Webcast: Stretch Your Large Print Budget with Smart Collection Development

Experts offer best practices for collecting, shelving, and weeding.

Dodie Ownes -- Library Journal, 10/19/2009 12:37:00 PM

• Large Print bestsellers help meet demands of regular print readers
• Readers of large print aren’t just the over-55 crowd
• Display large print prominently
• Remove barriers to access

In launching the Stretch Your Large Print Budget webcast, sponsored by Thorndike Press, moderator Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal Book Review editor, noted that the webcast “could not have been more timely…in the last several LJ book-buying surveys of public libraries nationwide, large print has been among the top three areas where expenditures have been increasing.” Though the three panelists represented libraries from different parts of the country, of different sizes, and with patron demographics, they all cited common best practices for keeping their large print collections healthy and accessible.

Lucy Lockley from St. Charles City-County Library District, MO, kicked off the presentation with a confession—she loves collection development because she “loves spending other people’s money” and bases her decisions in that area on her second love, reader’s advisory. As she described the large-print collection highlights, several key factors rose to the top—large print is displayed in prominent locations near the check-out area; comfortable seating is nearby, and the bottom shelf is not used for large print shelving. While Lockley thought the typical large-print patron is age 50 and up, staff disagreed with her—many 40ish patrons are using large print while on the treadmill or the exercise bike, and they like to jump the holds queue for bestsellers by going for large print simultaneous release versions!

This diverse large-print user base may contribute to St. Charles City-County’s increased purchasing of best sellers in large print and a greater focus on the top circulating genres—Westerns, Christian Fiction, mystery, and suspense. Using standing order plans makes budgeting for large print easier; Lockley has 41 plans with Thorndike alone! Many times, patron requested titles are already on order because of standing order plans. In the coming year, the library will be focusing dollars on children’s and teen large print to build those collections.

St. Charles City-County Library markets large print in a variety of ways—placement in a high traffic area, creation of book discussion kits featuring large print, prominent signage, and through an OPAC search limiter, just to name a few.

A background in medical social work has served Christy Wagner well as the outreach coordinator at the Ela Area Public Library, part of the northwest Chicago suburbs. Her library building is new, but the institution’s commitment to large print is long-standing.

Though this library does use the bottom shelf for large print, it’s careful not to put large print too high: the shelving is only five feet tall, making it unnecessary for patrons to use a foot stool to reach books of interest. Ela Area Public Library also has a very active “Words on Wheels” outreach program, which almost exclusively features large print titles.

Like Lockley, Wagner finds a younger clientele using large print to get to best sellers faster and reports that young adult services staff see more teens checking out large-print titles, looking for a “quick read” to complete school reading assignments that may be based on number of pages. Staff have been educated on recommending large print to a variety of patrons and feel much more comfortable steering teens, adults, and seniors toward that format.

Standing orders for large print provide a very “tactile” experience for Wagner. When she is checking in processed titles, ideas for book displays, patron requests and book discussion groups start to percolate. Her outreach department even does a large-print version of their quarterly library newsletter, which is distributed to outreach sites, the local hospital, nursing homes, and even ophthalmologist’s offices! Wagner stated that large-print collections today need to be “appealing, attractive and accessible.”

Lesley Daly, a native of England, has been with the Wichita FallsPublic Library, TX, a stand-alone facility, for ten years, and through all her various assignments, she has always had a hand in large print collection development.

With large print representing about five percent of the library’s collection, which serves about 45,000 cardholders, Daly put the average age of the large-print collection’s users around 50, and though she hesitated to use the word stubborn to describer large print users, she would definitely say these patrons are loyal to the format. Wichita Falls Public Library’s shelving area doesn’t have room for comfy chairs Daly says adjustable wheeled stools work well for seniors browsing in the large print shelves.

Daly reiterated how difficult weeding of the large-print collection is considering users’ interests in revisiting older titles in series and classics. Now that many older titles are back in large print, it is easier to replace dog-eared copies that the library has been hesitant to weed from the collection simply because of wear and tear. Like other the other panelists, standing orders remain an important part of Wichita Falls’ collection development program for large print. Daly has been especially pleased to be able to replace older titles in longstanding popular series, such as Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series, available through Thorndike.

Daly agreed that large-print patrons are not “just old people” anymore, echoing comments from Lockley and Wagner. She also mentioned the popularity of softcover binding with both traditional and new large-print users. Each of the librarians on the panel spoke about growth in large-print demand for their YA and children’s collections, addressing both the needs of reluctant and young sight-impaired readers.

Questions submitted by webcast attendees kept moderator/LJ’s Hoffert, busy. In response to a query about the value of softcover large print, Wagner described an apparatus, Adapt-A-Lap, that has increased the local popularity of softcover titles in her library. Several attendees asked about standing order plans, and Thorndike representative Debbie Ludden encouraged them to visit the Thorndike web site to check out the huge variety of plans and consider the options.

Weeding large print seems more an art of necessity than a science according to Lockley and Wagner, who addressed the issue in response to a webcast attendee question. Older material is not necessarily less popular with large print readers. Ela staff have even tracked down used (and out of print) copies online. Thorndike rep Kara Kugelmeyer responded that this demand has been recognized, and their editors are actively looking at bringing older but still popular titles back into print.

Are any of these libraries buying reference materials in large print? This question elicited a unanimous “No” from the panel. Daly noted that at Wichita Falls, patrons looking for reference material receive assistance from staff in accessing online reference materials using screen magnification.

The panel was able to field about a dozen questions before having to sign off, addressing large print titles for young adults as well as the importance of softcover editions. The webcast archive is available for one year from the live webcast date (Oct. 15, 2009)—simply visit www.libraryjournal.com/largeprintbestpractices to register.