A Few Thoughts on eBooks and Audiobooks

Despite being an avid fan of e-readers and working at a library for 2 years, I hadn’t really thought of how appeal terms would change for eBooks and audiobooks until this week’s readings.  I thought back to eBooks and audiobooks that I had not finished, and why, and recognized some of the issues that I had read about.

For example, one audiobook that I simply could NOT finish was “The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend” by Katarina Bavald. The setting is Broken Wheel, Iowa. In the audiobook version, all the Iowan residents talk like Scarlett O’Hara (like they are from the Deep South.) I hung in there for an hour, but the accent misrepresentation was ultimately a deal breaker for me. “How well a narrator adopts different accents…is a necessary element to the audio book” (Mediatore, 2003). Out of curiosity, yesterday I checked audiofilemagazine.com to see what they thought of this audiobook. I was a little relieved to see that I was not alone in my thoughts. They agreed that the “…Iowan and other American accents don't quite ring true.” I did enjoy the story line – what little I heard of it – so I think I would have enjoyed this book had I started out reading rather than listening to it.

Music in an audiobook can be a nice surprise sometimes, breaking up the monotony of the narrator’s voice, but there are also times when the music becomes an annoyance. Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book,” has music at the beginning and at chapter breaks that goes on throughout the first few paragraphs of each section, and it is so loud that it is difficult to hear the narrator. This is not an issue one has when reading a hard copy or even an eBook.

Regarding eBooks, Dunneback’s (2011) article, “E-books and Readers’ Advisory,” Neal Wyatt notes that with eBooks, readers have “…the lack of physical indication as to how much left have of the book to read.” Readers who like to get through books quickly may experience frustration when they’ve “flipped” through 20-30 screens, and have not moved up at all in percentage of completion of book. I’ve experienced this (“Atlas Shrugged.”) This is one advantage that hardcopies have. When you’ve read for an hour, you can look at the top of the book, see where your bookmark is, and feel that pang of satisfaction that you’ve gained headway.

There are definitely things to consider when recommending audiobooks and eBooks to patrons, but honestly, in my year of working at the adult reference desk, I have not had any RA questions directly related to eBooks or audiobooks – most questions related to these types of media are TA – technology advisory. People want to know the “what’s” and “how-to’s” of digital media and the devices they use. Dunneback (2011) mentions factors that may affect a patron’s decision to ereaders over print materials. Some of these are “display options,” “touch screens,” “size and weight of the device,” and “large-type or text-to-speech capability.” In order to help patrons with these decisions, we hold a monthly “technology drop-in” session in which they may bring their devices or ask questions about any form of technology. We may not always have the answers right away, but we can always find them! We also hold a similar session closer to Christmas, but include examples of devices that patrons may be considering for Christmas gifts. Maybe once we get all the how-to’s out of the way and more patrons gravitate to digital media in our library, the RA questions will soon follow, and I will hopefully know the right questions to ask based on my learning!

REFERENCES
Dunneback, K., & Trott, B (2011). E-books and Readers' Advisory. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 50(4), 325-9. Retrieved from Library Lit & Full Text database. 

Mediatore, K. (2003) Reading with Your Ears: Readers' Advisory and Audio Books. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 42(4), 318-23. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Photo Credit: https://www.barrons.com/articles/printed-books-enjoy-sales-growth-as-ebooks-hit-a-plateau-1429328543