Staff Picks

Introduction

The "Staff Picks" are a monthly feature of the LibriVox homepage and news. Every month, 10 books from our catalog are chosen according to a theme and are displayed on our homepage. The main goal is to show the variety of audiobooks we are offering, and to help listeners find the hidden gems in our catalog. Currently, the staff picks comprise 5 novels, 3 nonfiction books, 1 collection of poetry, and 1 play or dramatic read.

See below how you can help.

A Brief History of the Staff Picks

The term "Staff Picks" originated at archive.org. Every month, 10 or so items literally picked by archive staff were prominently displayed on the main page of a collection like the LibriVox collection.

At some point the LibriVox admins found out how this works, and since we had access to our own collection and pages, RuthieG became staff-picker. In the beginning, staff picks were changed weekly or biweekly, it eventually dropped to occasionally. When Availle became an admin, she took over the staff picks and made them a monthly feature with varying themes, showcasing all types of projects.

At some point, during a redesign of archive.org, the staff picks on the collection's pages were discontinued, however, they live on as news items on the right-hand side of the LibriVox homepage.

Can I help?

Most certainly! The staff picks were so called because that's how the Internet Archive, our file host, called them - but LibriVox is entirely volunteer-run and has no "staff". Or maybe we should say: everybody is "staff" at LibriVox!

Have a look at this thread in the forums, where you can make your own suggestions. At the moment, there is a theme for each month. However, feel free to post any suggestions, even if they don't fit the theme right now - they surely come handy at some later point.

Currently, Availle is the admin responsible for the staff picks (i.e., collecting them, writing a nice blog post and putting it online), so pointers to literature, dramas (or dramatic readings) or poetry are especially welcome, as well as books in languages other than English.

And let's not forget: Books we don't have cannot be picked! The more books we produce, the better - have fun recording!