Listen up! Audio books now available at DAFB

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Shen-Chia Chu
  • 436th AW Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  The 436th Force Support Squadron Base Library now offers free audio books on CD, cassette tape and downloadable digital format.

An audio book allows people the freedom to enjoy a book through listening as they travel.

"I like audio books because they are considered a valuable tool because of their format," said Richard Krueger, 436th FSS Base Library director. "Unlike traditional books or videos, one can learn from an audiobook while doing other tasks. The most popular use of audio books is during a car ride or public transportation as an alternative to listening to the radio. Many people listen just to relax or as they drift off to sleep."

Several thousand audio books are available and more than 300 are pre-loaded on MP3 players that come with earphones. The selections include fiction, non-fiction and 25 language instruction books, to include Arabic and Chinese.

"Audio books have also been used to teach children to read and to increase reading comprehension, as well as a useful source for the blind," said Mr. Krueger.

Audio books may come as dramatized versions of the printed book, sometimes with a complete cast, music and sound effects.

The Library director says that some of the most popular audio books currently rented out in the collection include: "1776" by David McCollough, "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown and "Polar Shift" by Clive Cussler.

The audio books are available for Team Dover members of all ages to check out for three weeks. There are books specifically geared for ages 13 and up that should be checked out with parent's supervision. If customers don't want to wait for their audio book to be available, they may find downloading from OverDrive to be a more efficient way of getting what they're looking for.

OverDrive is a collection of audio e-books that can be downloaded in a proprietary file format (OverDrive Media) which requires a specific Windows Media Player plugin (OverDrive Media Console) to be installed.

"You can download an audio e-book to your desktop or laptop and transfer it to a portable device or burn it to a CD, depending on the digital rights associated with each title. An icon will denote a burnable title," said Mr. Krueger.

Customers may checkout a maximum of five titles and the audio selection is automatically returned (un-accessible on the PC) at the end of the 10-day loan period.

"Audio books can be downloaded to an MP3 player or CD. Downloading books on OverDrive will require a personal computer," said Mr. Krueger.

A full list of downloadable titles and OverDrive instructions can be found at www.doverafbservices.com/baselibrary/ under the "New at YOUR Library" section.
For more information, call 677-3995.