MERIDEN - There are thousands of books in the Meriden Public Library, but for some, the wealth of knowledge they contain remains an elusive blur. Or at least that was the case until Thursday, when an anonymous donor gave the library a reading magnification machine worth just under $3,000.

Looking at the machine, which was made by a Dutch company called Optelec and consists of a large flat-screen monitor, a high-tech camera and an adjustable platform for holding reading material, library Board of Directors President Joan Edgerly called it "manna from heaven.

"Stick any sort of written text under the camera and a dial allows you to magnify it up to 72 times its normal size. The push of a button turns the background color of the page to black, making the text stand out in a vivid white.

Although the donor of the machine did not wish to be identified, Library Director Karen Roesler said the donor wished "for the machine to be used for the love of reading." The library has many vision-impaired patrons who struggle to read the small print in its books and magazines, Roesler said.

Although the library already has a computer equipped with a screen capable of magnifying digital text, the new machine, which will be placed near the existing computer in the library's main room, opens the world of printed text to vision-impaired readers.  Roesler was contemplating ways to raise money for such a machine before she received a phone call from the donor, she said.

The machine came from Vision Dynamics in Cheshire, which specializes in products that assist the visually impaired. Vision Dynamics' owner, Charlie Collins, told the small crowd gathered at the library Thursday he was diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration in early childhood, and is legally blind.

He spent his early years concentrating on what he couldn't do because of his impairment, and "I kind of limped through life," he said.  Eventually, Collins said he started concentrating on solutions and using magnifiers and lights to be able to function in society independently.

Technology has advanced so fast in the last decade that there are technological aids that can dramatically improve the lives of the visually impaired, he said, adding that hopes library patrons will enjoy the new machine.  "The sky is the limit," Collins said.