Recommended Research and Resources for Audiobook RA

Complete bibliography for Audiobooks and E-books

Audible, Inc.  http://www.audible.com

A subsidiary of Amazon.com, Audible is a subscription service and the leading digital provider of spoken audio materials (books, newspaper, magazines, original work, radio and television programming). Compatible with ipods and nearly all other mp3 players, Audible files can be played on all Apple or Windows based computers and work with the Blackberry and Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader.

Audio Publishers Assocation Press Release September 12, 2006, “Audio publishing industry continues to grow; shows 4.7% increase in sales: Audiobook sales reach an estimated $871 million,” 2006.

Audio Publishers Association  http://www.audiopub.org/

The only trade association dedicated to the audio book industry, APA gathers audio book publishers, voice talent, retailers, suppliers, other industry professionals, librarians, and media. APA bestows the annual Audie Awards, prestigious awards recognizing excellence in audiobook and spoken word productions.

Audio Publishers Association Press Release September 15, 2008.  "More Americans are All Ears to Audio: 28% of Americans have listened to  audiobook in the past year; sales surpass one billion dollars."  2008, http://www.audiopub.org/pdfs/2008%20sales%20consumer%20final.pdf

Audio Publishers Association, “Audio Publishers Association Releases Major Consumer Survey and Announces Increase in Audiobook Usage: Nearly 25% of US Population is Listening to Audiobooks,” 2006.

AudioFile Magazine  http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/ The only print and electronic resource devoted to profiling the audiobook industry and reviewing audiobooks for professionals and consumers. Exceptional productions and narrators are denoted with Earphone Awards and/or Golden Voice designations.

Auld (Skip), Hampton, ed.  “Perspectives ‘That all may read…’: Talking Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.” Public Libraries 44:2 (March/April 2005): 69-76.

Books Out Loud: Bowker’s Guide to Audio Books. R.R. Bowker, 2008. $345.

Burkey, M.  (2007) “Sounds Good To Me: Listening to Audiobooks With A Critical Ear.”  Booklist (June 1 & 15): 104.

Casbergue, R. M. & Harris, K.  (1996)  “Listening and Literacy: Audiobooks in the Reading Program.”  Reading Horizons, 37: 48-59.

Clark, R. C. (2007) “Audiobooks for Children: Is this really reading?”  Children and Libraries, 5(1): 49-50

Diakidoy, Irene-Anne N., P. Stylainou, C. Karefillidou, & P. Papageorgiou (2005) “The Relationship between listening and reading comprehension of different types of text at increasing grade levels.”  Reading Psychology, 26:55-80

Electronic Mailing List AUDIOBOOKS@HSLC.ORG Send standard subscription notice to LISTSERV@SHRSYS.HSLC.ORG

Elkin, Judith.  “Special Needs/Special Places,” in Reading and Reader Development: the pleasure of reading. (London: Facet, 2003): 143-170.

Ferreri, P.  (2000)  “Listening for Literacy: A Guide for Using Children’s Audiobooks.”  Teaching K-8, 31(2): 61

Goldsmith, F.  (2002) “Earphone English.”  School Library Journal, 48(5): 50-53

Grammy Award Winners  http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search The professional association of the recording industry, music and spoken word. Primary emphasis is placed on musical recordings. Two Grammy Awards are given in audio categories, Spoken Word and Comedy.

Grover, S. and Hannegan, L.  (2008)  “Hear and Now: Connecting Outstanding Audiobooks to Library and Classroom Instruction.”  Teacher Librarian, 35(3): 17-21

Hutton, Eileen. “Audiobooks Deserve Marketing, Too: It’s time for store promotions to catch up with the growth in audio sales.”  Publishers Weekly (October 24, 2005): 66

Kim, Ann.  “AudioVideo 2006: The Future is now.”  Library Journal (May 15, 2006): 60-63.

Maughan, S.  (2006) “Downloads have Publishers Singing a New Tune.”  Publishers’ Weekly, 253(19) May 8: 13-15

Mediatore, Kaite. “Reading with your ears: readers’ advisory and audio books,”  Reference and User Services Quarterly, 42:4 (Summer 2003): 318-323

Milliot, J.  (2007) “Simply Audiobooks to Abandon DRM.”  Publishers’ Weekly, 254(39): 6

Morgan, Greg, “A word in your ear: library services for print disabled readers in the digital age,” The Electronic Library 21:3 (2003): 234-239.

Moyer, Jessica E. and Kaite Mediatore Stover.  Chapter 4: Audiovisual Advisory.  In Research Based Readers’ Advisory, Jessica E. Moyer, ed.  ALA Editions, 2008.

Chapter opens with a Research Review on audiovisual advisory, including movies, music and audiobooks.  The second half of the chapter is a practicioner's point of view on how to do audiovisual advisory.  Includes a recommended reading list and suggested resources for providing audiovisual readers' advisory. 

Peters, T.  (2007)  “Digital Audiobooks.”  Library Technology Reports, (January/Febraury)  American Library Association.

Pitman, Randy. “Viewers’ advisory: handling audiovisual advisory questions,” in The Readers’ Advisor’s Companion, ed. Kenneth Shearer and Robert Burgin, (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 2001): 229-237.

Robinson, L.  (2003) “For the love of books: expanding e-books and audio books in school libraries.”  Media Methods, 40(2): 6-12

Varley, P.  (2002).  “As Good As Reading: Kids and the Audiobook Revolution.”  Horn Book (78)3: 251-262.

Vollmar-Grone, Michael. “Hearing and Seeing: the case for audiovisual materials, ”  in Nonfiction Readers’ Advisory: 85-99

Von Drasek, L.  (2004) “Teaching with Children’s Books: Heard Any Good Books Lately?”  Teaching K-8, 34(8): 90-91

Whitten, Robin F. AudioBooks on the Go. Castine, ME: Country Roads Press, 1995. out-of-print, but still valuable.

Whitten, Robin. “The Growth of the Audiobook Industry.”  Publishing Research Quarterly 18:3 (2005): 3-11

Winn, B., C. H. Skinner, R. Oliver, A. D. Hale, & M. Ziegler. (2006)  “The Effects of listening while reading and repeated reading on the reading fluency of adult learners.”  Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature, 50(3): 196-205

Wolfson, G.  (2008)  “Using Audiobooks to the needs of adolescent readers.”  American Secondary Education, 36(2): 105-114