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NMRLS LSTA Grant
The Library Experience: Older Citizens

It's hard to believe, but Year Two of NMRLS' The Library Experience grant has just ended. In modeling the Lifelong Access Program of our partner, Libraries for the Future (LFF) www.lff.org, our objectives in the grant were to:

  • Engender interest among our members to develop programs and services to serve the rising population of older, active adults in their communities (55+);
  • Develop a web clearinghouse of library and community information for library staffs serving this demographic; and
  • Reach the target audience through library programming and library/community connections.

We accomplished these through library staff training and the building of a Lifelong Access Web eXchange that will be part of the NMRLS site.

Our last of three training sessions was held on September 15th at NMRLS. Gloria Coles, Libraries for the Future's Director of the Lifelong Access Program, spoke on the work being done at Arizona, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania libraries, and the upcoming three-year project that will begin this fall in Massachusetts through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Five NMRLS members, who have been part of the training over the course of the grant, spoke on the programs and services they have initiated at their libraries for the grant audience. Each participant has taken a different direction to meet the needs of the target group in her library. These included the creation of an older, active adult advisory board; a collaborative program with the local YMCA; the special concerns of an urban library clientele; programs to attract this age group; and a dialogue within the community, initiated by the library, to identify opportunities for civic engagement within the community.

Through design work by Susan Grabski (NMRLS) and content gathered for us from Carol Greenfield (representing LFF), the web eXchange www.nmrls.org/tlx/index.shtml is intended to promote the sharing of information by libraries to foster enhanced programming and services to a new generation of older adults. We hope that you find this resource useful in your libraries. Your ideas and assistance are welcome to keep this site vital. Contact Mary Behrle.