Sprechen Sie eAudiobook?

Discovery Exercise #22: Audiobooks
This exercise involved exploring NetLibrary, a service I had dabbled a long time ago, when it first became available at our library. At the time, it was so new (or perhaps it was just so unfamiliar to me) that it seemed clumsy and awkward. So I was pleased to try it out again and find a new level of comfort. Like many library catalogs, however, it's not very casual-browsing-friendly or navigationally intuitive.

As an example, I was in the mood tonight to listen to a snippet from a humorist author... someone like Garrison Keillor, whose audiobook "Lake Wobegon Days" I've heard and thoroughly enjoyed. An author keyword search on NetLibrary yielded no "Keillor." No "Garrison." Well, not suprising, considering there are only roughly 1,400 titles available. But now what? I decided that I might try browsing by category -- and it took me some time to figure out what to click on to get me to that point. Unfortunately a "humorist" category doesn't exist. A "Fiction and Literature" category does (a pretty broad category, if you ask me). I didn't feel like scrolling through 184 "Fiction and Literature" titles to find a funny audiobook.

Ultimately, I decided to switch gears and browse the language selections, and I must say I was impressed. With a trip to Latin America coming up in a couple of weeks, I could certainly practice my Spanish. Or, if I decide to get really ambitious, I could revisit German, a language skill that I've almost completely lost since college. "Sprechen Sie eAudiobook?"