Sunday, May 20, 2007

Ledyard Libraries' Older Adult Services

A great source for library information in general and older adult services in particular is Webjunction. Webjunction also provides a discussion area for older adult services. This is very useful since it is a free service. It has the potential to reach many more people than the seniorserv and aging listservs provided by the American Library Association, since the ALA listservs are only available to members.

On the Connecticut WebJunction site, Vince Juliano provided an interesting article about the Ledyard Libraries' older adult programs. The Ledyard Libraries formed a partnership with Meals on Wheels, Public Health Nurses, and a local Senior Center to provide new services to older adults. The libraries updated the deposit collection for the Senior Center and added CD players and cassette players that patrons can borrow. The libraries also organized volunteers to deliver materials to people who were homebound.

I think that providing players for audiobooks is an excellent idea, because many older adults do not want to buy CD players. At my library, many older adults have been unhappy because we are moving to CDs from cassettes. There is resistance to buying DVD players also, but this seems to be decreasing over time. Some of the resistance could be due to fear of new technology (such as having to learn how to use it) or due to the cost of the players, since many older adults are on a fixed income.

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