Unabridged News

Unabridged provides narrated downloadable digital audio books for eligible individuals living in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont who are blind, visually impaired, or physically challenged.

Unabridged uses the digital audio book system from OverDrive.

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News and Updates

July 15, 2010: Please take a few moments to complete a short Unabridged survey. Your feedback will help us improve the service.

February 1, 2010: Eighty-five of the more popular titles from the Unabridged School Download Library have been added to the main Unabridged collection of more than 3,100 titles. An HTML list of the 85 titles is at www.unabridged.info/SDLtitles201002.htm. Access to the separate Unabridged School Download Library has been discontinued.

September 28, 2009: Tom Peters, the Unabridged Coordinator, provides an audio announcement of the 47 new titles added in September to the Unabridged Main Collection of downloadable digital audio books. A streaming audio version of the announcement, which lasts 21 minutes, is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090923/, and a downloadable MP3 version (19.2 MB) of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090923/unabridgedpromo20090923.mp3. An HTML list of the titles can be found at http://www.unabridged.info/UnabridgedNewTitles200909.htm.

August 18, 2009: Tom Peters, the Unabridged Coordinator, provides a brief (11 minutes, 40 seconds) overview of the 28 new titles added in August to the Unabridged Main Collection of downloadable digital audiobooks. A streaming audio version of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090818/, and a downloadable MP3 version (4.7 MB) of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090818/unabridgedpromo20090818.mp3

June 25, 2009: Tom Peters, the Unabridged Coordinator, provides a brief (9 minutes, 30 seconds) overview of the new titles added in the past two weeks to the Unabridged Main Collection of downloadable digital audiobooks. A streaming audio version of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090625/, and a downloadable MP3 version (3.8 MB) of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090625/unabridgedpromo20090625.mp3

June 2, 2009: Tom Peters, the Unabridged Coordinator, provides a brief (7 minutes, 30 seconds) overview of the new titles added in the past week to the Unabridged Main Collection of downloadable digital audiobooks. A streaming audio version of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090602/, and a downloadable MP3 version (3 MB) of the announcement is at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedpromo20090602/unabridgedpromo20090602.mp3

May 29, 2009: Beginning today, Unabridged users can opt-in to a one-week checkout period, overriding the default two-week period. You can enable the one-week checkout period in the "My Account" section of the Unabridged Main Collection Website, or you can decide on a title-by-title basis whether one week or two weeks works best for you. Also, Unabridged users may now rate the audiobooks they read, using the familiar five-star rating system.

May 21, 2009: Eighty additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in February, March, April, and May 2009. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks200905.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,850 digital audio book titles.

March 1, 2009: The Unabridged "Always Available" trial collection launches. For the next twelve months ten titles from Blackstone Audio will be available to all registered Unabridged users, with no waiting. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website.

The ten Always Available titles are:
- 25 Things to Say to the Interviewer to Get the Job You Want, by James Hawke.
- Return of the Dancing Master, by Henning Mankell.
- Knit Two, by Kate Jacobs.
- Come On Seabiscuit, by Ralph Moody.
- Stubborn Twig, by Lauren Kessler.
- Death by Black Hole, by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
- 36 Yalta Boulevard, by Olen Steinhauer.
- Desolation Island, by Patrick O'Brian.
- Absolute Certainty, by Rose Connors.
- Call of the Canyon, by Zane Grey.

January 27, 2009: Fifty-two additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in December 2008 and January 2009. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks200901.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,759 digital audio book titles.

December 23, 2008: The New Unabridged Main Collection Website launched today. The new site sports a small but growing collection of MP3 Audio Books, in addition to the large collection of protected WMA Audio Books. Unabridged users also now may construct wish lists of titles they would like to read eventually. The brief display for each title now contains a set of six icons (with underlying alt text) that indicate if a particular edition may be played on a PC, a Mac, burned to a set of CDs, transferred to a WMA-enabled portable playback device, played on an iPod of iPhone, and whether the edition can be transferred to most MP3 players.

For registered users in the participating states, the Unabridged Main Collection Website can be accessed at the following URL: http://unabridged.lib.overdrive.com.

Please Note: To be able to download Unabridged MP3 Audio Books, you need to have version 3 or higher of the OverDrive Media Console loaded on your PC, or version 1 or higher for the Mac. To download either the current, free PC or Mac version of the OverDrive Media Console software, please visit the following URL: http://www.overdrive.com/software/omc/.

December 22, 2008: The Unabridged Employment Collection launched today, providing information, advice, tips, and techniques on how to assess one's career goals, find a job, nail the job interview, start a business, manage income and wealth, and other aspects of employment. For registered users in the participating states, the titles in the Unabridged Employment Collection are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website at http://unabridged.lib.overdrive.com.

An annotated HTML list of the titles in the Unabridged Employment Collection is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedemploymentcollection.htm.

November 20, 2008: Twenty additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in November 2008. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks200811.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,700 digital audio book titles.

October 21, 2008: Ninety-four additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in August, September, and October 2008. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks200810.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,669 digital audio book titles.

July 22, 2008: Twenty-four additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in July 2008. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks200807.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,575 digital audio book titles.

June 7, 2008: Forty-four additional titles have been added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books since May 1, 2008. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks20080607.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,525 digital audio book titles.

April 24, 2008: Sixty-two additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in March and April 2008. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks20080424.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,481 digital audio book titles.

February 28, 2008: Thirty-eight additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in January and February 2008. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks20080228.htm.
The Unabridged main collection now contains 2,420 digital audio book titles.

December 21, 2007: One hundred thirty-seven additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books in September, October, November, and December 2007. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website.

An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks20071221.htm.
The Unabridged collection now contains 2,380 digital audio book titles.

August 20, 2007: Seventy-seven additional titles have added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books since July 1st. For registered users in the participating states, these new books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website. An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks20070820.htm. The Unabridged collection now contains over 2,240 digital audio book titles.

June 22, 2007: Thirty-six additional titles were added to the collection of Unabridged downloadable digital audio books from mid-May through mid-June. For registered users in the participating states, these new books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Collection Website. An HTML list of the new titles is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgednewbooks20070622.htm. The Unabridged collection now contains over 2,160 digital audio book titles.