What Biblio is
Biblio is a personal digital library for iPhone and iPad. It gathers your biblions from multiple sources in one place and lets you read them — by sight, sound, or touch.
What is a biblion? A biblion is an authored work you receive as a closed whole. What you used to call an "audiobook", "ebook", "podcast episode", or "synchronized audiobook" becomes in Biblio an audio biblion, a textual biblion, or a synchronous biblion.
Who Biblio is for
Biblio is designed for everyone — sighted and blind readers alike, worldwide. All application features are accessible to both groups.
VoiceOver users have an additional dedicated gesture mode, optimized for fast control without needing to focus individual elements on screen.
The form in which you receive a biblion (audio, text, synchronous) is your choice depending on the situation. A sighted user driving a car picks the audio form; a blind user with a Braille display picks the text form; anyone can pick the synchronous form if they want to see and hear the text at the same time.
What Biblio offers
- Your own library from publicly available sources — Project Gutenberg, the Czech National Digital Library (NDK), podcast feeds via iTunes and open RSS, YouTube channels, your own files (EPUB, MP3, …).
- Access to libraries reserved for registered readers with reading disabilities — KTN (Library and Printing House for the Blind), KDD (Library of Digital Documents), and Camelot (Newton Media e-newspapers). These collections are available under the Marrakesh Treaty and §39 of Czech Act No. 121/2000 and require registration with the respective library.
- Choice of form when reading each biblion (audio / text / synchronous — where available).
- Machine narration of textual biblions (TTS) and machine transcription of audio biblions to text.
- A personal AI librarian that can search, add, download, organize, and suggest series.
- Synchronization between your devices via iCloud.
- Apple Watch companion to control the player from your wrist.
- CarPlay for listening in the car.
- Metadata enrichment from the Czech National Digital Library (NDK), Wikidata, and other authoritative sources.
- VoiceOver
- Braille displays
- Synchronized audio + text
- CarPlay
- Apple Watch
- iCloud sync
Who publishes and develops Biblio
Biblio is published and developed by BRAILCOM, o.p.s. — a Czech non-profit organization in assistive technology. It is part of the Accessibility Expert Group, anchored by the Endowment Fund for the Blind. The application is led by Jan Buchal, who is himself completely blind.
Documents
Czech versions: Zásady ochrany soukromí, Podmínky použití.
Contact
For application questions or support, write to biblio@brailcom.org.