Tag Archives: Indiana Voices

Recommended titles from the Indiana Voices collection

Posted on by

Indiana Voices, the program at the Indiana State Library that records Indiana related books and magazines for patrons of the Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library, works hard to select books to record that we feel will be something that can be enjoyed by a wide range of Indiana library patrons. We record books about notable Hoosiers, books by Indiana authors that fall into popular genres like cozy mysteries and westerns and books set in Indiana. The program strives to produce audiobooks that captivate, motivate and educate the listener. Many of the books we record are selected from the books housed in the Indiana Authors Room at the Indiana State Library and would not otherwise be available for patrons to enjoy in an accessible format.

Indiana Authors Room

In keeping with that goal, here are a few selections that are currently available through the Indiana Voices program.

Mystery
“Murder on the Bucket List (A Bucket List Mystery)” by Elizabeth Perona

The septuagenarian women of the Summer Ridge Bridge Club have gathered in secret late one July night to check skinny-dipping off their bucket list. But as Francine observes, the jittery members seem more obsessed with body issues and elaborate preparations than actually stripping down and getting in the pool. A pungent smell emanating from the pool shed provides a perfect distraction. When a dead body flops out, it’s an answered prayer for Charlotte, since the first item on her list is to solve a murder.

Thus begins an unexpected adventure for these eccentric seniors filled with unseen twists and turns with a dash of humor thrown in for good measure

Westerns
“Cotton’s War” by Phil Dunlap

As sheriff of Catron County in New Mexico Territory, Cotton Burke has put his life on the line against some of the West’s most unrepentant outlaws, like Virgil Cruz; who’s kidnapped the woman Cotton loves and threatens to kill her should the lawman attempt to interfere with his gang’s schemes.

Memphis Jack Stump used to wear a badge and uphold justice until one drink too many cost him his job, and his friendship with Cotton. But he’s the only man Cotton trusts enough to infiltrate Cruz’s gang as a hired gun and help take them down from the inside before the bandit enacts a terrible revenge.

Biographies
“Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate: Crafting Foreign Policy from Capitol Hill” by John T. Shaw

In this illuminating profile, John T. Shaw examines Lugar’s approach to lawmaking and diplomacy for what it reveals about the workings of the Senate and changes in that institution. Drawing on interviews with Lugar and other leading figures in foreign policy, Shaw chronicles Lugar’s historic work on nuclear proliferation, arms control, energy and global food issues, highlighting the senator’s ability to influence American foreign policy in consequential ways.

“Gene Stratton-Porter: Novelist and Naturalist” by Judith Reick Long

When Gene Stratton-Porter died in 1924, she was one of America’s most popular novelists and the best-known Indiana author. In this first complete account of Stratton-Porter’s life, Judith Reick Long reveals the author of sentimental and simple nature tales as a much more complex individual than she has heretofore been considered.

Her best-known novel, “A Girl of the Limberlost,” is about a lonely, poverty-stricken girl who lives on a farm in Adams County and escapes from her sorrows in the Limberlost Swamp. She wrote 12 novels, three books of poetry, children’s books, magazine articles and seven nature studies.

Classic Hoosier Literature
“The Hoosier-Schoolmaster” by Edward Eggleston

This cherished tale is considered a milestone in American literature, a monument to regional writing. Edward Eggleston’s account of the adventures of a young schoolmaster in a 19th century school system in rural Southern Indiana presents a vivid and readable chapter in the history of America and American education.

Contemporary Fiction
“Mother Night” by Kurt Vonnegut

“Mother Night” is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

And there are so many more…

These highlighted titles are just a few choices when it comes to recommended audiobooks available from Indiana Voices. Just about any genre that suits your fancy is available through our program and we are adding more all the time.

Here are just a taste of the titles that are currently in the Indiana Voices pipeline:

“Black Noon: The Year They Stopped the Indy 500”
“A Dark and Stormy Murder (A Writer’s Apprentice Mystery)”
“Hudson Lake (A Jazz Age Novel)”
“Undeniably Indiana: Hoosiers Tell the Story of Their Wacky and Wonderful State”
“Our Service, Our Stories – Indiana Veterans Recall Their World War II Experiences”
“Letters from Skye (A Love Story spanning two World Wars)”
“Life and Death in Kolofata: An American Doctor in Africa”
“Pioneers of the Hardwood: Indiana and the Birth of Professional Basketball”

To view a complete list of books in the Indiana Voices collection, visit our online catalog, search for “Indiana” and select “subject.” Then choose “Indiana Digital Voices” from the media drop down list. To sign up to receive Indiana Digital Books, or to learn more about the Talking Book Library, please contact us at 1-800-622-4970 or via email. You can also download Indiana Voices books from BARD by searching for “Indiana.”

This blog post was written by Linden Coffman, director of Indiana Voices. For more information about the Talking Book and Braille Library, call 1-800-622-4970 or send an email.

Creating a title for Indiana Voices

Posted on by

Earlier this year, I posted a blog entry about how books are selected for inclusion into the Indiana Voices audiobook collection. This time around I thought that I might share about the process that goes into taking the selected book from its printed form and turning it into either an audiobook on cartridge or a downloadable version for the Library of Congress National Library Service BARD website.

There are multiple steps needed to complete this process, including the aforementioned title selection. After selecting a title, the next step is pairing the book with the right narrator. Many of our program’s narrators are good at reading just about anything, but there are some that just seem to have the right voice for a particular genre. I like to match them up with the types of books that they seem to best convey.

