Hi Walt and list:You're right as usual. Another rare instance where NLS has deliberately rushed publication was when they did Paristroika around 1988. I heard Merwin Smith tell the story of spending a Thanksgiving week-end rushing that one through. The justification had nothing to do with the possibility that anyone might want to read it. Gorby was coming to visit, and the President wanted to be able to say that any American could read his book the day it was released. Now granted, NLS can do a rush job when they need to, but these have definitely been the exception rather than the rule.
Some also think that not being in on the beta testing suggests they are missing out on something. Well, OK, in a sense, they are. They're missing out on the technology being used. It isn't that those involved in the beta test are gaining access to a different or wider selection availability. In fact, they aren't. I'd welcome the opportunity to take the postal system out of the loop for getting books. I can order a book, be told it is in stock and presumably it is sent relatively as quickly as ever. But it still takes six weeks to get here. But beta or no beta, I have to wait until such time as it is possible for NLS to supply what is required. I'm not particularly happy about it, but there it is.
Cheers, Dave----- Original Message ----- From: "Walt Smith" <walt@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 6:46 AM Subject: [bookport] Re: NLS Beta Program
I don't understand how anybody can make such a statement as that the NLS website will "blow away" Audible. NLS has a history of never re-issuing books originally produced in one audio medium in the next generation medium, except for a relatively small number of Talking Book recordings that hadoriginally been recorded on the old 33 1/3 recordings once the slower 16 2/3 format was introduced. They _never_ re-issued any of the old classic TalkingBook recordings, even though they retained master copies of all titles, on tape once cassettes came into use, so if anyone expects that previously released titles will become available in digital form, I feel fairly safe (based on over 50 years as a customer of NLS and its predecessor, theDivision for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, as well as having workedin the NLS system at one time as head of two different regional libraries) in saying that this isn't going to happen. Given the relatively tiny number of new titles (even contrasted with Audible) that NLS releases every year in audio format, it will take years before the NLS digital audio collection can be said to rival Audible. The great thing is that once the switch to digital takes place, every title should remain available in pristine condition forever, which certainly was never the case with cassettes, even though that should not have been the case. In short, I think that claiming that the NLS site will ever rivalAudible during the lifetime of anyone subscribed to this list is just a pipedream. Also, what possible evidence is there that the current normal delayof approximately a year from book publication to NLS availability will everbe reduced? This has been a problem with respect to audio materials ever since I first used the program in 1955. There have been a _tiny_ number ofexceptions--the best-known being the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination--but the very fact that they were so exceptional merely provesthe rule. Nothing having to do with digital is going to speed up this process because there is essentially little difference between the production of cassette and digital materials from the point of view of selecting the material, assigning it to a studio, and getting the master recording back. By the way, does anybody actually _know_ if, once digital becomes a reality, the masters will be recorded digitally rather than on analog tape? That, alone, could speed up the time currently lost between studio production and availability to readers.----- Original Message ----- From: "Jamie Pauls" <jamiepauls@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 11:58 AM Subject: [bookport] Re: NLS Beta Program You say that the NLS download site will blow away Audible. If books aren't produced in more of a timely fashion than they have in the past, Audiblewill still be the place to get Culture Warrior the day it is released. A bit off topic I suppose; just couldn't resist throwing in my two cents. PerhapsNLS will be able to speed up the release of new books when everything goes digital.