Reading

Daisy books

Summary: All about Daisy audio books

What is a Daisy book?

A Daisy book is a digital talking book, designed to allow you to move around the text as efficiently and flexibly as a print user, you can:

  • make bookmarks
  • pause books
  • speed up or slow down
  • read or ignore footnotes
  • jump easily from chapter to chapter, heading to heading and page to page

Daisy books also require much less space than traditional audio books: up to 25 hours of audio can be recorded on a standard CD.

How can I listen to a Daisy book?

To take full advantage of a Daisy books features you will need a Daisy player or specially designed software on your computer, both of which can be purchased from the online shop.

A Daisy player is similar to a CD player allowing you to access tracks very quickly and flexibly. Some smaller players use memory cards rather than CDs and require Daisy books to be transferred to the memory card using a computer.

The range of players available from RNIB cater for different needs, from portable players ideal for leisure reading to high performance players for work or study. For more information you can read our guide to choosing a Daisy player.

Many digital audio players (such as the Apple iPod or some mobile phones) will be able to play a Daisy book but not all of the navigation features will be available. Many household CD players will not be able to play Daisy books unless they are designed to play the MP3 format (a common format for audio files).

How to get Daisy books from RNIB

With thousands of books covering the classics to contemporary fiction, there is plenty to choose from:

  • Daisy books are available for loan on disc from the Talking Book Service.
  • You can browse and buy from our catalogue of over 12,000 Daisy books at the RNIB Book Site.
  • You can read Daisy books immediately through your internet connection from the BookStream book club.
  • Order a free copy of the Daisy books catalogue 2008
  • Some RNIB magazines are available in Daisy, including 'Daisy TV Listings' which provides details of programmes on the main terrestrial channels and 20 popular satellite and Freeview channels.
  • You can find out about the latest Daisy books in New Books, a regular update of new titles available for loan and sale from RNIB.

Call RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or email cservices@rnib.org.uk for help with choosing books, to make a purchase or for information about our products and publications.

More about the Daisy format

The Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy) is a universal format for reading and publishing digital talking books. Daisy technology allows for new ways to deliver information quickly and efficiently using high quality synthetic speech or human voice.

If you want to make reading materials available to individuals who cannot use print effectively or just keep up to date with the latest developments, you can visit the Daisy Consortium website .

Content author: cservices@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 24/04/2009 16:31

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