Hi David and all
I've just listened again to the announcement in question and I didn't
hear any mention of the number of books in the RNIB Library. I
believe there to be over 23,000 books available and probably nearer
25,000 and the books from the Audible agreement will be in addition to these.
In response to the comment about books for sale, you're right, RNIB
sells a limited amount of audio titles. The Talking Book Service is
primarily a free library and I hope we continue to enjoy that free
service for many years to come.
Talk soon, John
At 23:09 20/08/2016, you wrote:
I did try to acknowledge that it was an
good development but I still felt it should have clarified the
situation. I may be naive but the positivity of the announcement
certainly did not seem to indicate that only 1 in 50 of Audible
available books would be available now to RNIB subscribers.
Interesting you mention 25,000 RNIB books. In the announcement they
said the RNIB library consisted of 10,000 books of which of course
4,000 extra would be a greater increase. did I misunderstand the
announcement or is the announcement incorrect as well?
David Griffith
On 20/08/2016 22:34, John Ramm wrote:
Hi David
I'm struggling to believe that anyone can be quite so unexcited about an increase from 25,000 to 29,000 books available to borrow for free from the RNIB Talking Book service! I don't know whether you know how difficult it is to persuade organisations to wave or share their copyright for the benefit of blind and partially sighted people, but it's not easy and I believe that this is a major step forward. I hear what you say about Audible books being available to disc and USB users but, given that Audible is an online service, I can't imagine that these books won't also be available via Overdrive but I can check, or perhaps one of the RNIB staff who are members could clarify.
At no point did anyone suggest that people should give up their Audible subscriptions, but if you did, rest assured that it is an incredibly simple matter to subscribe again, that's business ... they want your money.
The deal announced via this link may well be followed by others and I know that the team at RNIB is working hard behind the scenes to increase the number of titles available to the tens of thousands of people who use this great service on a daily basis.
Talk soon, John
At 21:06 20/08/2016, you wrote:
Very interesting and certainly sounds good news but in the intro bit it raises a lot of unanswered questions/ clarifications needed. I did not listen through the sample from the Militarist Audio Book to its conclusion so these questions/clarifications may have been addressed later. But assuming they were not.
1. It only mentions eligibility for those using the USB/Daisy Disk service - what about those who have switched to the Download Service? Are we excluded?
2. It seems to suggest though does not make clear that actually only a tiny sub-set of books on Audible will be available to the RNIB . That is the 4,000 books for which Audible directly hold the copyright. Audible is massively bigger than this though. Presumably this means that only 1 in 50 of the over 200,000+ books available (according to Google when I checked just now will actually be available to RNIB members.
3. What people should definately not be doing then is cancelling their Audible membership in the belief that they will get anything like the selection of books they currently enjoy.
4. If I am correct in all this I think it is possibly misleading not to include this clarification at the stage of the announcement, certainly my first thought was should I now cancel my Audible Membership?
This is not to downplay what is an important marginal development. An increase of 4,000 books is certainly an uplift on the current 10,000 books that the RNIB hold.
If as a Download Talking Book User I can access these titles I will certainly appreciate not having to expend my Audible Credits on them.
Still I think the announcement should be clearer to prevent people taking premature stpes regarding cancelling Audible membership that they may later regret.
David Griffith
ON 20/08/2016 17:45, Michael Allan wrote:
Here is a link to the announcement concerning this.
https://audioboom.com/boos/4951397-audible-team-up-with-rnib-talking-books
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John Ramm
Drummer for 40days - @40daysofficial - www.facebook.com/40dayswrexham - www.soundcloud.com/40daysofficial
Chair, RNIB Cymru - www.rnib.org.uk/wales-cymru-1
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Non Executive Director, Habinteg Housing Association - www.habinteg.org.uk
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