LibriVox Objective
To make all books in the public domain available, narrated by real people and distributed for free, in audio format on the internet.
Our Fundamental Principles
- Librivox is a non-commercial, non-profit and ad-free project
- Librivox donates its recordings to the public domain
- Librivox is powered by volunteers
- Librivox maintains a loose and open structure
- Librivox welcomes all volunteers from across the globe, in all languages
More Information
What We Do
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net for free. All our audio is in the public domain, so you may use it for whatever purpose you wish. Please note: Our readers are free to choose the books they wish to record. LibriVox sees itself as a library of audiobooks. Because the books we read are in the public domain, our 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.
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. We 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 we do suggest a 1-Minute Test recording just to check your setup. We’ll accept you no matter what you sound like.
We operate almost exclusively through Internet communications on our forum, where all your questions will be answered by our friendly community.
For more detailed information, see our FAQ.
We’d like your help. Click to learn about volunteering for LibriVox.
Resources and Partners
We get most of our texts from Project Gutenberg, and the Internet Archive hosts our audio files (for free!).
In early 2010 we ran a fund-raising drive to raise $20,000 for our expenses for the next few years. In July 2013 we launched a new fund-raising drive with the goal of raising $50,000 for short and long term expenses. If you would like to help, please visit our Donate Page.
In the Press
Some press articles about LibriVox have appeared in the following:
- Reason Magazine
- Los Angeles Times
- Montreal Gazette
- New York Times
- red hat magazine
- The World – BBC Radio
- wired.com
- IT conversations (audio)
- creative commons
- wikinews
- Les Echos (fr)
Inspirations
LibriVox was inspired by AKMA’s audio volunteer project that brought Lawrence Lessig’s book, Free Culture, to your ears.
Other inspirations include:
- Urban Art Adventures and the podchef
- Wikipedia
- Richard Stallman & the Free Software movement
- Project Gutenberg
- Creative Commons
- Internet Archive
- Brewster Kahle’s talk: Universal Access to All Human Knowledge
The Beginning
LibriVox was started in August 2005, by Hugh McGuire. An interview with Paula B from The Writing Show describing LibriVox in its earliest days can be found here.