic.pdf

I definitely think there is something to be said for the universal
design aspect of offering audio books and I think we're going to see
these collections circulating well beyond the students for whom the
collection was originally developed. Additionally, I think that
providing materials to support lifelong learning and a love of
literature is a legitimate undertaking for an academic library. For
example, when I was a graduate students I could not read fun books- no
time and no room in my brain- but I could and did listen to books on
CD during my commute to and from school. I still believe that this
release was essential to my being able to arrive to campus ready to
learn.

I hope this information is helpful.
Best,
Chisato Uyeki
Reference and Collection Development Librarian
Mt. San Antonio College
cuy...@mtsac.edu

[Kathe]

Thanks to Rudy for posting this question and to Susan and Chisato for
the very helpful answers. I checked out the links you provided and
got a price quote for OCLC's academic collection. If I can sell it to
our 3 campuses, it seems to be the easiest way to provide this
service. I was especially impressed by the list of titles they
include. It actually looks useful!

This is the first semester when we really see visually the impact of
the shift to online resources. Reference collection moved and shrunk
to make room for computers. Periodical collection reduced to a shadow
of its former self; microforms gone. Media partly integrated with
the book collection. And more tools all the time for any time
anywhere online use.
Kathe Hill
North Campus Library
Erie Community College
6205 Main St., Williamsville, NY 14221
716.851.1278