Introduction to DAISY Format
La Bibliothèque en français
A DAISY book is a talking book that uses the International DAISY standard - it stands for Digital Accessible Information SYstem. DAISY books are human narrated books that are recorded on CD. They can be read on a portable DAISY player or on a computer with DAISY software.
DAISY books offer numerous advantages over books on tape and commercial books on CD:
DAISY books have a far superior sound quality when compared to books on tape. The high fidelity eliminates the traditional hiss and background noise found on analog books, especially books that have been played many times. This is important to readers who may have some hearing impairment.
An entire DAISY book can be contained on one CD, whereas books on tape take multiple cassettes (and commercial books on CD take multiple CDs). One CD eliminates the frustration of sorting multiple tapes for low vision readers and prevents the hassle of missing or damaged parts of a book.
DAISY books give people who are blind or print-disabled a better way to read a book. With links between text and narration, DAISY books allow a reader to go to specific chapters or pages, place bookmarks, and use an index. No more tedious forwarding and rewinding of tapes. This navigation is not available with books on tape or commercial CDs.
When you have finished reading, a DAISY player will 'remember' where you left off and resume at that same point when you start reading again.
DAISY books can be used seamlessly alongside other audio materials. In order to provide navigation features, DAISY books require a DAISY-compliant CD player or software program. However, many DAISY players also play commercial audiobooks, commercial music CDs, and MP3 files.
For more information, listen to an audio demonstration of a DAISY player (MP3 Format).