Audio News Briefs

Recorded Books LLC has partnered with Transparent Language Inc. to offer Byki® (short for "Before You Know It"), a new online language-learning system designed for use by public library patrons. Users can access the system from inside or outside the library, via the web browser on a Windows or Mac computer. Lessons are available in 41 different languages, including Mandarin. Visit www.recordedbooks.com or email bykionline@recordedbooks.com for more info.

Listen for free to a downloadable and indexed audio recording of all 1,018 pages of the House Democrats' proposed health-care reform bill, HR3200, as well as download a PDF of the bill's print version in its entirety, at www.hearthebill.org. The web site, founded by Kathleen Keesling and Diane Havens, received more than 100,000 hits in the days following its September 3 launch. A cast of some 80 voice actors narrated the 24-hour-long recording, which will be modified whenever the bill is amended.

Rhinelander District Library, WI, and the Oneida County Department on Aging (DoA) are collaborating to bring expanded library services to homebound seniors: in addition to delivering meals, volunteers now also bring homebound seniors bright red bags containing books and audiobooks. Library staff select and prepare the books, and DoA volunteers provide the transport. For more on this program, call Rhinelander District Library at 715-365-1083 or the Department on Aging at 715-369-6170.

Newly available in print and as an unabridged audio: the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's highly anticipated memoir, True Compass (Twelve: Hachette). The 19-hour audio edition, read by John Bedford Lloyd (The Lucky One), is available from BBC Audiobooks America both as a library-edition CD and digital download and from Hachette Audio both as a retail-edition CD and digital download. More info at www.bbcaudiobooksamerica.com/library and www.hachettebookgroup.com.

The newest additions to Naxos AudioBooks' "In a Nutshell" series are Tim Albone and Mark Hudson's Afghanistan in a Nutshell, read by Benjamin Soames, and Jonathan Gregson's Tibet in a Nutshell, read by David Rintoul. Previous titles in the series include the "highly recommended" Darwin in a Nutshell (LJ 6/1/09), written and read by Peter Whitfield. More info at www.naxosaudiobooks.com.