| “Boomer-ize” Your Library Collection: The Basics | |
| Kelly Myer Polacek, Allan M. Kleiman | |
| Allan M. Kleiman is the library director at the Montville Public Library in New Jersey and a library consultant working on “senior spaces” projects. He is a past chair of the RUSA RSS Library Service to an Aging Population Committee and was an official library delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in 2005. Allan was the recipient of the Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award in 2006 | |
| Correspondence: Correspondence concerning this column should be addressed to Kelly Myer Polacek, e-mail: kmpolacek@gmail.com. | |
Call them “boomers” or “baby boomers.” They are the generation born just after the end of World War II (1946) through 1964, the year the Beatles were introduced on the Ed Sullivan Show. This is the Woodstock Generation, the age that marched against the establishment with the hopes of ending the Vietnam War. This defined generation has been seen as the group that would have everything that their parents and grandparents could provide for them. Unfortunately, many of their once-strong nest eggs have shrunk over the past few years because of the financial crisis precipitated by the mortgage collapse of 2008. In general, they are much healthier, better educated, and more financially secure than their parents or grandparents. This also is the “I can do anything” generation. Being a baby boomer myself, I can concur with all that.
At the same time, the nature of what it means to grow older and the definition of what it means to be retired is being changed rapidly by this cohort. This is where libraries can play an essential role as they broaden their senior-based collection beyond traditional large-print books.
Libraries around the country are developing innovative programs to make the retirement years productive, creative, and engaging. These include the Transforming Life After 50 program developed by the California State Library and the Senior Spaces: Pennsylvania Style project developed by Commonwealth Libraries. As these programs are being developed, libraries are faced with building relevant collections that address the myriad informational needs surrounding growing older as a baby boomer.
The RUSA Guidelines for Library and Information Services for Older Adults (2008) suggest some key areas for collection development including: health, health care, social security, financial planning, housing, independent living, elder law, care giving (including grandparenting), lifelong learning (including adult literacy and computer skills), community service, civic engagement, and volunteering. It further states that “the Library’s collections, programs, and informational services should reflect the diverse interests and needs of older adults.”1
This issue of the “The Alert Collector” is designed to assist you in developing and enhancing your physical and virtual library collections to better serve the boomer generation. It also addresses issues of the aging lifespan by including material for the “Silent Generation” and the “Greatest Generation” (the parents and grandparents of the boomers). Marketing your collection can be made easier throughout the year. For example, May is Older Americans Month, September includes National Grandparents Day and November is both Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month.
These suggestions are intended for all types of libraries, especially public libraries. Titles of a more scholarly nature on aging, geriatrics, and gerontology haven been intentionally excluded from this collection list. Also not included in this article are titles that were self-published or are available in e-book (e.g., Kindle) editions only.
Libraries should begin with an evaluation of which of these key books they already own. These titles are the standards that have been written by well-known authors and should be included in a library’s basic collection. Some are updated on a regular and frequent basis.
I would add to this list a personal favorite:
For those looking to purchase reference material for their collection, I would suggest:
You also can begin by looking at specific areas in your Dewey Decimal collection. For example, what do you have on your shelves in these categories? Are they outdated or need to be replaced?
For your Library reading section, you might include some of the top magazines:
Your virtual Library might include the following:
Some recent titles from AARP to add to your collection include the following:
AARP has developed an annual listing of “Movies for Grownups” (www.aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups), which is an excellent resource to purchase movies for your collection that also can be used for programming efforts.
“The Legacy Film Series: New Perspectives on Aging” distributes and makes available rentals for films that portray positive images of aging (www.legacyfilmseries.com). I was excited to learn they have available the Academy Award-winning “Close Harmony,” which was previously unavailable.
Terra Nova Films (founded in 1981) produces and distributes videos and other educational material on aging (www.terranova.org). They also sponsor the ongoing “Silver Image Film and Video Showcase,” which provides additional resources for those working with older adults; many of their titles are now available for streaming on demand.
Many of the individual programs and series from PBS (www.shoppbs.org) are available through their educational media catalog. Titles can be purchased for home use or with public performance rights. Some titles you may want to screen in your library include the following:
Brain fitness is an ever-growing field of book publication and software development. Libraries such as The New York Public Library, the Washington DC Public Library, and the Palo Alto Public Library are beginning to develop programs in this area. Libraries may want to review the Brain Fitness series from PBS (mentioned in the Films section) and look at company websites such as SharpBrains (www.sharpbrains.com) and PostitScience (www.postitscience) for additional ideas for purchase and programming options. In terms of collection development, consider this AARP best book nomination:
Abby Stokes’ book on technology is essential not only for the new learner but library staff as well. Her website (www.abbyandme.com) is a good resource for library staff that find themselves teaching computer classes for seniors.
The “For Dummies” series by Wiley has several titles that are great additions to your technology collection; however, seniors have expressed to me that “dummies” is not necessarily how they want to be referred to. Consider adding the titles below to your collection:
I prefer the Studio Visual Steps series because the entire series is aimed toward seniors by utilizing large print and containing clear diagrams and photographs. Each book also is linked to the company’s website for additional information and updates on the subject. At the writing of this article, there are more than twenty-five titles in print on topics like Windows 7, iPad, Mac, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Applications (like social media and Google), Microsoft Office, and digital photography and editing. For a complete list of current (and future) titles, check out their website (www.visualsteps.com). The website also contains a teacher’s guide for each title that acts as a lesson plan should you want to use the books in a library computer-training program.
Cities around the United States and around the world are participating in the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (www.who.int/ageing/age_friendly_cities_network/en/index.html). New titles have begun to be published to assist seniors, their families, and city planners as they face the challenges in this area. Titles include the following:
Websites for older adults have evolved over the last decade to resemble of mix of social media and interactive Web 2.0 providing alternatives to Facebook. Most are free but often require registration (with a valid email address). Here are some resources to consider:
To assist in developing services for older adults at your library, these resources from the American Library Association are essential:
These two documents provide additional information on serving seniors in the library, and they are updated on a regular basis:
In 2006, the first baby boomers born in 1946 hit the magic age of sixty. Over the next decade, the senior population will grow from the current 35 million to an estimated 78 million. Discussion has begun on the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. How will these population changes affect libraries? What demands will this cohort make on our collections? Libraries of all types should view this not as a challenge but rather as an opportunity for improving, marketing, and targeting their collection to their users.
| 1. | “Guidelines for Library and Information Services to older Adults, ” Reference & User Services Quarterly 48, no. 2 (Winter 2008): 210. |
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