This project is now complete. All audio files can be found on our catalog page here:
https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-051-by-various/
This collection is dedicated to recordings of short nonfiction works in English which are in the Public Domain (generally meaning that they were published prior to 1923). Nonfiction includes essays and speeches; letters and diaries; biography and history; film, book and music reviews; descriptions of travel, politics and sports; instructional manuals, even a favorite cookie recipe from a public domain cookbook! Your nonfiction recording can be on any topic. Some suggestions for source material can be found here.
Please select and record any short nonfiction piece in the public domain. For clarification of what it means for a work to be "in the public domain," please see this section of the LibriVox Wiki: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Copyright_and_Public_Domain. Try to stick to works that run less than 60 minutes. You are welcome to contribute as many as you wish, and there is no need to "sign-up" before recording. As long as the work is clearly in the public domain, just start recording. Multiple versions are always welcome, so don't worry whether someone else has recorded your selection already; we're happy to hear your version too.
After 15-20 recordings are submitted, we will prooflisten, catalog and make them available to the public.
Basic Recording Guide: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Newbie_Guide_to_Recording
1. RECORD:
- Be sure to set your recording software to: 44100Hz, 16 or 32-bit.
- At the BEGINNING say: "[Title of Work], by [Author Name]" "This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org"
- At the END, say: "End of [Title], by [Author Name]"
- If you wish, you may also say: "Read by...your name."
- Please leave no more than 0.5 to 1 seconds of silence at the beginning of your recording. Add about 5 seconds of silence at the end of your recording.
- Need noise-cleaning? Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear distracting background noise, you may want to clean it up a bit. The latest version of Audacity (Mac/Win) has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide. Note: Noisecleaning with old versions of Audacity is not recommended.
- Save or export your recording to an mp3 file at 128kbs using the following format for the file name:
snf051_titleofwork_authorlastname_yourinitials_128kb.mp3 - Please keep the file name short. It isn't necessary to put the whole title in the file name - just a word or two. Please omit "a," "the," etc. from the title. Do not put spaces between words. Keep everything lower case. Even your initials should be lower case. The only underscores should be the separations between the snf volume, title, author's name, and your initials. There are only 4 underscores in a title!
- Please upload your finished recording using the LibriVox uploader: http://librivox.org/login/uploader. When your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please copy and post to the current nonfiction thread. If you don't post the fact that you've uploaded your recording, the nonfiction book coordinator won't know that you did it!
- If you have trouble reading the image above, please send a private message to any admin.
- To upload, you'll need to select the MC, which for the Short Nonfiction Collection is: knotyouraveragejo
- If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page
- The link to your file you copied from the uploader.
- Source from which you read (etext URL). NOTE: If posting from Gutenberg, please provide the link to the download page, e.g. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/# (where # is the Gutenberg project number for the book).
- Length in minutes.
- If this is your first Librivox recording, we will also need your name as you would like it to appear in the LibriVox catalog, and, if you have a web page and want it linked to your name in the catalog, the URL of the web page.
- Want to see if what you plan to record has been done already?
- Search by keywords in the Catalog Search
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/ - But don't let this stop you from recording your own version!
- The level of proof listening for the nonfiction collection is "standard." We will only proof for "repeated words or passages that the reader likely intended to edit out" and such. For a discussion of the levels of proof listening, please see this Wiki page: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Guide_for_Proof-listeners#Levels_of_Proof-listening.
- We ask that you complete any editing requested by the Dedicated Proof Listener within two weeks of the request, or, if you need more time, that you post in this thread to request an extension. There’s no shame in this; we’re all volunteers and things happen. Extensions are, however, at the discretion of the Book Coordinator. To be fair to the other readers, sections which cannot be edited in a timely manner will be deleted from the current volume of the Nonfiction Collection, but they can always be included in a future volume when the edits are complete.
Magic Window:
BC Admin
I enjoyed reading that little section where an individual has an idea and goes for it. Good thing Miss Giles was a friend willing to go along.