Put your ears on

Non-profits come in all shapes and sizes. Two organizations that touch my own life almost daily are LibriVox and WBER.

Simply put, LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. Now entering its sixth year, LibriVox volunteers have completed almost 4,000 reading projects. Laid end to end, it would take two and a half years to play to every LibriVox recording.

While you won’t find the latest James Patterson in the LibriVox catalog, you will find immortal classics like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Das Kapital, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes, and my new BFF, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin.

LibriVox offers several ways to search for books, including title, author, and genre. If you’re just getting started, genre is a great way to browse the catalog.

All of the books can be downloaded in MP3 and other formats, making it easy to enjoy the book on any device. I listen to mine on a simple Coby MP3 player that I can use when walking the dog or plug into the auxilliary jack while driving.

Though, I hear that life is more than audio books … there is also music!

Technically, WBER is closer to an .EDU than an .ORG, but as a community-supported radio station, it looks and feels like a non-profit.

Every day, WBER brings its listeners to an eclectic mix of the latest alternative rock, on the Internet as wber.org.and via the Rochester NY airwaves as 90.5.

As part of its educational mission, on weekdays during the school year, WBER turns its broadcast venues over to local high school clubs. While, the school day afternoons can be choppy, the rest of the broadcast day is a smooth, professional experience.

Fun fact: WBER was the first radio station in Rochester NY to offer Internet streaming. I know this since at the time I was working with WXXI, and, with my help, we were second. :(

After a long day of peering over requirements, it’s great to kick back with a great book from LibriVox or a great tune on WBER.