MEMORANDUM
November 15, 2006
To: All Public Library Directors
From: Management Team - South Dakota State Library
RE: Large Print Program
For many years the South Dakota State Library has supplemented local library services by providing large print collections to public libraries, nursing homes, and assisted living centers in South Dakota. Access to large print books is a vitally needed program in a state like South Dakota, with a widely dispersed aging population and scarce library services in many areas. Now, as we move forward with the reorganization of the State Library, we are asking that local libraries step in to provide this service with some assistance from the State Library. Providing large print books to patrons in your service area is a service they value.
Based on recommendations in the reorganization plan for the South Dakota State Library, the large print collection of books will be relocated to those public libraries interested in becoming part of a large print consortium. Criteria for participation in this program are:
- All public libraries are eligible, whether they are currently using the SD State Library large print program or not
- Libraries will choose the quantity of books they wish to receive (e.g. 50, 75, 100, etc.)
- Consortiums of libraries will be formed based on the size of collection selected
- Collections will be a balanced selection representing all genres
- Each participating library must agree that they will add 4 new large print books annually for every 25 they receive from the State Library to keep the collection at a desirable level of currency and appearance
- Libraries must agree to provide outreach to both nursing homes and assisted living centers in their service area and to the individual large print users in their area that have valid library cards
- The collections will include adult and young adult fiction and non-fiction
- These books will not be required to be in your catalog or available for inter-library loan, as they will be a rotating collection with a two-month circulation.
- All shipments of large print books (no regular print allowed) are eligible for free postage through the Braille & Talking Book Program. Mailing labels for the free postage will be supplied to each consortium site.
The South Dakota State Library applications and forms are available in Adobe Acrobat format exactly as it appears in print or in a Web format. First time users of the PDF format must perform a one-time only installation of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader Software before they will be able to read or print the document. This format is used extensively both on the Web and on this site.
