Audiobooks on iPods: Building a program for a research library

Building a program for a research library R esearch libraries, with their indepth col lections that support research activities, have long collected print books and journals, and, in recent years, ebooks and ejournals.Ebooks and ejournals enable researchers to locate and obtain information quickly and re motely at any time of the day or night; they have become especially popular over the past decade.On the other hand, audiobooks have not played a very important role in research libraries.In July 2007, the Research Library at the National Institute of Standards and Technolo gy (NIST) instituted an AudiobooksoniPods 1 program using leadership and management audiobooks.NIST researchers enthusiastically embraced the program from its very fi rst day.In its initial nine months, researchers checked out audiobooks six times more frequently than new print books.