Listening to audiobooks has never been easier, but do your library patrons know that? With nearly 26,000 titles published in 2014, listeners have never had so many options to choose from or to confuse them. Librarians too must decide which formats and titles are best for their collections. While revealing the results of a newly commissioned, comprehensive nation-wide survey focusing on public library audiobook collections and patron usage patterns, our expert panel of listeners’ advisory librarians and audiobook industry experts will demystify trends and issues as well as offer resources and strategies for creating an engaging and responsive audiobook collection for your library.
Follow up materials
- Presentation slides
- Attendance certificate
- Public and School Library Audiobook survey results
NoveList resources
- Audiobooks for the whole family by genre
- Audiobooks for the whole family by age
- NoveList search strategy: Finding audiobooks for every listener
- NoveList video: Searching for audiobooks
- The Secret Language of Books
Audiobook resources
- Audiobook awards and recognition
- Audiobook bibliography
- Audiobook lexicon
- Audiobook RA in 15 minutes
- Sounds Good to Me: Listening to Audiobooks with a Critical Ear
- Sync brochure
Other presentations
The Panelists
Dodie Ownes (moderator) puts theory into practice as an adult services librarian at Douglas County Libraries, James H. LaRue branch, in Highlands Ranch, CO. She oversees the YA collection and adult fiction audiobook collections there, in addition to all other duties as assigned. Dodie serves on RUSA's The Listen List Award committee and the CODES Readers' Advisory Research and Trends Committee and is the chair of the ALA Sullivan Award committee. She lives in Golden, where the archway over the main street reads "Howdy, folks!"
Mary Burkey is the author of Audiobooks for Youth: A Practical Guide to Sound Literature (ALA Editions, 2013), writes the "Voices in My Head" audiobook column for Booklist, and blogs as Audiobooker for the Booklist Reader website. Burkey is an independent library consultant who has served on numerous industry and library evaluation committees. She can be contacted at mary.burkey@gmail.com.
Michele Cobb has served on the Audio Publishers Association (APA) board since 2001, as a director and officer, and is currently Executive Director. She owns MLC Consulting, which provides PR, Sales, Marketing and Business Development services for the publishing industry, and she is Publisher of both AudioFile Magazine and MMB Media, as well as Audio Sales Director for L.A. Theatre Works. Michele is also strategic advisor to EveryLibrary on the audio publishing industry.
Renee Young led the project which added more than 30,000 audiobook titles and related content to NoveList Plus in 2014. She chaired RUSA’s Listen List Committee in 2014 and 2015 and has served as a judge for the Audie Awards for the past 4 years.