Next, we move on the heart and soul of the process; the actual narration of the book.  Narrators must read ahead to get a feel for the structure and composition of the book and how they need to approach it. Narrators also have to read ahead in order to look for unfamiliar words, names or geographical locations, in order to get the correct pronunciations down.

The narration can take anywhere from six weeks to eleven months or longer to complete, depending on the length of the book. At present, the longest I have worked on getting one title recorded was about two years, but that did include a few breaks for that particular narrator to work on other recordings.

Once a title is recorded, it moves on to the next step, which is proofreading for errors. During the recording process, the narrator and the person monitoring the recording can only catch so many errors. That’s why this step is so critical. It ensures the accuracy of the recording by having another set of ears listen to the book as they read along with the printed text. The proofreader logs any mistakes that may have occurred. These errors could include omitted words, added words, mispronunciations or other such discrepancies that may have happened during the original recording.

After a title is proofread, the log sheet is checked and the discovered errors are corrected. This usually involves having the original narrator come in and re-read some of the text from the book.

The final step of the process is to add the electronic markers onto the completed recording so titles, annotations, chapter headings and such can be accessed during playback. The finished audiobook it is now ready to be either transferred to a cartridge or uploaded to the NLS BARD website.

Learn more about Indiana Voices by visiting this link.

This blog post was written by Linden Coffman, director of Indiana Voices. For more information about the Talking Book and Braille Library, call 1-800-622-4970 or send an email.

Audio book choices for Indiana Voices

Posted on by

Indiana Voices, part of the Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library at the Indiana State Library, records Indiana-related materials for residents of Indiana who cannot use standard printed materials due to visual or physical disabilities. In the past few years, the reach of the Indiana Voices program has expanded as the National Library Service (NLS) has allowed the inclusion of locally recorded materials to their Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) service for patrons nationwide to download and enjoy.

Since the process of recording a book is so time consuming, we put a lot of thought into each book we choose for recording. Just because a book meets the Indiana-related criteria for the program does not mean that we will be able to record it. When choosing books to record we take into account positive reviews for a book, whether the book covers a subject of interest to our patrons, whether the book covers a subject our collection is lacking in and whether the books is available in an accessible format elsewhere.

Emmy Award-winner Dick Wolfsie of WISH-TV visited the Indiana Voices studio in January.

The most important criteria for what books should be added to the collection is rather simple: What do our patrons want to read? Our patrons tend to enjoy mysteries, westerns, religious fiction and historical fiction, along with non-fiction topics like war diaries, biographies and true crime. Patrons also always enjoy books by classic Hoosier authors such as George Barr McCutcheon, Meredith Nicholson, Booth Tarkington and Gene Stratton-Porter. These titles are easily available by simply perusing the book collection located in the Indiana Authors Room here at the state library.

Indiana Voices is always open to input from Talking Book and Braille Library patrons as to what types of titles they would like to see added to the collection. If you would like to make a suggestion, please feel free to contact Linden Coffman via email or via phone at (317) 232-3683.

This blog post was written by Linden Coffman, director of Indiana Voices. For more information about the Talking Book and Braille Library, call 1(800) 622-4970 or send an email.

Carl W. Henn, Jr. – Volunteer of the Year

Posted on by

Recently, the Indiana State Library named Carl W. Henn, Jr. volunteer of the year for his work as a narrator for the Talking Book and Braille Library’s Indiana Voices program, a program which records audio books for blind and visually disabled citizens of the state.  Mr. Henn, who is 93, has been volunteering as a reader for both the Indiana State Library and the Indiana Historical Society for over 35 years.

During WWII, Mr. Henn served as member of General George S. Patton’s headquarters band. He worked for many years afterward in a variety of capacities at the Indianapolis Times newspapers, as well as for Eli Lilly & Company, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis.

While working as a volunteer for the Indiana Voices program, Mr. Henn has narrated approximately 20 audio books.  He enjoys reading both fiction titles as well as books that are highly informative in nature.  He also shared that his reason for being a part of the Indiana Voices program is to fulfill an obvious need by making use of his capabilities.
FullSizeRender
To learn more about the Indiana Voices program, including volunteer opportunities, please visit http://www.in.gov/library/2399.htm.

This blog post was written by Margaret Ansty, Talking Book & Braille Library Supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at (317)232-3684 or “Ask-A-Librarian” at http://www.in.gov/library/ask.htm.

Locally Recorded Books Now Available to Download from BARD

Posted on by

Good news for patrons of the Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library. Locally recorded books from the Indiana Voices program are now available to download from BARD, the National Library Service’s Braille and Audio Reading Download website. While we have been eagerly anticipating the day when we could start adding our locally recorded books to BARD for several years now, we first had to go through a pilot process so that we could fulfill all of the required criteria.

We were invited to participate in the BARD pilot program in November and completed it in January.  Early in February we uploaded “Brewster’s Millions” by Indiana author George Barr McCutcheon, to BARD. In its first month on BARD it was downloaded over 200 times by people all over the country!

Over the next few months we will be working on making the necessary formatting changes to more books in the Indiana Voices collection so they too can be added and freely enjoyed by Talking Book patrons all over the country. Upcoming Indiana titles to look for on BARD include biographies of Richard Lugar and Frank O’Bannon as well as the classic Indiana novel “Uncle Tom Andy Bill” (a personal favorite).

IMG_0019

This blog post was written by Margaret Ansty, Talking Book & Braille Library Supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at (317)232-3684 or “Ask-A-Librarian” at http://www.in.gov/library/ask.htm.