Braille Library card
Description
The Bethlehem Public Library Braille Card Serves Our Vision Impaired Patrons By Providing Them With A Library Card That Has The Name Of The Library And Their Individual Bar Code Printed In Braille. Because Of Its Size And Substance, The Card Is Easy To Distinguish By Feel From Other Credit Cards And Id Cards In A Wallet. The Bar Code Is Also Duplicated In A Form That Can Be Scanned, Which Our Staffers Can Use When Checking Out Library Materials. In An Earlier Version, The Card Had A Small Hole At The Corner For Attaching It To Key Rings. Subsequent Versions Have Moved The Hole Toward The Middle Of The Edge To Make It More Stable. When The Braille Library Card Was First Offered, We Were Unsure How Many People Would Sign Up For It. The Response Was Surprisingly Swift, With Our First One Going Out To An Area Middle Schooler Who Praised The Sturdiness Of The Braille. When She Came To Pick Up Her Card, She Noted That Getting A Library Card Is A Major Milestone In A Kid’S Life, But She Was Never Really Able To Experience It Until That Moment. More Than A Half Dozen Cards Have Been Printed Since. The Card Is Printed On The Library’S Makerbot Replicator 2, Which Is Also Available For Patrons To Use, Free Of Charge Following A Short Orientation. The Braille Library Card Was A Remix Of The Design Found At Http://Www.Thingiverse.Com/Thing:4758. The Idea Was Expanded To Include Two Sides, With The Barcode On One Side And Our Name On The Other. The Was Done By Editing The Openscad Script To Change The Barcode Numbers And The Name On The Back. (Another One Of Our Early Braille Card Recipients Helped Test The Readability Of The Printed Braille During This Design Stage.) Some Of These Modifications Were Done With The Help Of A Library Volunteer Who Worked Closely With The It Department. Further Variations To The Script Added Rounded Corners And The Keychain Hole. The Card Must Be Printed Upright, Using A Small Raft. It Takes About 45 Minutes To Create. It Has Been Featured In Local News Write-Ups, And We Have Been Contacted By Other Libraries Interested In Printing Their Own Braille Cards.
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