Bringing Virtual Reality to Our Senior Patrons
For libraries in possession of VR hardware, the technology offers an incredible new avenue for serving our senior communities.
For libraries in possession of VR hardware, the technology offers an incredible new avenue for serving our senior communities.
A recent NPR story highlights an emerging trend in public libraries, providing opportunities for older adults to exercise and have fun together at the library.
Baby Boomers have rebranded themselves—older adults, matures, 55+, aging adults, longevitists? They aren’t called “seniors” anymore. And library services need to keep pace with their changing needs.
The Federal Trade Commission, with the support of the Institute of Museums and Library Services, is encouraging public libraries in the U.S. to create Pass It On programs to advise senior citizens about prominent scams.
According to the most recent available figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, 13.2 percent of the population is age 65 or older with an additional 5.7 percent turning 65 within the next five years.1 This segment of the American population is an important part of the library’s user group, and one which we must consider as society and the public library become more digital.
Increasingly important as community centers for learning and cultural access, libraries are struggling to respond to the changing needs of today’s older adult library patrons. One of the biggest related questions facing library system directors, branch managers, and programming librarians is what kind of programs can libraries provide that offer meaningful engagement for older adults—and how can libraries implement and pay for programs with limited staff and shrinking budgets? Through the development of their award-winning program, the Creative Aging Libraries Project, Lifetime Arts has cracked the code to this conundrum, already having partnered with 125+ libraries and assisted and trained 250 librarians to work with professional teaching artists and engaging thousands of older adults in nearly 1,000 visual, performing, and literary arts classes. This innovative program model is demonstrating how public libraries can fulfill their potential as community centers for positive and creative aging.
Through a system-wide survey taken in 2007 to assess the number and variety of library programs over a three-month period, we learned that only 1 percent of more than 3,500 public programs of the Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP) system had been targeted specifically to adults over age 65. Recognizing that the population of Philadelphia […]