Week Eleven Prompt

E-books and audio books have appeal factors that are unique to the medium and also alter traditional print appeal factors as the text goes from written on paper to e-book or audio book format. Many librarians, such as myself, may not notice or think about these appeal factors if they are not regular audio book or e-book readers. As someone who identifies as both a visual learner and a technology distracted learner, when I want to read it is always in print format. My mind wanders too frequently while listening to something and my life is so absorbed with 'screens' that e-books never appealed to me. However, despite my preference away from these formats, I need to be aware of the unique appeal factors they carry so that I can provide accurate reader's advisory for these popular formats!

 The ability to change font size and color in e-books immediately makes me think about the ways in which this could be used as adaptive technology for patrons with disabilities who may struggle with traditional print book size or color text. Anyone who has worked with fonts before can also attest to the mood and feeling of the text, ability to play around with font and text size can speed up or slow down pace or turn a serious text more lighthearted and vice versa. As Mediatore notes, if the narration of an audiobook does not match the text's mood or style, the reader could end up disliking a book they may actually enjoy. The narration is an important appeal factor to be considered in audiobooks. Factors specific to audio books such as accent, pauses, music, changing voices for characters are all appeal factors that a reader may have an opinion about.

Another important factor to consider when providing RA for patrons looking for e-books and audio books is format. Does the patron use cassette tapes, CDs, MP3 files, a kindle, or another format? I know from experience the sadness that comes along with being sold on a title only to find out it in not available in the format you use! As newer technology keeps coming out, this factor will likely be important to clarifying for quite some time.