The benefits of building an audio book library are very similar to those of building one for printed books. A library as defined by wikipedia is "a collection of information, sources, resources, and services: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual." For the most part we will be discussing the benefits of collecting audio books as a private individual. Books have been written and produced in spoken word for a variety of topics and therefore the mix of audio books will be different for everyone but why have one at all?

Simply answered the major benefit is having ready access to the information that you value the most. Whether this is your tribute to a specific author that you love or a business reference library to refresh yourself on what makes a great company. Your audio book library is the collection of books that you have enjoyed and treasure enough to know that you will either need them again or want the pleasure of hearing them again.

In many ways audio books have experienced the same trend toward affordability that movies have. I love movies but if you were to have asked me 8-10 years ago whether I would start collecting them I would have asked you whether you thought I was made of money. Nowadays my older nieces who are in their late teens and early twenties buy movies the way I used to buy music singles in my day. Since the prices are so low they collect movies in what I sometimes think is an indiscriminate manner. Now that audio books have fallen in price and are also available in downloadable formats it is easier to collect on your digital player or computer.

One of the other major benefits of collecting audio books versus printed books is the size. If you are a book lover you can easily accumulate hundreds of books. Where do you put them? Not everyone has the space but you can put hundreds of downloadable audio books on your computer that you can burn to cd or transfer to your digital player. If you love having the physical product you can collect audio books in cd or cassette but that might be a little more expensive and will definitely take up more space in your house than a download. If you can not afford building your own audio book library you will be happy to know that public libraries are also seeing the benefits of providing audio books to their members. This may be an inexpensive way of "auditioning" books for your permanent collection.

Shopping for audio books is relatively easy nowadays due to the prevalence of stores on the internet. Creating your audio book library can also be made easier by browsing through audio book catalogs provided by some of the online bookstores like mine. An audio books catalog can provide you with an easy way to find books that you might be interested in without having to be online and without having to search for specific titles. If you want to see what is available in the business area you can look at that catalog. If you are a health and recreation addict you can flip through and see what's hot in that area.

Building an audio book library is no longer out of reach and besides the benefits of ready access and size, there is also the benefit of portability. You can listen to your books while commuting or working out without having to carry those sometimes cumbersome printed books.