Thorndike Press Large Print Books Helps Readers Develop and Strengthen Reading Skills to Become Confident, Successful, Lifelong Readers

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. and Downers Grove, Ill. – April 17, 2019 – Large print books help O’Neill Middle School students improve their reading skills and become more confident readers. The school is using Thorndike Press large print books from Gale, a Cengage company, to help striving readers develop and strengthen their literacy skills. This empowers students to overcome reading challenges and develop the confidence and determination to become future-ready learners.

O’Neill Middle School is located in Downers Grove, Illinois with nearly 500 students in the 7th and 8th grades. With a mission to provide students with quality educational programs and support services, the school needed resources to help students who were struggling to read at their grade level. O’Neill turned to Thorndike Press large print books as an alternative to the regular print books they were using.

“When I learned more about large print books from Thorndike Press, I realized I had to add them to my collection,” said Tasha Squires, School Librarian at O’Neill Middle School. “It struck me that large print could be a great connection between the lower-level reading materials and regular text/reading level books.”

View a video from Squires about how she has successfully integrated large print books into her collection and how she introduces the format to her students, here: http://bit.ly/2ZpsFTc.

Thorndike Press large print books are similar in size to other standard editions and have the same cover art. By using a 16-point font on thinner, higher quality paper and laying out the text to maximize the use of white space, the books reduce eyestrain and increase readability.

As students started to use the large print books, Squires noticed significant improvements in their reading skills. In a survey she conducted of the students reading large print books,[i] nearly 70% said they were able to concentrate better. The findings also showed that the majority of students preferred large print over regular print books because they:

• remembered more of the story
• found themselves reading for longer periods of time
• enjoyed the reading process more
• were able to find their place faster, when looking up from the book

“Giving students the choice to decide what format they would prefer reading a book in, is incredibly powerful and makes them more willing to engage with the content,” said Squires. “It also allows them the ability to comprehend more because it’s in a format that’s accessible to them.”

Since beginning their large print initiative in October 2018, O’Neill’s large print titles have had total circulation of 4.85%—an impressive percentage considering large print makes up only 136 titles of the library’s total collection of 13,000 items.

“These books aren’t just for striving readers—they work for ALL readers,” said Squires. “Large print texts are part of the larger picture for reading in general, because they help students overcome challenges they might have and allows them to be successful.”

Read the entire story about O’Neill Middle School’s success with Thorndike Press books, here: http://bit.ly/2V4YDET.

For more information on Thorndike Press visit the webpage, here: http://bit.ly/2GjUtPZ.

About Thorndike Press
As the world’s leading large print publisher, Thorndike Press, a Gale company, helps readers of all ages enjoy books. Publishing unabridged reprints in large print format for middle grade and young adult readers started in 1999 and our catalogue of nearly 400 titles grows monthly with high-interest fiction and nonfiction books, including contemporary classics, award-winners and bestsellers. Our commitment to producing high quality, 100% guaranteed large print books supports young readers as they develop the skills necessary to become successful, confident, lifelong readers. For more information visit: gale.com/thorndikepress/ya.

Follow Thorndike Press on:
• Twitter - @ThorndikePress
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ThorndikePress/

About Cengage and Gale
Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. The company serves the higher education, K-12, professional, library and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com.

Follow Gale on:
• Twitter - @galecengage
• Gale Blog - http://blog.gale.com/
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GaleCengage/

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[i] From a survey of 66 participating O’Neill Middle School 7th–8th graders regarding reading large print for the first time in classroom and library settings (January – May 2018).

ByWater Solutions, an open source community contributor and America’s forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that the University of Montevallo Carmichael Library in Alabama is now live on Koha with ByWater Solutions! ByWater completed the transition of the library’s 200,000 plus holdings from Horizon ILS and is providing ongoing support services to the library. The library’s customized Koha OPAC can be viewed at: https://libcatalog.montevallo.edu/

Cate Guenther, Carmichael Librarian recently commented on the training and migration:

Thank you for the training experience. We are so thoroughly pleased with the new system and your training sessions were extremely informative. It was great getting to know you and getting a glimpse of ByWater Solutions as a company. I am impressed and so thankful we are able to be a new customer of yours!

