NLS Figures Claim Handicapped Read More Than Others

-- Library Journal, 08/04/2005

Circulation figures from the Library of Congress’ National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped show that sight impaired and handicapped people are bucking the national trend and on average are reading seven times more than non sight impaired individuals, roughly 35 books annually. NLS said that the figures “not only highlight the Braille and audio book appetites of NLS patrons but also speak to the ease in obtaining the material through the Talking Book program. Jim Herndon, who heads NLS’s Collection Development, said that tastes in books for the sight and non-sight impaired are nearly identical, and that NLS librarians “consult book reviews and bestseller lists, monitor publishing trends, and assess patron requests before choosing titles,” which, he added, “are selected based on such criteria as literary merit and popularity. NLS’s Talking Book catalog sports more than 400,000 titles from all genres.