Thing 5: Downloadable Audiobooks (Week of 12/22)

This week's topic is downloadable audiobooks.

You may have heard of downloadable audiobooks, because some of our patrons are asking for them already. These are the equivalent of books-on-tape (or books-on-CD), except that they are available to listen to on your computer, iPod, or other MP3 player.

This week we will download and listen to an audiobook on the computer. The trickiest part is downloading the software first. Once you've got that installed, listening to the audiobook is not nearly as difficult.

This Week's TechPlay Exercise:
Brookfield Public Library has graciously allowed us to try out their downloadable audiobooks. To do so, here are the steps.

First, let's browse what's available.

1. Go to Brookfield Public Library's website, http://www.brookfieldpubliclibrary.info/.
   
2. On the right hand side, under Digital Downloads, click on MyMediaMall.
3. You'll see that they have audiobooks, video, and Adobe PDF eBooks. For today's exercise, we're going to download an audiobook. Browse through the audio collections by using the Fiction and Nonfiction links on the left, or the Audiobook sections in the middle of the page.
   
4. You can tell what formats each title is available in by looking at the blue icons.

Now we're going to download and listen to a title. Because our temporary Brookfield Public Library Account only allows us to checkout five titles at a time, we've already checked out some books for you to choose from.

1. From any MyMediaMall screen, click on "My Account" at the top of the page.
   
2. Select Brookfield Public Library from the drop down menu.
3. Click on "Brookfield Public Library users, click here to sign in", then enter the following barcode number: 20056000205581. The password is simply a comma.
4. Once you're in, click on "My Digital Bookshelf" to see the titles we've got checked out. Select one you want to listen to.
5. Take a look at the titles we have checked out and choose one. Click the black "Download" link under the title you've chosen.
6. A window will pop up. Choose "OK."
   
7. A dialog box will open that allows you to select the parts to download. They are numbered in order. Most audiobooks will be divided into four to ten parts of about 75 minutes each. To save time, you may only want to download the first part. Uncheck the parts you don't want, then choose OK.
8. The downloading may take some time. Once the download is finished, the title will show up with the book jacket. Double-click to play it. It should start playing right away.
9. At the bottom, you can play around with some of the controls.
   
• The red square is to stop.
  
• There is also a pause button, and arrows that will go forward or backward to the next chapter.
• The next icon is to mute, and beside it is a slider to adjust the volume.
• The next icon allows you to speed up or slow down the reader. Some listeners like to hear the audiobook slightly speeded up, for instance.
10. When you feel like you've got the hang of it, you can close out of the book by clicking the X at the top right.
    
11. Congratulate yourself! This may be one of our trickiest Things. Post a message to your blog about this experience. Do you think patrons would use this?