A history of audiobooks, from entertainment & rehabilitation for blinded World War I soldiers to a twenty-first-century competitive industry. Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account are nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison’s recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for his tinfoil phonograph in 1877, to the first novel-length talking books made for blinded World War I veterans, to today’s billion-dollar audiobook industry. The Untold Story of the Talking Book focuses on the social impact of audiobooks, not just the technological history, in telling a story of surprising and impassioned conflicts: from controversies over which books the Library of Congress selected to become talking books—yes to Kipling, no to Flaubert—to debates about what defines a reader. Delving into the vexed relationship between spoken and printed texts, Rubery argues that storytelling can be just as engaging with the ears as with the eyes, and that audiobooks deserve to be taken seriously. They are not mere derivatives of printed books but their own form of entertainment. We have come a long way from the era of sound recorded on wax cylinders, when people imagined one day hearing entire novels on mini-phonographs tucked inside their hats. Rubery tells the untold story of this incredible evolution and, in doing so, breaks from convention by treating audiobooks as a distinctively modern art form that has profoundly influenced the way we read. Praise for The Untold Story of the Talking Book “If audiobooks are relatively new to your world, you might wonder where they came from and where they’re going. And for general fans of the intersection of culture and technology, The Untold Story of the Talking Book is a fascinating read.” —Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times “[Rubery] explores 150 years of the audio format with an imminently accessible style, touching upon a wide range of interconnected topics . . . Through careful investigation of the co-development of formats within the publishing industry, Rubery shines a light on overlooked pioneers of audio . . . Rubery’s work succeeds in providing evidence to ‘move beyond the reductive debate’ on whether audiobooks really count as reading, and establishes the format’s rightful place in the literary family.” —Mary Burkey, Booklist (starred review)

Are you ready to solve one of the world’s biggest mysteries: how we talk? The story of communication begins in prehistoric times, gallops through the dark arts, untranslatable words and languages brought back from the dead, and arrives in the age of AI. Along the way, we meet outstanding characters—the one-word man, the 400-word monkey and the million-word computer—who play their part in the development of language. Every tale in this book holds a clue to the gigantic puzzle of the evolution of language that has hypnotized brilliant minds over time. Handprints of not-quite-humans on ancient cave walls, secrets buried in ash from a seven-year-long winter, forbidden experiments by kings on babies and even a rogue gene hiding in your DNA—how do they all piece together? WARNING: Enjoy the rollercoaster ride of language, hilarious histories and crazy quizzes, but ignore the wise-cracking dog who will insist he wrote this book.

Every engineer must eventually face their first daunting design project. Scheduling, organization, budgeting, prototyping: all can be overwhelming in the short time given to complete the project. While there are resources available on project management and the design process, many are focused too narrowly on specific topics or areas of engineering. Practical Engineering Design presents a complete overview of the design project and beyond for any engineering discipline, including sections on how to protect intellectual property rights and suggestions for turning the project into a business. An outgrowth of the editors' broad experience teaching the capstone Engineering Design course, Practical Engineering Design reflects the most pressing and often-repeated questions with a set of guidelines for the entire process. The editors present two sample project reports and presentations in the appendix and refer to them throughout the book, using examples and critiques to demonstrate specific suggestions for improving the quality of writing and presentation. Real-world examples demonstrate how to formulate schedules and budgets, and generous references in each chapter offer direction to more in-depth information. Whether for a co-op assignment or your first project on the job, this is the most comprehensive guide available for deciding where to begin, organizing the team, budgeting time and resources, and, most importantly, completing the project successfully.

This is the first scholarly work to examine the cultural significance of the "talking book" since the invention of the phonograph in 1877, the earliest machine to enable the reproduction of the human voice. Recent advances in sound technology make this an opportune moment to reflect on the evolution of our reading practices since this remarkable invention. Some questions addressed by the collection include: How does auditory literature adapt printed texts? What skills in close listening are necessary for its reception? What are the social consequences of new listening technologies? In sum, the essays gathered together by this collection explore the extent to which the audiobook enables us not just to hear literature but to hear it in new ways. Bringing together a set of reflections on the enrichments and impoverishments of the reading experience brought about by developments in sound technology, this collection spans the earliest adaptations of printed texts into sound by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and other novelists from the late nineteenth century to recordings by contemporary figures such as Toni Morrison and Barack Obama at the turn of the twenty-first century. As the voices gathered here suggest, it is time to give a hearing to one of the most talked about new media of the past century.

"The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science provides an outstanding resource in 33 published volumes with 2 helpful indexes. This thorough reference set--written by 1300 eminent, international experts--offers librarians, information/computer scientists, bibliographers, documentalists, systems analysts, and students, convenient access to the techniques and tools of both library and information science. Impeccably researched, cross referenced, alphabetized by subject, and generously illustrated, the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science integrates the essential theoretical and practical information accumulating in this rapidly growing field."

Technology Play and Brain Development brings together current research on play development, learning technology, and brain development. The authors first navigate the play technology and brain development interface, highlighting the interactive qualities that make up each component. Next, they survey the changes in play materials and the variations in time periods for play that have occurred over the past 15-20 years, and then explain how these changes have had the potential to affect this play/brain developmental interaction. The authors also cover various types of technology-augmented play materials used by children at age levels from infancy to adolescence, and describe the particular qualities that may enhance or change brain development. In so doing, they present information on previous and current studies of the play and technology interface, in addition to providing behavioral data collected from parents and children of varied ages related to their play with different types of play materials. Significantly, they discuss how such play may affect social, emotional, moral, and cognitive development, and review futurist predictions about the potential qualities of human behavior needed by generations to come. The authors conclude with advice to toy and game designers, parents, educators, and the wider community on ways to enhance the quality of technology-augmented play experiences so that play will continue to promote the development of human characteristics needed in the future.