Text-to-Speech Features in GALILEO Resources

GALILEO users can listen to articles read to them in several GALILEO resources. The text-to-speech, or read-aloud, feature can be very helpful for students struggling with reading or for those who just prefer to listen to the spoken word. The voices sound natural, and in some resources, are available in various accents. Some even provide a download option to make it easy for users to listen at their leisure.

The Discover search and EBSCO databases provide a “Listen” feature and a download option to save articles as mp3 files. The downside to this feature is that it’s only available for HTML articles, and many articles are only available as PDFs. The Listen/Download feature appears just above the HTML text of the article. There are also options to select the accent of the reader (American, British, or Australian), as well as the reading speed. The Discover search and core EBSCO databases are available to all GALILEO users.

For K-12 schools and the higher education institutions that purchase SIRS resources, SIRS Discoverer also features a “Listen” feature and the ability to download an mp3. The ReadSpeaker tool also allows users to select reading speed and options for highlighting text. All of the articles are in HTML, so every article can be read aloud and downloaded.

Britannica Elementary articles appear in an easy-to-use reader. Students will find clicking the “play” button intuitive. Britannica Middle and Britannica High have speaker icons at the top of articles to turn on the read-aloud feature. Britannica is subscribed via GALILEO by K-12 schools.

To try out any of these features, go to the database and run a search. Select an article to see the text-to-speech features.