For many years, people have been listening to music, or the spoken word – in the form of audio books – on portable devices, and have seen the evolution of portable audio technology, from analogue cassette tape, to digital CD, and MP3 based players.

Implementation of the DAISY (“Digital Access Information System”) standard means that everyone, and particularly the blind, or visually impaired, can now access not only novels, but also reference books, and manuals, thanks to improved, faster navigation and other features.

Nowadays, with the growth of online libraries, audio books can simply be downloaded, and listened to on a computer, burnt to a CD, or transferred directly to a suitable audio player.

Audio Book Formats

Audio books on cassette tape have been available for a long time, and, indeed, are still enjoyed today, by people with, perhaps, slightly older home, or car, entertainment systems.

Technological advances – not least digital storage, and enhanced navigation features – however, have meant that this more traditional medium has been replaced, in large part, by CD, and particularly MP3, technology.

MP3, short for “MPEG Audio Layer III”, is a digital, audio compression format, which uses mathematical algorithms to analyse, and remove superfluous, unheard sounds from a sound file, thus reducing the size of the file, by a factor of 10. MP3 is therefore the perfect format for audio books – which are often quite large – and MP3 based audio book players provide the ultimate in convenience and accessibility.

Even so, you should try to choose an audio book player with as much memory, or potential for memory expansion, as possible; 64 MB of flash memory, for example, is sufficient for just 6 hours of audio book playback, at 16 Kbps.

The Samsung Yepp-E64 model, for example, offers 64 MB of internal memory, plus an additional 32 MB on a standard memory expansion card, while the Toshiba e830 Pocket PC features 128 MB RAM, and 22 MB usable flash memory. Another possibility may be a hard disk drive, or HDD, MP3 player, with a storage capacity of, perhaps, 80 GB, and therefore very suitable for longer audio books.

Conclusion

Modern audio books are composed of a sound file, or collection of files, and, as such, are devoid of printing, binding and other costs associated with traditional hardback, paperback books, and therefore more economical to produce.

The fact that audio books require hearing, rather than sight, is of obvious benefit to the blind, or partially sighted, but can also be a boon in situations where normal reading would not be possible, for example, while exercising, or in complete darkness. In addition, the vast number of audio book titles on the Internet, available for purchase, rental, or download, quickly and easily, puts a complete library literally at your fingertips.