Midwest Genealogy Center

Are those letters in the history book, personal letter, or family bible too small to see clearly? The magnifying reader can help. The Midwest Genealogy Center has one located on the upper level, right above the main entrance.

This device, which resembles an old version of a computer, has adjustable functions to make the reading easier. The text can be enlarged, adjusted, and the colors can even be inverted, which sometimes works better for seeing small differences in letters.

One of the advantages of the reader is that usually a few sentences can be seen at once on the enlarged screen. Furthermore, because there is no need for holding a magnifying glass in one hand and a document in the other, one can immediately type out the text seen on the screen on their laptop to preserve the document in digital form. In addition, any text in a foreign language, for example an old German bible containing personal handwritten notes, can be transcribed to English at the same time as it is read. If the user has any questions, the library staff will be happy to assist.

Generally, the magnifying reader is a great tool for everyone’s special reading purposes, whether it may help a visually impaired person or for reading old family treasures such as bibles and letters, where time contributed to the process of slow but continual disappearance of some letters.

Finally, do not worry about wait lines to get to use this interesting device. It is not utilized often, but maybe after reading this … who knows. Please, come and give it a try.

Iveta B.
Midwest Genealogy Center