Community Sourced Audio Recording of Oz to Benefit First Book!

During the 2010 American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington D.C., Random House Audio, and OverDrive recruited individuals that attended the conference to participate in Lend Your Voice, a “community-sourced” audiobook recording of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The recording took place in OverDrive’s Digital Bookmobile, on Friday, June 25 through Sunday, June 27th. The Digital Bookmobile is a community outreach vehicle for public libraries to promote downloadable eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video. Developed inside a 74-foot, 18-wheel tractor-trailer, the nationally touring vehicle is a high-tech update of the traditional bookmobile that has served communities for decades.

Random House Audio will edit the recording, to feature as many as 300 voices—including those of Newbery winners Christopher Paul Curtis, Rebecca Stead, Karen Cushman and several other best-selling YA and adult authors—before releasing it as a digital download. When production is completed, the audiobook will be made available for a suggested donation, and all proceeds from those donations will benefit First Book.