Library Patrons Who Borrow To Create

Thank you for offering this mashup competition.

How may mashups of online audio books and online audio / video recording software create library patrons who "borrow to create"?

Two Web sites may help us envision patrons who are also creators: www.ReadingFromTheFront.us and www.ReadingWithMomsAndDads.org.

Additionally, you may download two PDFs that together constitute a trifold brochure at:

www.ReadingFromTheFront.us/rftf_trifold1.pdf and www.ReadingFromTheFront.us/rftf_trifold2.pdf

You may also watch a video (with audio) about the services by clicking the following link: www.ReadingFromTheFront.us/rwmad.mov (5MB QuickTime Video; Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox; Internet Explorer sometimes blocks video files).

May libraries design and construct read-aloud recording booths / studios for patrons to digitally record and share their spoken word performances of short stories and poems? Will amateurs improve their readings by first listening to professional actors' recitations? May Audible.com and other audio book distributors mashup their collections for read-aloud Web sites -- i.e., Web sites that facilitate audio / video recordings of moms, dads, and children reading aloud? Will these services be profitable for commercial enterprises and will they help libraries raise funds? Will library patrons request that libraries pay audio book distributors monthly subscription fees so that we may listen to professional actors' reading aloud before we create our singular celebrations of the stories and poems that sustain us? May these services be provided to the world's deployed military personnel and their children?

How may libraries help pediatricians use read-aloud recording technologies to improve patient-physician communication?

Thanks again for offering this competiton! I am not a librarian, but I hope to become more familiar with libraries' needs. The Web sites and services are pro bono work, and I am hopeful that librarians, nonprofits, and for-profits that may most benefit from these services will take ownership of them.