Unabridged provides narrated downloadable digital audio books for eligible individuals living in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont who are blind, visually impaired, or physically challenged.
Unabridged uses the digital audio book system from OverDrive.
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News and Updates

  • January 3, 2011

    The Unabridged downloadable digital audio book service no longer is in service.

    If you need assistance identifying alternatives to the Unabridged service, please contact the library for the blind and physically handicapped in your state or region. A list of libraries with contact information is located at http://www.loc.gov/nls/find.html. A library staff member can provide information about BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service from NLS, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, as well as other options.

    To find other libraries in your geographic area that offer audiobooks, ebooks and other digital media from OverDrive, go to http://search.overdrive.com/, click on the "Search for a Library" tab, enter your ZIP code in the search box, and click on the Search button.

    If you have questions, ideas, or concerns about the cessation of the Unabridged downloadable digital audio book service, please feel free to contact Tom Peters, the Unabridged Coordinator (816.616.6746 or tpeters@tapinformation.com).




  • October 15, 2010: Unabridged to Cease Operating on Dec. 31, 2010

    At its most recent meeting the Unabridged Board of Directors decided to discontinue the Unabridged downloadable digital audio book service on December 31, 2010. Budget constraints at the participating member organizations and declining usage of the service were cited as the primary reasons for this decision.

    Since November 2004 Unabridged has served individuals who are blind, experience low vision, or are otherwise print-impaired. The service was developed to provide a downloadable digital audio book collection for this community while other, larger services were being prepared and launched.

    Current users of Unabridged should note that at midnight on December 31, 2010 the service will shut down. Until then, Unabridged will continue to offer a selection of current, high-demand fiction and non-fiction audio books.

    If you need assistance identifying alternatives to the Unabridged service, please contact the library for the blind and physically handicapped in your state or region. A list of libraries with contact information is located at http://www.loc.gov/nls/find.html. A library staff member can provide information about BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service from NLS, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, as well as other options.

    Since Unabridged launched six years ago, many other libraries have begun offering downloadable digital audio books from OverDrive, the company that provides the platform and the content used by Unabridged. To find other libraries in your geographic area that offer audiobooks, ebooks and other digital media from OverDrive, go to http://search.overdrive.com/, click on the "Search for a Library" tab, enter your ZIP code in the search box, and click on the Search button.

    If you have questions, ideas, or concerns about the cessation of the Unabridged downloadable digital audio book service, please feel free to contact Tom Peters, the Unabridged Coordinator (816.616.6746 or tpeters@tapinformation.com).


  • February 1, 2010: Eighty-five of the more popular titles from the Unabridged School Download Library have been added to the main Unabridged collection of more than 3,100 titles. An HTML list of the 85 titles is at www.unabridged.info/SDLtitles201002.htm. Access to the separate Unabridged School Download Library has been discontinued.
  • May 29, 2009: Beginning today, Unabridged users can opt-in to a one-week checkout period, overriding the default two-week period. You can enable the one-week checkout period in the "My Account" section of the Unabridged Main Collection Website, or you can decide on a title-by-title basis whether one week or two weeks works best for you. Also, Unabridged users may now rate the audiobooks they read, using the familiar five-star rating system.
  • March 1, 2009: The Unabridged "Always Available" trial collection launches. For the next twelve months ten titles from Blackstone Audio will be available to all registered Unabridged users, with no waiting. For registered users in the participating states, these new audio books are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website.

    The ten Always Available titles are:

    • 25 Things to Say to the Interviewer to Get the Job You Want, by James Hawke.
    • Return of the Dancing Master, by Henning Mankell.
    • Knit Two, by Kate Jacobs.
    • Come On Seabiscuit, by Ralph Moody.
    • Stubborn Twig, by Lauren Kessler.
    • Death by Black Hole, by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
    • 36 Yalta Boulevard, by Olen Steinhauer.
    • Desolation Island, by Patrick O'Brian.
    • Absolute Certainty, by Rose Connors.
    • Call of the Canyon, by Zane Grey.
  • December 23, 2008: The New Unabridged Main Collection Website launched today. The new site sports a small but growing collection of MP3 Audio Books, in addition to the large collection of protected WMA Audio Books. Unabridged users also now may construct wish lists of titles they would like to read eventually. The brief display for each title now contains a set of six icons (with underlying alt text) that indicate if a particular edition may be played on a PC, a Mac, burned to a set of CDs, transferred to a WMA-enabled portable playback device, played on an iPod of iPhone, and whether the edition can be transferred to most MP3 players.

    For registered users in the participating states, the Unabridged Main Collection Website can be accessed at the following URL: http://unabridged.lib.overdrive.com.

    Please Note: To be able to download Unabridged MP3 Audio Books, you need to have version 3 or higher of the OverDrive Media Console loaded on your PC, or version 1 or higher for the Mac. To download either the current, free PC or Mac version of the OverDrive Media Console software, please visit the following URL: http://www.overdrive.com/software/omc/.

  • December 22, 2008: The Unabridged Employment Collection launched today, providing information, advice, tips, and techniques on how to assess one's career goals, find a job, nail the job interview, start a business, manage income and wealth, and other aspects of employment. For registered users in the participating states, the titles in the Unabridged Employment Collection are available for checkout and downloading from the Unabridged Main Collection Website at http://unabridged.lib.overdrive.com.

    An annotated HTML list of the titles in the Unabridged Employment Collection is available at http://www.unabridged.info/unabridgedemploymentcollection.htm.





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