[Dtb-talk] bookshare vs. nls

Greg Kearney gkearney at gmail.com
Sat Mar 13 01:06:55 UTC 2010 

The Utah library still records book at the state prison.

Sent from my iPhone

Greg Kearney
Association for the Blind of Western Australia

On 13/03/2010, at 5:39, "Burke, Dan \(DSS\)" <burke at mso.umt.edu> wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Dtb-talk mailing list
>>> Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  
>>> for
>>> Dtb-talk:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/fmillion 
>>> %40
>>> gmail.com
>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dtb-talk mailing list
> Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Dtb-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/m_b_gilmore%40
> yahoo.com
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dtb-talk mailing list
> Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Dtb-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/evans-lynn%40c
> omcast.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dtb-talk mailing list
> Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Dtb-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/david.hyde%40w
> cbvi.k12.wi.us
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dtb-talk mailing list
> Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Dtb-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/burke%40mso.um
> t.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dtb-talk mailing list
> Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  
> for Dtb-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/gkearney%40gmail.com

More information about the DTB-Talk mailing list