Reference Question of the Week - 4/6/08

One of our regular patrons has a radio show on a local station. He found some copyright-free songs on YouTube, and wanted to know how he could record them to play on his show.

Huh.

Of course, there are lots of ways to do this, including this how-to video on YouTube:

However, most of the usual ways require more access to the computer than we allow the public to have. Patrons cannot install software or get to Windows Sound Recorder, so he wanted something easier.

An internet search lead us to the website vixy.net, which is exactly what he wanted. Enter the url of the online video you’d like to record, choose the output file type (mp3 is an option), click start, wait, and then download the audio file. Nice.

The system is still in beta, and lists right on their homepage some of the errors you might encounter (after working with it awhile, the patron said he got an error on about one in three attempts). But when it works, it works, and it gave the patron exactly what he was looking for - mp3 files he could save to his flash drive.

But let me leave you with what I told him: just because something is possible doesn’t mean it is legal. It is up to you to check to make sure the copyright on published work allows for this type of recording.

See Also

• Reference Question of the Week - 2/24/08
• Reference Question of the Week - 6/15/08
• Kid Book Reviews on StoryTubes
• Reference Question of the Week - 7/13/08
• Library Investigation

Posted under Library, Reference Question, Technology | No Comments »

Another Announcement from OverDrive

Hot on the heels of its announcement of mp3-based and iPod-compatible audiobooks, Overdrive is introducing a new product line: Large Print Audiobooks.

Designed to cater to the elderly and vision-impaired library patrons (just like our print large print collections), OverDrive has contracted with various large print book vendors to convert their catalogs into large print audio versions.

I think it is great that vendors aren’t always trying to cast wide nets to scoop up as much profit as possible, but instead are providing products based on the needs of our smaller patron groups.

The only catch is that, like large print books, the audiobook files will be larger than their normal versions. Also, larger headphones are required, too, to accommodate the extra sound.

Still, it’s great. You can keep up with more announcements on the OverDrive News page.

See Also

• Reference Question of the Week - 2/17/08
• Resources for Book Suggestions
• Kid Book Reviews on StoryTubes
• Reference Question of the Week - 4/6/08
• Library Staircase, and Bookends

Posted under Library, Random | 3 Comments »