[Studiotalk] Introduction and iPad/Tablet Question

[Bertucci, Brian (ELC)]

At Kentucky Talking Book Library we use iPads with the Kindle app for our narrators in the booths.  iPad model isn’t as important to us as form factor & good batteries – I think the iPad mini’s would be too small to read from.  We buy one Kindle copy of each book (for narrator) and one paper copy from Amazon (for monitor) as long as the book is available on Kindle.  If not, we buy two paper copies, and the narrator just has to be carful with page turns.  The narrators bring home the paper copies to read ahead for the next session.

The trickiest part for us has been the purchasing office.  We use state funds and donation money to purchase books to record, and there are rules about what we can and cannot do with those funds.  We also cannot ask our volunteers to spend their own money for the program.  We have our purchasing person buy the Kindle books as gifts from Amazon, and then email us the links to receive them.

We have a common Kindle account for the studio that all of the iPads are logged into.  That way, when we receive the gift of the Kindle book while logged into the KTBL Amazon account, it becomes available on our three iPads.  We have to keep the iPads connected to wifi to get the ebooks to download into the iPads, so it is good to know how your building’s IT department handles wifi access.  We have a guest account at our building that we use, since the common KTBL account doesn’t have a state username and password – those are only issued to staff members, and we didn’t want the common account attached to one person’s account.   So figuring out what the Apple account and the Amazon account for the iPads are going to be, and how you will connect to wifi will be important things to consider.

We don’t have the ability for narrators to make notes within Kindle using this system.  They will bring a piece of paper with questions / notes about pronunciation or other concerns to the session.

Hope this helps,

Brian Bertucci
Kentucky Talking Book Library Studio Coordinator
300 Coffee Tree Road
Frankfort, KY 40602
502-564-1790



From: studiotalk <studiotalk-bounces at islemail.org> On Behalf Of Arnold, Hannah
Sent: Wednesday, March 8, 2023 11:45 AM
To: studiotalk at islemail.org
Subject: [Studiotalk] Introduction and iPad/Tablet Question

Hello! I was pleased to recently discover this listserv, as I am the new-ish director of Indiana Voices. After Lin Coffman retired in 2021, Indiana Voices was dormant for over a year, but I came on board in 2022. It’s been a learning

Hello!

I was pleased to recently discover this listserv, as I am the new-ish director of Indiana Voices. After Lin Coffman retired in 2021, Indiana Voices was dormant for over a year, but I came on board in 2022. It’s been a learning curve (a background in live music recording only prepares one for so much), but now I’m ready to refine our process even further.

That brings me to my primary question: what recommendations do you have for using iPads/tablets in the recording booth? I saw some references in the listserv archives to using tablets for narration, but I’d love to hear further thoughts.

In particular, I would like to know:

  *   What tablet your narrators use; do you like it or would you advise against that model?
  *   What PDF/eReader program(s) do you use?
  *   Do you use any apps/tools that easily allow narrators to write their own notes in the “margins”?
  *   Do you have any other recommendations for our transition from paper copies to a screen?

Thank you all!

Hannah Arnold
Director of Indiana Voices
Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library
Indiana State Library
317-232-3683
HArnold at library.IN.gov<mailto:HArnold at library.IN.gov>
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