General DAISY information

What is DAISY?

DAISY - Digital Accessible Information System - is a set of hardware and software tools to record, store, transfer, and read digital audio books.

A DAISY digital talking book is lent on a cd-rom disc, containing up to 50 hours of narration. The reader can navigate between chapters, sections, and pages. Bookmarks can be placed anywhere in the talking book and notes (written or narrated) can be made in relation to the text.

A DAISY talking book is read on a pc with cd-rom drive and a specific reading program, or in a special talking book player.

Broadband distribution projects for talking books

MTM is running a distribution project utilising broadband technology for university libraries and students.

The project has two aims: - to distribute talking books to students as the recording of the books proceeds and - to facilitate the downloading of talking books from the digital talking book archive. After downloading, the files are written to cd-roms and ready for reading.

The download of talking books requires a broadband connection, since talking books may have a file size of 500 to 600 megabytes. MTM has a few "streaming talking books" for testing, i.e. direct listening on the Internet, without having to download the whole book.