| LibriVox | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Worldwide (U.S. based) |
| Established | August 2005 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 20,000 (17 December 2024[update])[1] |
| Access and use | |
| Members | Worldwide volunteers |
| Other information | |
| Budget | US$5,000 per annum (as of 2010[update]) |
| Director | N/A (community-shared) |
| Website | librivox |
LibriVox is a group of worldwide volunteers who read and recordpublic domain texts, creating free public domainaudiobooks for download from their website and otherdigital library hosting sites on the internet. It was founded in 2005 by Hugh McGuire with the objective to "make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet."[2][3]
On 6 August 2016, the completed projects numbered 10,000; on 14 February 2021 there were 15,000, and on 17 December 2024 the catalog reached 20,000 recordings.[4][5] Most releases are in the English language, but many non-English works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that are providing additional content. LibriVox is associated withProject Gutenberg from where the project gets some of its texts, and theInternet Archive that hosts digital recordings.
Can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life throughpodcasting?
LibriVox was started in August 2005 byMontreal-based writer Hugh McGuire, who set up ablog, and posed the question.[6][7] The first recorded book wasThe Secret Agent byJoseph Conrad.[3]
LibriVox is an invented word inspired byLatin wordsliber (book) in itsgenitive formlibri andvox (voice), giving the meaningBookVoice (orvoice of the book). The word was also coined because of other connotations:liber also meanschild andfree, independent, unrestricted. As the LibriVox forum says: "We like to think LibriVox might be interpreted as 'child of the voice', and 'free voice'. Finally, the other link we like is 'library' so you could imagine it to mean Library of Voice."[8]
There has been no decision or consensus by LibriVox founders or the community of volunteers for a single pronunciation of LibriVox. It is accepted that any pronunciation is accurate.[9]
LibriVox is a volunteer-run, free content, public domain project. It has no budget orlegal personality. The development of projects is managed through anInternet forum, supported by anadmin team, who also maintain a searchable cataloguedatabase of completed works.[10][3]
In early 2010, LibriVox ran a fundraising drive to raise $20,000 to cover hosting costs for the website of about $5,000/year and improve front- and backend usability.[11] The target was reached in 13 days, and so the fundraising ended and LibriVox suggested that supporters consider making donations to its affiliates and partners,Project Gutenberg[12] and theInternet Archive.[13]
Volunteers can choose new projects to start, either recording on their own or inviting others to join them, or they can contribute to projects that have been started by others. Once a volunteer has recorded their contribution, it is uploaded to the site, and proof-listened by members of the LibriVox community.[10]
Finished audiobooks are available from the LibriVox website, andMP3 files are hosted separately by theInternet Archive. Recordings are also available through other means, such asYouTube andiTunes, and, being free of copyright, they are frequently distributed independently of LibriVox on the Internet and otherwise.[10]
LibriVox only records material that is in thepublic domain in the United States, and all LibriVox books are released with a public domain dedication.[14][3] Because of copyright restrictions, LibriVox produces recordings of only a limited number of contemporary books. These have included, for example, the9/11 Commission Report, which as a work of the US Federal Government is in the public domain.[15]
The LibriVox catalogue is varied. It contains popular and classic fiction, but it also includes difficult texts such asImmanuel Kant'sCritique of Pure Reason, and a recording of the first 500 digits ofpi. The collection also features poetry, plays, religious texts (for example, English versions of theKoran and books from various translations of theBible) and non-fiction of various interests. In January 2009, the catalogue contained approximately 55 percent fiction and drama, 25 percent non-fiction and 20 percent poetry (calculated by numbers of recordings). By the end of 2023, the most viewed item (22.7M) was a reading ofThe Art of War attributed toSun Tzu and read in 2006 by Moira Fogarty, followed by a 2006 collective reading ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland with 22.4M views.[1]
Around 90 percent of the catalogue is recorded in English, but recordings exist in more than 90 languages (as of 2019[update]).[10]
LibriVox has garnered significant interest, in particular from those interested in the promotion of volunteer-led content and alternative approaches tocopyright ownership on the Internet.[10][3]
It has received support from theInternet Archive andProject Gutenberg. Intellectual freedom and commons proponentMike Linksvayer described it in 2008 as "perhaps the most interesting collaborative culture project this side ofWikipedia".[16]
The project has also been featured in press around the world and has been recommended by the BBC'sClick, MSNBC'sThe Today Show,Reason,[17]Wired,[18] the USPC Magazine and the UKMetro andSunday Times[19] newspapers.
A frequent concern of listeners is the site's policy of allowing any recording to be published as long as it is understandable and faithful to the source text.[3][20] This means that some recordings are of lower audio fidelity; some feature background noises, non-native accents or other perceived imperfections in comparison to professionally recorded audiobooks.[21][22] While some listeners may object to those books with chapters read by multiple readers,[23] others find this to be a non-issue or even a feature,[24][25][26] though many books are narrated by a single reader.
The narrations have been calledoutsider art.[27] John Adamian, writing inWired, noted:
Sometimes while listening I feel like I'm eavesdropping on a strange over-wrought audition, where an aspiring actor tries on and abandons accents, tweaks their voice in pitch too much, or hyperextends vowels in an effort to feel their way into the voice of a fictional New England sea captain, or a crude Yorkshire industrialist, or a displaced German Jew in London. Some readings are wooden, but with a kind of affectlessness that starts to seem like its own interesting artistic choice once you've settled into the performance.[27]
This data current as of February 1, 2019. Out of 12,535 total LibriVox audiobooks, 1,617 (12.9%) are in languages other than English, including Hindi, Hungarian, Korean, Kurdish, Sudanese, Swedish, and even Esperanto.
