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Playaway News Story Highlights Education & Audio Literacy

Nice local news story about Playaway over the weekend [Saturday 14 November, 2009]. One of the most interesting points was Jeff Williams, K-12 literacy coach for the Solon, OH school district, noting that, for many students, listening to an audiobook while following along with the text can be, "a powerful tool for developing fluency, vocabulary, story sense, comprehension, etc."

This echoes ideas expressed by Mary Burkey and other educators about the usefulness of audiobooks in developing and enhancing language fluency.  (See my earlier post on Mary's ideas.)

Another interesting point by Williams:  audiobook listening "is a literate behavior that literate adults participate in routinely — listening to a text while driving or traveling or just to relax is something that millions of Americans do, so why would we forbid students from doing so?" 

Indeed, in a world with ever-increasing volumes of information and ever-increasing time pressure, audiobook listening is arguably a life skill for every student to be taught and encouraged.

What are your thoughts about audiobooks and literacy?  Click below to leave your comment.

P.S. The news story was accompanied by the above photo.  In it, young master Thomas Metz (age 6) is listening to The Great Fire, the story of the Chicago fire of 1871, by Jim Murphy.  A Newbery Honor title and a YALSA Best Book, it's produced by Audio Bookshelf.

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Sr. Manager for Content Strategy

Playway featured on WKYC-TV

Findaway world is the company that brings you Playaway.  Last Friday, we were featured on the evening news broadcast of Cleveland's NBC affiliate station, News Channel 3, WKYC.  Economic success stories are few and far between in Northeast Ohio these days.  We were proud to be featured as an example of successful and growing enterprise in our region.  You can view the segment -- part of their "What Works" series -- online at:

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=122663&catid=45

Averting Ohio's Library Funding Crisis

ALA President Jim Rettig describes Ohio Democratic Governor Ted Strickland's proposed 50% cut to state library funding as an "unprecedented national disaster."  

“I encourage all Ohioans to contact the Governor’s office to express their opposition to his proposal to cut library funding and urge Ohio legislators to reject the Governor’s plan,” said Rettig. (See the ALA press release.)

Nationwide, the crisis in library funding has been growing since at least last Fall.  But since Playaway is a homegrown Northeast Ohio company, folks here can't help but feel an extra measure of concern now that the problem has caught us where we live.  Libraries are our customers of course, but we are library patrons and library supporters too.

Yesterday a group of Playaway employees joined over three hundred demonstrators gathered in Cleveland to protest the proposed budget cuts.  You can read about it (and see a short video clip online) in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Across the state, libraries have swiftly mounted a well-organized campaign to warn the public of the consequences of severe cuts and to encourage people to contact representatives to express their concern.  Many local libraries and library systems have posted special splash pages on their websites in order to spread the word.  (Take a look at the home pages for Cleveland Public, Cuyahoga County Public, Rocky River Public, and Reed Memorial Library in Ravenna, OH.) 

Statewide efforts are being coordinated by the Save Ohio Libraries coalition:

http://saveohiolibraries.com/

Book Links article features Playaway / Resources: audiobooks & education

Another great article by the tireless Mary Burkey -- this time an exploration of the future of audiobook formats, in the March issue of Book Links magazine.  The article mentions several advantages of Playaway as a forward-looking format.  Click here for the full text.

In the same issue, Book Links features Mary's excellent bibliography of resources relating to the educational benefits of audiobooks.

And if you want even more references on audiobooks and education (comprehension, literacy, language-learning, etc.) as well as audiobook reader's advisory resources, take a look at Jessica Moyer's site.

Jessica and I met recently when we shared the stage as part of a lively half-day pre-conference workshop on audiobooks at the joint Kansas Library Association / Mountain Plains Library Association annual conference in Wichita.  The event was interesting and a lot of fun, and Jessica, who holds an MLIS degree and is currently a PhD candidate in Education, provided a valuable research-oriented perspective to the subject of audiobooks.   

That so much interesting research and discussion is beginning to emerge is another sign, I think, that audiobooks are coming into their own as a medium.

Playaway Sights and Sounds

Playaway co-fouder and chief strategy officer, Blake Squires, was recently interviewed by Sarah Long, Director of the North Suburban Library System, a consortial group made up of 650 academic, public, school, and special libraries in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago.  Sarah's lengthy credentials include past service as president of both ALA and PLA, and she now maintains a lively multimedia website for North Surburban called Library Beat.  Their full conversation is available as a downloadable podcast at:
        http://www.librarybeat.org/longshots/play/149

And here's Blake leading a recent tour of Playaway headquarters in Solon, OH:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgbLsj_sbTM

Donna Pittman of TV station KMBC in Kansas City, MO recently filed a story on the popularity of Playaway at the Kansas City (Kansas) Public Library.  We were particularly pleased to see her mention that, if you're lucky enough to have a car stereo with an auxiliary input jack, you can plug in a Playaway and listen over your car's speakers.  You can watch the segment at:
        http://www.kmbc.com/video/18896127/index.html

Booklist article on Playaway

The January 1/15 issue of Booklist magazine features an article about Playaway by Mary Burkey.  Mary is a dedicated middle school librarian and  educator and a passionate audiobook enthusiast.  She is the founder of the ALA Odyssey Award for best Young Adult audiobook, a frequent contributor to Booklist, and writes the always-interesting Audiobooker blog -- now hosted by Booklist Online. 

In the article, Mary tells of her visit to Playaway headquarters in Solon, Ohio, interviews key Playaway employees, and talks to librarians about their perceptions of Playaway.  In her concluding paragraph, she writes:

What's on the horizon for the Playaway?  [Company founder, Blake] Squires predicts that Playaways will meet the needs of a large portion of patrons for years to come... Squires says that... their product is more than just a physical box. Their ability to load publisher content securely in Ohio, supply high-quality labeling, ship in a timely fashion, provide value-added services, and offer great content is what sets them apart.  "All of these attributes combine to make Playaway a brand product," says Squires... "We evangelize the format, share why it's good, get in relationships with libraries, and make sure the content is of great quality.  Playaway is not a piece of consumer electronics, Playaway is a a platform for delivering content."

The full text of Mary's article is available to Booklist Online subscribers (30-day free trial available): Playaway: Grab and Go Audio - Booklist (Jan 1-15, 2009).

As of 1/25/2009, full text is available here.

Or click here to download a PDF reprint.