Playaway audiobooks

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, November 2008; written by Lisa Pearson.

Hollywood may like to roll out their big-budget movies during the summer and Christmas vacation season, but here at the library we prefer to save our great new innovations for the slow months when we could all use a little more excitement in our lives. At the beginning of November, we unveiled an entirely new collection: Playaway audiobooks.

We’ve been advertising this little collection in the library and on our blog as “Grab-n-go audio”, because it truly is the most portable, user-friendly audiobook in existence. A Playaway is actually an audiobook and player in one package and it’s a mighty small package at that. Weighing less than 3 ounces, and measuring a mere 3.5 x 2.5 inches, the Playaway allows listeners to enjoy an entire unabridged audiobook without having to flip cassettes, switch CDs or download digital files. You don’t need a special player, an Internet connection or a really long extension cord. And even more importantly - to some of us – you don’t need a degree in computer programming to figure out how to make it work for you.

You simply plug your headphones into the Playaway, press the power button and hit ‘play’. We loan it to you with a battery, so it is ready to go as soon as you leave the building. Some libraries offer these Playaways with headphones, but we thought that was a little unsanitary and we also understand that people can become quite attached to their own set of headphones. If, however, you do not already have headphones we have earbuds available for purchase at the front desk for a dollar. The universal jack that comes on the Playaway not only allows you to use your own personal headphones, it can also be used with car adapters – for those long Ketchikan commutes – speakers and FM transmitters. You and your entire family can enjoy listening to a great story during car rides, meals, fishing trips or just relaxing together on the couch.

As simple and easy to use as the Playaway is, however, it also allows you to skip tracks, fast-forward or rewind through tracks, and (most importantly) to bookmark. When you power-down your player, it will remember where you stopped and automatically pick up again when you turn the player back on. Having once had an mp3 player that did not remember where I stopped, I truly appreciate not needing to memorize where in the book I left off, or having to fast-forward through an interminable track to get back into the story. Additional lovely features of this new audio format are that you don’t have to worry about garbled cassettes or scratched discs, you don’t have to tote the next installments around with you, and you don’t have to drop what you’re doing to put the next installment into your player. Your ears will get tired long before the Playaway is finished.

As for the stories themselves, we tried to get a broad range of genres and tastes represented in our little starter collection. The inventory of 50 titles includes such favorite authors as Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Kingsbury. You can choose from mystery, science fiction, romance, fantasy, Christian fiction, horror, historical novels and classic literature. In the twelve days since we have started this program, our Playaways have checked out 34 times and we have gotten some wonderful feedback from library patrons who love this handy new format. Please come down and browse the shelf, or if you would like to browse from home you can just click the little orange Playaway logo on the library’s webpage: www.firstcitylibraries.org/KPLhomepage.html to get a complete list of titles.

In closing, I would like to thank the people who made this exciting new collection possible: the Alaska State Legislature and Rep. Kyle Johansen. With the $16,000 in state funding that Rep. Johansen brought to the public library, we have been able to invest in a variety of worthwhile programs, and this new Playaway collection is just one of them. We’re excited about the possibilities for the future, so please let us know what you think of our new Grab-n-Go Audio.