Maine AIRS Tutorial

This video highlights some of the new features of Maine Airs, the Maine Audio Information Reading Service, a program of the Iris Network. Maine Airs is a group of volunteers who read and record the state's local and daily newspapers, as well as several magazines, for consumers unable to access print.

Some contact information: Steve Kelley, a certified vision rehab therapist presents this video for the Iris Network; his email address is skelley@theiris.org; our phone number is 207-774-6273.

This presentation begins with the Iris Network's Web page which is located at http://www.theiris.org. Approximately ¼ way down the home page is a tab named "Home" that begins the menu. Four tabs to the right on this menu is the  "Maine Airs" tab. Click on this to go to the main page of the Maine Airs Web page which is titled, "Maine Airs Programming: Listen Live to Maine Airs."

Depending on the speed of your Internet, Maine Airs audio should begin streaming live as soon as you log into this page. Perhaps, there is nothing you will want to do at this point—this is a convenient way to listen live to Maine Airs if you don't already have one of our radio receivers.

Below the link to "Listen Live to Maine Airs," please notice that there is a little "widget" that will allow you to play or pause the file, stop the streaming audio, or adjust the volume. Below the widget you will notice that the header of this page is also the date you have logged in. For example, today is Wednesday, December 15, 2010 and that's what is visible as the header on the displayed page. To the left of this is a tab and link that says, "Previous," to the right, a tab and link for, "Next." These tabs allow users to move forward and backward through the days of the week to select any they may wish to listen to.

Below this header is a grid showing the schedule for Maine Airs programming for that day. So, for example, at 8:30 AM today, The Bangor Daily News will be airing live. If users follow the line of the grid to the right, there are options and links to "Play" "Download" or "Share" this file. If users miss the live audio stream, they may go back and listen to the archived recording at any time in the next 7 days..

Notice that when the "Play" link is selected, another "widget" opens with a triangle on the left that permits play and pause, a square button to stop the file play, and a slider to the right to control volume.

Users may instead, download the file, by clicking on the "download" link and following the prompts. Users will be prompted to "open" or "save". When save is selected, by default the computer will save the file in the "download" directory. The computer will name the file, and users just need to click the "Save" button and the file will be save to the computer's hard drive.

Please note that all the file formats for Maine Airs files are MP3 files. The MP3 file format is one of the most versatile file formats, and will play on the National Library Service Digital player, many mobile phones, devices such as the Victor Reader Stream, and anything that users might use to listen to a podcast. There is a great deal of versatility now built into the Maine Airs file format.

Another feature demonstrated is above the grid on this page. Return to the header, "Wednesday, December 15" and move to the right of the page where you will find the words "Sort By" with a drop-down box. When this is clicked on, a list of options opens. The option at the bottom, for example, is "Magazines and Reports". When this is clicked, the whole page refreshes to show all the magazines and reports provided by Maine Airs in a grid pattern, by day.  For example, on Monday, Downeast Magazine is one of the featured magazines, followed by, Health Report. As with the newspaper grid, users have the option to play, download, or share the file. Sharing the file might be emailing the file or posting it to your Facebook account.

Some of the other options available on the "Filter By" drop-down box include: Northern Maine, Eastern and Downeast Maine; Midcoast and Central Maine; or Southern Maine.

Thank you for watching the video and should you have additional questions, please email or call the Iris Network.