Playing away
January 14th, 2010 Mary K. - Central
Thanks to generous grants from the Madison Community Foundation (for the Monroe Street Branch) and the Madison Public Library Foundation (for the Pinney and Sequoya branches), the library now has a collection of Playaways. You might ask just what is a Playaway? It is a preloaded easy to play audiobook in a small case that will contain the entire unabridged book regardless of how long the text.
Although the start-up collections are relatively small, their content is as varied as MPL’s audiobook collection. For example there is foreign language instruction as well as many popular titles by authors like Michael Connelly. Also keep in mind that other libraries in the South Central system are purchasing them as well and all are searchable in the catalog.
Audiobook fans - who have not yet taken the plunge with an MP3 player - should find the Playaways to be a good substitute for books on cassette, a format that is now discontinued by most audio publishers. MPL will still maintain the cassette collection, but will not be adding new cassette titles as the technology advances.
Look for more Playways to be arriving at these three branches. The Madison Community Foundation will again donate funds to build the collection at Monroe Street. Holds may be placed on them and they can be picked up at other libraries as well.
Entry Filed under: General
1 Comment Add your own
1. Dennis | January 14th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Actually, there are a few abridged versions that are being produced so be aware of that possibility when searching and placing holds.
You can find Playaway titles pretty easily in our catalog by searching “Playaway” as a keyword or author. But with over 1700 titles, you might be a little overwhelmed. Try searching by a favorite author and then use our limiting feature (a drop-down menu in the right corner near the top of the screen) and selecting Digital Audio Players.
New titles added by any of the member libraries in our system each month are displayed in the Don’t Miss Lists under New Audio Books in the adult section. Once again, look under Digital Audio Players.
BTW, not all of the titles are for adults. You can search Playaway as a keyword in the Children’s index and get over 360 titles!
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