About the Carmichael Library
The Carmichael Library connects people with information, fosters individual and collaborative research and study, cultivates critical thinking, and promotes creativity.

Read more at: http://libguides.montevallo.edu/mission

About ByWater Solutions
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality Koha support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their ILS than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate Koha implementation and support with library systems of all sizes.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions for Koha support not only lowers the cost of implementing and maintaining an ILS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: https:bywatersolutions.com

About Koha
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies, HTML5, CSS and Javascript, making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org/

For more information, please contact
Jessica Zairo
Marketing & Outreach Coordinator
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944

ByWater Solutions, an open source community contributor and America’s forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that the Decatur Public Library in Alabama is now live on Koha with ByWater Solutions! ByWater completed the transition of the library’s 96,000 plus holdings from TLC ILS and is providing ongoing support services to the library. The library’s customized Koha OPAC can be viewed at: https://catalog.mydpl.org/.

Sherry Sakovich, Director at the Decatur Public Library recently commented on the migration:

I just wanted to thank you and EVERYONE at ByWater for taking such great care of us during our migration. Andrew, Jess, Lucas, and Melissa been absolutely incredible. You guys were on fire with answering questions and making adjustments to what we needed with our configuration. Thank you so much to all of you!

About the Decatur Public Library
The purpose of the Decatur Public Library is to provide to all those who live, work, own a business, or attend school in Morgan County, Alabama access to resources to fulfill their informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs and interests.

Read more at: http://mydpl.org/about-us/

About ByWater Solutions
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality Koha support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their ILS than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate Koha implementation and support with library systems of all sizes.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions for Koha support not only lowers the cost of implementing and maintaining an ILS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: https:bywatersolutions.com

About Koha
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies, HTML5, CSS and Javascript, making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org/

For more information, please contact
Jessica Zairo
Marketing & Outreach Coordinator
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944

Duluth, Ga., April 16, 2019: Equinox is pleased to welcome Degenstein Community Library to Evergreen with their successful migration to the Pennsylvania Integrated Library System (PaILS) SPARK Consortium.

The Degenstein Community Library’s move will support 7,516 patrons. The migration included a total of 63,991 bibliographic records. Services provided by Equinox included project management and Evergreen software configuration. Data extraction and bibliographic deduplication were completed as part of their migration encompassing item, patron, and transaction records. The library prepared for the migration with on site and remote training from Equinox.

“Has anyone ever said a migration or change in the library world, for that matter, is easy?,” said Melissa Rowse, director at Degenstein Community Library. “The Degenstein Community Library certainly can. Erika Rohlfs and the team at Equinox made the transition to SPARK painless. Our weekly phone calls kept us abreast of upcoming discussions and topics. Our training with Felicia Beaudry helped to alleviate fears and concerns from the staff. Our Go-Live day had very little issues all because we were prepared by Equinox. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Equinox and highly recommend them.”

PaILS was founded in June 2011 as a non-profit organization to provide an open source integrated library system. It oversees SPARK, a consortia of Evergreen libraries across Pennsylvania. Equinox and PaILS have been collaborating on the SPARK consortia since 2013.

“It has been a great pleasure working with Melissa during Degenstein's migration to SPARK,” said Erica Rohlfs, Senior Implementation Project Manager at Equinox. “She gives thoughtful consideration to how the process may affect her community and made the patrons her top priority during the decision making process.”

About Equinox Open Library Initiative
Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc. is a nonprofit company engaging in literary, charitable, and educational endeavors serving cultural and knowledge institutions. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., the Initiative carries forward a decade of service and experience with Evergreen and other open source library software. At Equinox OLI we help you empower your library with open source technologies. To learn more, please visit https://www.equinoxinitiative.org/.

About Evergreen
Evergreen is an award-winning ILS developed to provide an open source product able to meet the diverse needs of consortia and high transaction public libraries. However, it has proven to be equally successful in smaller installations including special and academic libraries. Today, over 1500 libraries around the world are using Evergreen including NC Cardinal, SC Lends, and B.C. Sitka. For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, see http://evergreen-ils.org.

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