LibriVox

LibriVox is a non-commercial, non-profit, and ad-free project that organizes volunteers creating recordings of public domain materials. They work from the United States' public domain and accept submissions in any language. These recordings are in turn donated to the public domain. LibriVox was started in August 2005 by Hugh McGuire. LibriVox was inspired by AKMA’s audio volunteer project creating an audiobook of Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. As of 2020, they have produced more than 10,000 releases.

Their audio files and website are hosted by the Internet Archive and all of their recordings are listed in "The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection" on the Archive. That collection includes more than just their official releases; for example, the first available recording is a statement by Hugh McGuire. The first LibriVox release was An International Episode by Henry James.

What LibriVox does

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then release the audio files back onto the net for free. All their audio is in the public domain, so you may use it for whatever purpose you wish. Please note: Their readers are free to choose the books they wish to record. LibriVox sees itself as a library of audiobooks. Because the books they read are in the public domain, their readers and listeners should be aware that many of them are very old, and may contain language or express notions that are antiquated at best, offending at worst.

The LibriVox public domain

LibriVox is an international project, with volunteer readers and listeners from all over the world, and they record and make available texts in many languages. Copyright laws differ from country to country, and a work that is in the public domain in one country is not necessarily public domain in another. They depend on US law as a matter of practicality and as a result of legal suggestions from various people. The main reasons that they must use US laws include:

• the domain name LibriVox.org is registered in the USA
• their website is hosted in the USA
• all they audio files are hosted in the USA
• the vast majority of their source texts come from Project Gutenberg, which does the (arduous) legal work to assure public domain status in the USA.
• it is impossible for them to verify the copyright status of every work in every country, or even many countries

Under US law, the public domain includes all works published a certain number of years in the past. As of 2020, the public domain cut-off is 1924. If a work was published before 1923, then they will accept it. Works that are naturally in the public domain because they were uncopyrightable to begin with are also acceptable, such as documents published by the United States government. Note also, that a translation is considered a new work, and its copyright status is determined by the year of publication of the translation, not the original work.

Extra restrictions

The LibriVox public domain is somewhat more restrictive than the totality of the American public domain. For example, they do not allow volunteers to do the research to determine if a work entered the public domain because its copyright holder did not renew the copyright. In such a case, the text must have been vetted and published by Project Gutenberg before a volunteer would be allowed to read it for Librivox. Works that were donated to the public domain by their authors, such as via a CC0 license, are discouraged and perhaps forbidden. There have only been a few exceptions, such as a reading of "The Open Library" by Brewster Kahle. That was one of the first LibriVox recordings ever published, so it's more of an informal anomaly.

Volunteering

If you want to volunteer, you should start by reading the volunteer landing page.

Volunteering for LibriVox is easy and does not require any experience with recording or audio engineering or acting or public speaking. All you need is a computer, a microphone, some free recording software, and your own voice. They accept all volunteers in all languages, with all kinds of accents. You’re welcome to volunteer to read any language you speak, as long as you can make yourself understood in it. You don’t need to audition, but they do suggest a 1-Minute Test recording just to check your setup. They’ll accept you no matter what you sound like.

Some LibriVox readers have left notes in their wills directing their executors to notify the LibriVox administrators of their deaths. When this happens, the reader's profile on the LibriVox website is updated with their birth year and death year. There is a thread in the forum to memorialize those who have died.

Listening

All LibriVox recordings are available on the LibriVox website, but its search system is very basic. When you find an interesting audiobook, you'll realize that you must play each track separately. Listening via the Internet Archive's items for each audiobook is a superior experience. Each audiobook's page on the LibriVox website links out to the Internet Archive item, and vice-versa.

If you enjoy a recording, consider leaving a note for the reader. There are two main ways to do this. The most direct way is to use the LibriVox website's [Thank A Reader](https://librivox.org/pages/thank-a-reader/) page, which will post your message to an ongoing thread and ping the reader's forum account. You can also leave a review on the Internet Archive item.

External links

• LibriVox.org, the main website.
• The companion wiki, featuring contribution guides.
• The LibriVox Forum, where people are free to join any projects or ask questions.
• @librivox on Twitter