APH Studio Web
What is the APH Studio?
In 1938, APH produced its first Talking Book. Since that time, APH has been under contract to the National Library Service, a division of the Library of Congress, to produce Talking Books for the permanent collection. This Talking Book contract is awarded yearly, based on submitted bids from contracting studios across the country. The Studio at the American Printing House for the Blind has produced as many as 800 full-length books per year under this contract.
In addition to books, APH also bids on contracts to produce magazines on cassette for NLS, in addition to regularly recording Newsweek, Reader's Digest, and American Legion.
There are three types of employees that work in the Studio: monitors, who are responsible for setting up the book (marking where tones should fall in the text, researching particularly difficult material, making decisions about where to place a chart, or what kind of special announcements might be needed); proofreaders, who listen to the book after it is recorded, making sure that the narration follows the text word for word, double-checking reference material for correct pronunciations, and, in general, serving as the first listener of the book; and the narrators, who prepare the material, make decisions on narrative style and characterization, practice languages and dialects that appear in the text, research pronunciations, and determine the overall presentation of the narration. Currently, the Studio employs 12 monitors, 8 proofreaders, 2 full-time narrators, and nearly 30 part-time narrators. Under the 2001 contract, APH will record nearly 600 books, 1 weekly magazine, 7 monthly magazines, and 1 quarterly magazine for the National Library Service.
Sound Samples
- Library of Sound Samples
- Reader's Digest® Sample:
- Newsweek® Sample:
Studio Staff
APH Studio Book of the Month
Title: "On the Bright Side"
Author: Louise Rennison
Genre: Young Adult
Narrator: Erin Jones
APH Studio Sample
On the Bright Side. . . (:29/171K/MP3)
On the Bright Side. . . (:56/875K/MP3)
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