She may not have any furniture at the apartment that she's just moved into in Hyderabad, but she does have 4,000 classics. On the website she's associated with, that is.

She may not have any furniture at the apartment that she's just moved into in Hyderabad, but she does have 4,000 classics. On the website she's associated with, that is.

Neeru Iyer is a meta-coordinator at Librivox. She suggests
books to be read and catalogues completed projects.

Neeru Iyer, a platform operations analyst with Facebook, is the Indian meta coordinator at Librivox, an audio book library that invites volunteers to read out loud and record a book reading of their favourite classic making it available online for a free download.

There's Tagore, Dickens and Thiruvalluvar coming up soon. The 22 year-old has already worked on audio books of Tamil classics such as Thiruppavai, devotional literature written in the name of Vishnu. Iyer grew up in Chennai reading classic romantic fiction and stumbled upon the site when looking for an audio book.

The site www.librivox.org is an initiative started by Canadian writer Hugh McGuire in 2005 to allow a digital library of public domain books available in audio format. The site has steadily built its collection to stock books in 31 languages including Japanese, Afrikaans, Yiddish and even a few Tamil books like Tiruppavai and Kannamma En Kadhali.u00a0

"Librivox is an open project. So we look to volunteers to take things forward, which is how we diversified into other languages. They aren't professionals, but that is exactly what gives you that human element of having someone read to you," says Kara Shallenberg from California, one of the first members of Librivox who now records professionally as well.

At Librivox, you can volunteer to read an entire book or simply a few chapters from a book for a collaborative project. Proof listeners check recordings for technical standards and upload them on the website. You can also contribute to a podcast.

"There aren't a lot of active Indian volunteers on the site as yet, we are still not very familiar with the concept of audio books here. It could however get a lot of people interested in literature; it's easy to listen to a story while doing anything else and its great for children to hear the classics," says Iyer, who is eager to get more local volunteers involved.u00a0

"Librivox allows you to put your voice online for everyone to hear. You can choose a book that's close to you and read it out to someone on the other side of the world. And you can do it in any language you choose," says Iyer, who has been an active member at Librivox for two years.

To volunteer: Choose a book that is in the public domain, which means it should have been published before 1923. You can record your voice on the laptop, but you will require a paid software like Cool Edit Pro for that.
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Neeru Iyer
the Indian face ofu00a0 audio book and podcast library Librivox, will work on an audio book based on the Thirukkural, one of the greatest pieces of Tamil literature comprising 1,330 couplets. You too can lend your vocals online
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