News

29th January 2010

National Storytelling Week

Many of us will associate storytelling with childhood.  As we grow older and learn to read for ourselves, the need to be told a story diminishes.  However, there are a large number of adults and children for whom storytelling continues to be an active part of their everyday lives.  This is because they struggle to read a book or to turn its pages due to an illness, disability or learning difficulty.

Many of our members tell us that they would be lost without the support of Listening Books.  As one of our members, Polly Higgins, says:

“Being told stories is a very basic pleasure from childhood onward and I should encourage anyone who loves to listen - to be informed, amused, entertained, exalted and elevated by the spoken word - to join Listening Books!”

To celebrate National Storytelling Week, Listening Books will be offering 12 computer streaming licences for the price of 10 to anyone signing up for the service between Saturday 30th January and Saturday 6th February inclusive.  That’s just £20 for access to over 900 audiobooks from 12 different PCs. To find out more about National Storytelling Week click here. 

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17th December 2009

Connect Newsletter Winter 2009

We are pleased to announce that our Winter 2009 edition of Connect is now available to listen to in the 'Members' area'. This newsletter includes an interview with playwright and actor Alan Bennett, audiobook reviews, charity profiles and staff recommendations. If you aren't a member, you can hear the Alan Bennett interview on our 'Author interviews' page along with many other fantastic writers.

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30th November 2009

Twitter

Listening Books has now joined social networking site 'Twitter'. Follow this link to join us there and hear up to date news about what's new at Listening Books.

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21st October 2009

Listening Books Christmas cards for sale designed by Raymond Briggs

Our Christmas cards are now for sale. All profits come directly to Listening Books and will help us to continue to provide our service to as many people as possible. Please follow this link to download an order form. We would once again like to thank Raymond Briggs for his fantastic design and generosity.

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19th October 2009

SEN London 2009

We recently attended the exhibition 'SEN London'. Thanks to all those members new and old who visited us at the stand and contributed to making our exhibition a great success. We will be exhibiting again at the 'BETT' show stand SN13 between the 13th and 16th January 2010. We would love to see you there and hope to be able to demonstrate an exciting new addition to the Listening Books service.

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2nd October 2009

Postal service

We are sorry to say that we are currently experiencing problems with the collection and delivery of our post. Please call us on 020 7407 9417 or email info@listening-books.org.uk if you have sent a letter or CD to us, or are expecting to receive one, and no action has been taken. We will do our best to remedy the problem as quickly as we can.

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16th September 2009

New survey added to our 'Members' area'

We are constantly trying to update and improve the Listening Books service for our members. We would be very grateful if you could spare the time to answer a short questionnaire for us. Please log in and go to the 'Your views' area of the website.

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14th July 2009

Improvements made to our website due to member feedback!

As a member-led charity, we are always keen to receive feedback and improve our service accordingly. Therefore, we have made the following additions to the members' area of our new website:

• A streaming help function.
• The ability to access streaming bookmarks direct from the members' homepage.
• An improved search on the 'my titles' page: members can now search for new titles added within the last three months and by audiobook duration.
• Members can select how many results they would like to see when searching for audiobooks and scroll through them.
• Membership can now be renewed online via PayPal.

Please email us with any further suggestions or comments.

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2nd June 2009

Alan Bennett winner of the Listening Books Award for the Spoken Word

We are pleased and proud to announce that Alan Bennett was awarded the Listening Books Award for the Spoken Word. It was presented to him by James Naughtie at the Guardian Hay Festival on Saturday 30th May. Click here to read more about our award.

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20th May 2009

Carol Ann Duffy becomes first female poet laureate

Congratulations to Carol Ann Duffy, who has been appointed as the first female poet laureate, replacing Andrew Motion who has just completed his ten year tenure. Members can listen to the following audiobooks by these poets:
In the Blood by Andrew Motion 0296CD
Selling Manhattan by Carol Ann Duffy 0227CD
Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy 0328CD
Standing Female Nude by Carol Ann Duffy 0149CD
The Other Country by Carol Ann Duffy 0231CD

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15th May 2009

Stream and bookmark!

With our new website, comes a brand new feature: bookmarking. When you stream any of our audiobooks you can bookmark your place and come back to the exact point you left off the next time you log in.

If you have any questions to do with our streaming or our bookmarking service, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our library team.

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6th April 2009

Welcome to our brand new Listening Books website!

Our new website, which is launching today, is the result of months of hard work by the Listening Books team. You’ll notice the look and style is improved, as well as some great new features to our streaming, such as our new bookmarking service.

If you're not yet a member, you can join online, browse our full catalogue and listen to an audio version of our newsletter. If you are a member, you will have access to our fantastic new members' area. Don't forget to log in!

We will be updating our news page regularly, so keep checking back to keep up-to-date with what's happening at Listening Books!