Publisher's Synopsis
The boomers are coming-prepare your library now! Brimming with strategies, ideas, checklists, anecdotes and practical advice, this guide offers you both a positive vision and a practical plan for serving seniors in your library. It covers all facets of library service-from policies, collection development, and reference services to technology and programs-helping you design, implement, promote, and evaluate service plans to aging populations and successfully meet their information, learning, and leisure reading (and listening and viewing) needs. The authors describe seniors as critical stakeholders in the library's future, and show how to enlist their support in a variety of ways. Grounded in research and best practice, the book is based on the principles of lifelong learning and universal access.
According the U.S. Census Bureau, beginning in 2011, people 65 and older will be the fastest growing population in the country-and that trend has already begun. As the baby boomers transit from middle age to senior citizens, demands on library services to aging populations will correspondingly increase. Who are these new seniors, what are their needs, and what do they expect of libraries? How can your library prepare to serve the burgeoning needs of this diverse group?
This guide answers these questions and more as the authors discuss national and global trends in aging; and demonstrate how they are impacting and will impact library use by seniors-from the active 60 is the new 40 crowd to the frail elderly, the homebound, and the institutionalized.
Covering all facets of library service-from policies, collection development, and reference services to technology and programs-this handbook helps you design, implement, promote, and evaluate service plans to aging populations and successfully meet their information, learning, and leisure reading (and listening and viewing) needs.
Grounded in research and best practice, this guide is based on the principles of lifelong learning and universal access. The authors describe seniors as critical stakeholders in the library's future, and show you how to enlist their support in a variety of ways. Brimming with strategies, ideas, checklists, anecdotes and practical advice, it offers you both a positive vision and a practical plan for serving seniors in your library.
