Audio Books -- Beyond the Book

Although I select the audiobooks for the YA's at our library, I'm afraid I don't know too much about them beyond what I read in professional reviews. I was never much of a listener. I did always appreciate the importance of them, though, and don't understand why some consider listening to audio books cheating. Why is listening to someone read the entire book for several hours different than reading it for several hours? It's not as if someone is watching the movie instead or reading the Cliffs Notes. If someone read a chapter from a book aloud to her child every night, no one would consider that cheating.
Anyway, enough of my rant. This presentation featured Mary Burkey, a school librarian from Columbus, Ohio, who was the chair of Notable Audios for the Association of Library Services for Children (ALA division), as well as Johnny Heller, a narrator from Recorded Books. Mary called herself an evangelist for audiobooks. I had always heard the merits of audiobooks when asking a child who was learning English or having trouble reading to read along with an audio. However, there are many other ways in which audiobooks can improve literacy. For example, listening to an audiobook can improve listening skills. It also can improve vocabulary skills. When reading a word that we may not remember, we may read over it quickly, not to mention not knowing the actual pronunciation. She also made an interesting point later in the discussion regarding boys and audiobooks. There has been a lot of talk lately regarding boys as reluctant readers, and Mary theorized that perhaps this is because the voices who read aloud to them were mostly women (mothers, teachers, librarians). A male audio book narrator can make a difference.
Mary also pointed out ways to market audio books. For example, have a display at any crafts program you may do (such as the children's room Tuesday night crafts, or our recent knitting and watercolor class). Often times, patrons like to listen while doing something else. She also suggested putting displays in large print areas for those who are more visually impaired, or doing displays at the senior center. She even suggested a local health club which I thought was interesting.
Johnny Heller was a lot of fun. He read aloud from several of his audio books, including children's, YA, and adult books. He also explained the process, saying that he records about 2 hours at a time, and that he always reads the book the whole way through before recording. I loved listening to him narrate. I'll have to check out some of his performances.