One Book, Many Formats: The Magic of Multimedia

The Alliance Library System, the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, and the Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service are pleased to announce the second annual Audio Ebook Expo! The theme for the one day in-person and online conference is “One Book, Many Formats: The Magic of Multimedia.”

The Expo will be held at Alliance headquarters in East Peoria and as an online conference on Wednesday September 28, 2005 from 9:00 A.M. - 3:45 P.M. central time. Speakers and participants will explore all the exciting new formats for ebooks and audio books which create a personal and customized reading experience for all those who have trouble with regular print because of visual, physical, or learning disabilities. Books in these new formats also benefit and make reading more fun for children and adults who have trouble reading, who are learning English as a second language, or who just want to listen to audio books for entertainment.

Speakers include Geoff Freed from WGBH from the “Beyond the Text Project;” Bill Harroff, McKendree College; Charlotte Johnson, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Judy Dixon from Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped; Tom Peters of TAP Information Services; Steve Potash from Overdrive; Paul Cappuzzello from OCLC/netLibrary; and Sharon Ruda from the Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service.

For more information on the program and to register, go to the conference website at http://www.mitbc.org/audiobookexpo/index.html. For those attending in person, there is a $10 registration cost to cover lunch. There is no charge for talking book readers. There is no charge for online attendance. For more information, contact Lori Bell at the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com.