[Dtb-talk] bookshare vs. nls

Fri Mar 12 21:39:24 UTC 2010

Montana had a recording program at the state prison for a while, but I
think it closed down in the 90sat the same time that other volunteers
recorded at the state library.

Dan

Dan Burke
Assistant  Director/Assistige Technology Coordinator

Disability Services for Studentstss
The University of Montana
Emma B. Lommasson Center 154
Missoula, MT 59812

406.24.4424
406.243.5330 FAX

www.umt.edu/dss

-----Original Message-----
From: dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Hyde, David W. (ESC)
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 10:47 AM
To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] bookshare vs. nls

Those who are readers at NLS are professionals. Books are either
recorded  at NLS, or at their contractors. Each book is reviewed for
quality. They are purchasing books from commercial providers, however,
the book must not be a condensed or cut version. You will find books
that are produced from old mastered recordings. I just found one read by
Robert Donnelley, and I don't know how long ago he stopped recording. 

Now, those of you who are interested in talking about the NLS, and are
going to be at the N.F.B. (and I assume the ACB) conventions this
summer, seek out their library meeting. I know that Judy Dixon from NLS
will be at the N.F.B. meeting, along with others. Check the agenda for
place, but as of right now, it is scheduled for Sunday, July 4 at 7:30
p.m.

-----Original Message-----
From: dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Lynn Evans
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 11:26 AM
To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] bookshare vs. nls

I know some of the payed narrators are actors between acting jobs.
Yes some regional libraries like Florida use prison help infixing
equipment.
You might ask some of these questions to your library and report back to
the list.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Gilmore" <m_b_gilmore at yahoo.com>
To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] bookshare vs. nls

Don't get me wrong: I think NLS does a great job. In fact, there's a
couple of narrators who do a fantastic job. Merwin Smith is at the top
of my list; he's the reason I got into Robert Ludlum (plus Ludlum's a
great writer.) I also enjoy Bob Askey and David Hartley-Margolin (is it
me or does DHM sound similar to Bob Askey on recordings recorded circa
2002 and forward? DHM sounds younger on Without Remorse by Clancy [1993
recording] and similar to Bob Askey on Clancy's Red Rabbit [2002].) Is
there any place where we can read short biographies of these gentlemen
or other favorite narrators? Is Merwin Smith still alive and recording?
(As a side note, I must say that I ordered a book that was narrated by
another narrator recently. I found out Merwin Smith had done it
originally twenty some-odd years ago and this was a reissue. Smith's
recording is still available. Had i known, I would've ordered it because
the reissued book by a new narrator ruined the book. Although, the guy
did do a good job on a Jack Higgins novel and was all right on an Agatha
Christie novel.) How does NLS get its narrators like DHM, Bob Askey,
Merwin Smith, etc.? Are these folks retired or what? How much are they
payed? (I ask because I had someone back in my college days tell me that
the folks that read these books on tape are prisoners. That would make
sense because prisoners have a lot of time on their hands; however, your
average inmate won't be able to be dramatic and do accents and voices
and all that good stuff. Plus, I doubt sophisticated recording equipment
is brought into the cell or there's a studio at  the prison.) I also 
 love how we never hear them turn a page or pause when flipping the
page.

As far as commercial audio, I noticed NLS was listing titles and I
always like to see who the narrator was. I remember Anne Haish (sorry
for the
misspelling) and Carolyn McCormick (better known as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
on Law & Order or as Minuet, the holodeck distraction of Riker in the
STTNG episode 1001001) narrated a couple and I was surprised. I also
noticed that a couple of NLS recordings are taped at the slow speed;
however, instead of four sides per cassette, it's two but at the slower
speed. So, side 3 and 4 are cassette two, so on and so forth. I remember
being surprised and was wondering what is up with this.

The only problem withe commercial audio books is the book is severely
edited (which is why NLS rocks because you get the full book.) The Star
Trek commercial audio is cool because you've got sound effects and the
actors reading the book; but, a lot of stuff gets cut out and it is a
trip hering one actor try to imitate the rest of his or her cast mates
(unless it's Scotty doing an STTNG book trying to do Data--you can tell
he'd never seen the show because he does Data like a robot, and, as we
all know, he is an
android.) When did the entire book start to be put out on commercial
audio instead of an edited version?

Mike

--- On Thu, 3/11/10, Flint Million <fmillion at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Flint Million <fmillion at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] bookshare vs. nls
To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Date: Thursday, March 11, 2010, 5:27 PM

I forgot to mention that NLS is now getting permission to simply adapt
existing commercial audiobooks, which is actually a nice thing for us
blind folks. They take the commercial CD book, encrypt it and insert
DAISY markers, and distribute it to us. Saves them the effort of the
volunteer reading, which is really nice. And in some cases, commercial
books are already nicely arranged for them (e.g. each CD track is one
chapter)

FM

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Flint Million <fmillion at gmail.com>
wrote:
> There does not seem to be much rhyme or reason to how NLS is deciding 
> which books to convert to digital format. The only thing they've said 
> about this in their documents is as follows:
>
> Q: Why are some books from a series missing? Why are some magazine 
> issues missing?
> A: Production schedules can cause inadvertent delays.
>
> Pretty vague, eh?
>
> In either case, Bookshare tends to be able to expand their library 
> faster because they're not doing real human readings of the books.
> Their content comes from volunteers who scan or convert materials into

> text format. then they simply DAISY-ify them and throw them up on the 
> site. In contrast, NLS must have a volunteer reader read the content 
> into digital form (or convert the existing cassette version), then 
> have someone scan through the recording to insert all of the DAISY 
> navigation points. It can be quite a laborious process. Also, it does 
> seem that Bookshare has a lot more of a "blanket" copyright exemption 
> in place, while NLS titles announce "with the permission of the 
> copyright holder". Maybe this also causes NLS delays, at least in 
> getting new titles produced. As for why they have only spanish 
> versions of some books, that's just their quirky schedule at work, but

> it does mean it's likely that the english version will be soon to 
> follow, hopefully.
>
> FM
>
> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 12:02 PM, Mike Gilmore <m_b_gilmore at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>> I've been browsing bookshare's list of books. I've liked that it and 
>> NLS have a lot of the same stuff; however, I was also impressed that 
>> it has books that NLS does not. For example, there are two Agatha 
>> Christie books that bookshare has that NLS does not. Actually, one of

>> the books NLS does have but it's in Spanish, which is kind of odd 
>> considering that Agatha Christie is a British author and they have 
>> pretty much all of her other stuff in English except for the title 
>> I'm talking about (it's a Poirot
>> book.) So, why put all of the Poirot books in English recordings 
>> except for one and put that in Spanish? Thank goodness for bookshare 
>> for those of us who want to read all of the books or series by a
particular author!
>>
>> Mike
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>

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