Catalog Page

Overview

As of January 2007 LibriVox has a new database-driven catalog. Every project in the database can be found using the search page of the catalog. When a project is started, the MC (Meta Coordinator) adds it into the database as an "Open" project. The URL to the administrative interface for that project will then be given to the BC (Book Coordinator) if it's a collaborative project. The BC will use this to keep track of readers claiming and completing sections, as well as proof-listening. A soloist may also use the administrative interface to keep track of what they've completed. All of this is searchable.

The search results will provide links to the catalog pages for each item. See "Book Pages" below for more information about individual catalog pages for each project.

The LibriVox Catalog Search

How to Search The Catalog

The Basics

You can fill all, any, or none of the text search boxes to get results. Leaving all the dropdowns at "Any" or "Either," and leaving every text box blank will yield results showing every project in the database. Your search can be as narrow or as broad as you'd like.

For every text field in the search you can use partial or full search words to find what you are looking for. For example, if I type "al" in the Author field, the search results will yield every project that contains an author with the letters "al" anywhere in the name. This would include Alexandre Dumas, as well as Walt Whitman.

If you allowed for "Any" in the Status dropdown, then you will be presented with 'completed' and 'in progress' works. They will be listed separately with the completed works presented first on the page, and the in progress below. Also, while viewing the search results you will see two links for each result. The first link on the title of the project goes to the individual catalog page discussed below. The second link: (readers) brings you to a list of the readers for the project that was used while the project was in progress. In that list of readers, you can click on a particular reader's name, and see the page including every chapter/section/project they have participated in.

The Details

Title

Searches the title for a book or project, as well as a specific story or poem in a collection.

Author

Searches the author of a whole book or project, as well as a specific story or poem in a collection.

Reader

Use this search field if you want to find projects by a particular reader using either their forum user name, or their catalog name. Doing this will produce three results. First, you will see all of the completed projects they have participated in (if any). Then you will see the 'in progress' projects they are currently participating in. At the very bottom of the search results you will see a name or list of names with the heading "# readers found:" If you click on the name you were searching for, it will present you with their page and list of projects as described above.

Status

Search for projects of a particular status:

Complete: finished, fully cataloged projects
In Progress: project that are Open, Fully Subscribed or Proof Listening
Open: collaborative projects that are still looking for readers

You can specify just the status you are looking for to find all projects that are currently open to readers or complete, etc. There are many ways you can use this search parameter to narrow down your search. The default is All.

Solo/Group

Use this to specify a solo project, or collaborative project in your search. This is especially helpful if you're looking for collaborative projects to participate in, or to check up and see whether someone is already doing a solo of a book you'd like to read. The default is Either.

Language

Allows you to specify projects read in a particular language. The dropdown lists all the languages that are currently in the LibriVox catalog, as well as how many works are in the catalog for that language in parenthesis. The default is Any.

Genre

This is very different from the Category way of organizing things in that a project can be part of multiple genres. The Genre field is more like a tagging system, and a project can contain any genres from 1 to all of them. This is just another way of grouping recordings so that listeners can browse titles of a particular type or style. The following is the current list of genres for LibriVox recordings. For example, The Three Musketeers would appear in both 'Romance' and 'Adventure.' Towards the top of the catalog search page there is a link called Choose by Genre. When clicked, it will bring you to a page with a list of all the genres in the catalog. You can either use this list to view the works in a particular genre, or use the Genre search box to enter your chosen genre and specify other search parameters as described above.

Book Pages

Once you have found and clicked the link for a book/recording you want to listen to, there are several things to note about the individual catalog pages.

Each catalog page contains a description of the book, and helpful links about the book and author. You can also find a link to an online source for the text, if you wish to read along.

You'll find that you can download files in several places. You can download the individual chapters by choosing 128kbps MP3, 64kbps MP3 (smaller file size), or the Ogg Vorbis files. You can also find a link to a zip file of the whole book at the top. Another option is to find the recording with !BitTorrent, but not all recordings have been seeded.

Search Examples

Some typical searches catalog users may wish to perform.

Find all completed books (for browsing)

You can view all completed projects by choosing 'Completed' from the Status field dropdown.
We have a feature request to find just books (excluding short works and poetry) and it should be possible to do this in future.

Find all completed Short Works and Collections

You can view all completed projects by choosing 'Completed' from the Status field dropdown.
We have a feature request to find just Short Works and Collections (excluding books) and it should be possible to do this in future.

Find all completed poetry

Type 'Poetry' into the Category search field and choose 'Completed' from the Status field dropdown.

Find all children's literature

Click on the Choose by Genre link at the top of the search page. Choose 'Children' from the list. Results will display completed works first on the page and below that works that are still in progress.

Find all non-fiction

Click 'Non-fiction' below Choose by Category at the top of the search page. Results will display completed works first on the page and below that works that are still in progress.

Find all completed works in other languages (non-English)

Choose 'Completed' from the Status field dropdown. From the Language field dropdown, choose a language.

Find all collaborative projects in progress (not yet completed and cataloged)

Choose 'In Progress' from the Status field dropdown, and 'Group' from the Solo/Group dropdown.