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Yesterday, we weeded many large print titles as our space for these was getting tight. The majority of our collection is fairly new. Our budget has increased for large print materials in the past few years as the demand for this material seemed to be increasing. Lately though we feel our collection is under-utilized by the public. We are looking for some creative ways to market this collection. We thought we might bring some titles to our senior center figuring that we might reach some people we never see in the library. I know other libraries do this and would appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have to make this a successful venture. We would like to know who takes care of the program, staff or volunteers? if you provide a shelf or cart? how frequently you change titles? how you keep track of what is borrowed? how successful this venture has been?

I also wonder who you are purchasing your large print titles from. The selection seems to have improved these past years, I'm certain in part due to the growing population in need of large print titles and patrons that want simultaneous release of the best sellers. Still, many of the titles have hefty prices and the only way to get decent discounts is to sign up for standing orders. I would prefer not to locked into a set number or selection of books. I do purchase Random House titles and some others at a discount negotiated by a consortium bid price in the state of CT. Frequently I am still unable to find specific authors or titles. For instance I was looking for some P.D James and phoned Thompson Gale who carries many large print imprints. I think we came up with 2 titles, both of which we own. We have also had an increase in requests for non-fiction.

I do not wish anyone to think that I believe all seniors need large print. Certainly others are reading these titles, because they need the large print or because the title is available in large print.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Glad you chimed in. You make some good points about large print books. I'm hoping to hear from others about this topic.

We are looking at a cart for our senior center. We'll stock it with books, put a magnetic sign on the end and figure out some way to keep track of the books and check outs for our stats. Perhaps I should include a small survey to see what our seniors are looking for in books and other media. We'll include various formats on the cart but mostly it will be large print.

The first step, agreement from our senior center staff, was met with enthusiastic approval!

Once again , I appreciate your comments about large print books.

Recently I took home Dean Koontz's book The Husband published by Random House in large print. As this was one of my first experiences reading large print I was a bit surprised to see that there were several spots where text was in bold print. This became very annoying and detracted from the whole experience for me. I assumed that the bold text was italic text in the regular print version and this seems to be true.

As you have had a great deal of experience with large print perhaps you could tell me if this is the normal procedure for italicized text? If a patron truly was in need of the large print, would this help them and enhance their reading pleasure?

I'll have to sample some other publishers books and talk more to my patrons about their experiences with large print. I do know that some like paperback, some like spines that open and lay flat and most prefer not to have heavy books for nighttime reading.

I have not found that in our collection of LP books. It must be a publisher error.

We have set up our new library book cart at The Beckish Senior Center, Columbia, CT (see picture below) The center Director, Donna Gray and her assistant, Yolande Rubb have been very helpful in providing a space and are beginning to get the word out to the centers' visitors. Our volunteer has stocked the cart with over 100 books, cd's, audio books, videos and dvds. Looking at the picture has made me realize we need to move some clutter away from the cart and perhaps add a braided non-slip rug to make it more appealing. So far, response (check-outs) have only been a few but it's only been there a bit over a week. One measure of success for me is that the first person to check out an item does not have a library card and has not been in the library. We are hoping to lure some senior center visitors the short distance to the library. Our little branch at the senior center has also freed up space in the main library, a real plus as we are bursting at the seams. I'll keep all posted on how the project goes.<br><p>
<img title="Beckish Senior Center Book Cart" alt="short title of your picture" src="http://static.flickr.com/79/242322762_2bede99b1c_m.jpg"<p>
<img title="Beckish Senior Center Book Cart" alt="short title of your picture" src="http://static.flickr.com/98/242322763_6d1fc448a3_m.jpg"

Thanks for letting me know. Makes sense when you think of it.

Read How You Want is an Australian large print publishing company that prints LP books on demand based on their own catalog. What is special is that you can purchase the book in 11, 13, 16, 16 BOLD, 18, 20 and 24 pt type size as well as in Braille and daisy formats. The titles are available direct from the company, through Amazon, and soon through one or more of library book wholesalers. Check out their website.

Noted by Mr. Extraordinary Allan Kleiman