Library Outreach to Underserved Populations
Services to Older Adults
Serving Older Adults @ Your Library
Column
Kathy Mayo, Manager of Community Access Services, Lee County (FL) Library System
No.1, January 2004
Warm Welcome
Welcome to a new column on the American Library Association/Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (ALA/OLOS) web site. As part of its effort to provide useful information to librarians and library staff involved with outreach activities, OLOS is offering you several new columns from the field.
If you are an ALA member, you’ve probably noticed that no one division addresses all of your needs for outreach and literacy-related activities. OLOS is becoming a resource for covering many issues that relate to both literacy and outreach services. The Office works closely with the divisions, too, helping to enhance and promote our common agendas.
This column will appear every 4-6 weeks to address some of the hot issues and trends, service delivery methods, and best practices in the field of library service for older adults. I won’t be doing this alone. Two people from my library will be working with me: Marylou Tuckwiller, Talking Books subregional Librarian (including assistive technology) and Tom Edwards, Coordinator of Senior Outreach (deposit collections and programming kits). We’ll be sharing some of our views and experiences and looking for people in the field who will make their own contributions.
If your responsibilities are similar to mine, this is only part of your job. You may also be involved with serving persons with disabilities, new immigrants, low income families, inmates at correctional facilities, etc. We’ll try to provide you with some useful information that will help with the “older adult” part of your job – which is often intermingled with the other services and constituents you serve.
We’ll look at services for older adults who come to the library for interaction, inspiration, and information as well as off-site services for persons having difficulty accessing our facilities. These are some of the topics that we plan to address in the next few months:
- Lifelong learning programs
- Approaches to working with persons who have Alzheimer’s disease
- Working effectively with Activity Directors
- Avoiding paternalism: showing elders respect through our intentions, our language, and our actions
- Serving elders who are non-English speakers
- Assistive technology – selecting, demonstrating, loaning…
- Innovative programming ideas
- Books-by-Mail, home delivery, and deposit collections
- Technology training with older adults
- Intergenerational programs
- Marketing and communication strategies
- Developing partnerships and coalitions in the community
What issues would you like to read more about? What would you like to write about in the column? Where are the fantastic services for elders? What could OLOS include on the web site that would make your job easier? What new resources have you found? What conferences in related fields should we know about? Send us your answers and questions and we’ll use them to shape this column and the web site. Please contact me at kmayo@leegov.com.
Who are the older adults in our communities?
In spite of the 55+ discounts and age requirement for AARP (50), I’ve chosen the more traditional yardstick of 65+ to define this age group. We will clarify when articles in this column refer to services for persons who are younger than 65.
How do we refer to persons who are over 65?
Like most of you, I use different descriptors depending on the situation and try to use terminology that shows respect. Senior, older adult, and elder were the most common terms preferred in a recent discussion on SeriorServ. Here are some other thoughts:
- As a rule of thumb, avoid placing “the” in front of any term to create an adjectival noun. “The” elders doesn’t sound any better than “the” Jews, “the” blacks, or “the” women.
- The group had specific objection to the word elderly, especially when used as “the” elderly.
- Ask your audience for their opinions. They are the resident experts.
Jane Huson (Washington-Centerville (OH) Public Library) put it well in her comments. “As I approach 55 myself, I have to agree that referring to me as elder or senior would not attract me. As I look at the 60 and 70-year old people coming through our doors, those terms don’t really describe them, either. They are simply adults, older adults if you must, who need us to provide services relevant to their interests. Many of them are auditing courses at local universities, traveling extensively, playing more sports, and helping to raise their children’s families. We have to convince them that the library is still a meaningful part of their lives.”
In most cases, there is no need to label any group. For example, the community where I live has a large population over 65 (25%) that grows even larger in the winter months. The library offers many programs that appeal to persons in this age group, but does not promote them as programs for older adults. It’s just not necessary.
SeniorServ discussion list
SeniorServ@ala.org is a discussion list for persons serving older adults. Sign up today to join in on discussions, ask for advice, or just share concerns and successes. The first step is to visit the ListProc Web Interface at http//lp-web.ala.org:8000/, enter your username and password, and subscribe on the Interface.
We are looking at producing a new column every six weeks. The next one will cover information from the ALA Midwinter meeting as well as recent discussions on deposit collections for older adult facilities and daycare centers.
Brief Bio for Kathy Mayo
Kathy Mayo has been a librarian for over thirty years – mostly involved with library outreach and services for elders and persons with disabilities. One of her first positions was at a large mental health treatment facility where she started using BiFolkal kits with older residents. She has worked as a consultant at the State Library of Florida and most recently as Manager of Community Access Services for the Lee County Library System in Fort Myers, Florida. In Lee County, she directs Assistive Technology, Bookmobile, Books-by-Mail, Literacy, Multicultural, Senior Outreach, and Talking Book programs. Kathy has been active in ALA since the mid-70’s and is a frequent presenter at national and state conferences.