RSVP!

Have you heard of RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program)? This article talks about a volunteer service based in Southern California, which matches about 1000 volunteers who are 55 and over with their areas of interest, including museums and libraries.

It is part of Senior Corps, a national volunteer program in the United States.

Seniors Rock Out! The Zimmers

Have you heard of The Zimmers? This article tells you all about this new rock band, in which members' average age is 78 years old! Wow.

Talking Book Book Clubs in Ottawa

This article comes to us courtesy of Jane Beaumont. (Thanks very much, Jane!)

The Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) Ottawa Book Club Chapter is just what it sounds like, a book club, but slightly different from your average club. Whereas most book clubbers flip through the pages of a good paperback or hardcover, the CCB Ottawa Book Club members listen to their books. The club is designed specifically for blind and visually impaired book lovers, reading their books with their easy-to-use "DAISY" players. DAISY is an audio format that uses the DAISY standard and stands for Digital Accessible Information System. DAISY talking books are distributed on CDs and the specialized player allows a reader to navigate through the book and insert bookmarks in same way as the reader of a printed book.

"I got the hang of my player in about 5 minutes," says Theresa Dupuis, a senior member in the club. "After that, I was ready to read!"

The DAISY readers will provide a means for members of the blind and visually impaired community in Ottawa to read, a right the CCB feels should be the right of every Canadian.

The CCB Ottawa Book Club is a unique, innovative project for the blind and visually impaired community. Book clubs offer a wonderful opportunity to gain knowledge, share ideas and opinions, socialize and discover books one would not ordinarily pick up. It also encourages persons with visual impairments to learn new technology and use alternate formats, which is fantastic for the seniors in the club. The Club could not have been possible without a generous donation by the Community Foundation of Ottawa, which provided the Club a means to purchase DAISY players for those in the Ottawa area who could not afford to purchase a player on their own.

"In addition to this being a first in Ottawa: a book club especially for people who have to rely on talking (audio) books, this is a great example of cooperation between local community organizations," states Jane Beaumont, CNIB Library Board volunteer. "The CCB Ottawa chapter that hosts the club, with the support of CNIB Library and the Ottawa Public Library submitted a funding proposal to the Community Foundation of Ottawa (CFO). They provided the club with a $10,000 grant to purchase 20 digital talking book players for people who did not already own a player and wanted to join the book club."

Ottawa Public Library is a member of the CNIB Library Visunet Canada Partners Program and through that program ensures that there are enough copies of the selected books each month for all of the club members. Marcia Aronson, of the Ottawa Public Library, has given the club tremendous support with her extensive book club knowledge. An avid book clubber herself, Marcia spoke to the group at their first meeting on how book clubs work and what to expect in a club meeting. Marcia also gave the group great ideas on what books to read.

"When I make presentations at library branches on book clubs, I always stress the importance of being inclusive by highlighting titles in alternate formats." states Mrs. Aronson. "I believe this project could prove to be a model for other communities."

Resources:

For more information contact:
Mike Potvin, Canadian Council for the Blind, Researcher/Writer mpotvin@ccbnational.net Tel: 613 567-0311
Or
Jane Beaumont, CNIB Library Board volunteer
jane@beaumont.ca Tel: 613-294-4746

Community Foundations – check http://www.cfc-fcc.ca/ to see if there is a community foundation in your area

CNIB Library Visunet Partners Program
Contact: Faline Bobier, Coordinator
faline.bobier@cnib.ca Tel: 416 486-2500, ext. 7475

Halifax's Provincial Working Group on Services to Older Adults

Heather MacKenzie, Branch Manager of Alderney Gate Public Library (Halifax Public Libraries), tells us that the Regional Libraries of Nova Scotia have formed a Provincial Working Group on Services to Older Adults. In doing so, their hope is to coordinate promotion of library services to the older adult community, share information and provide continuing education in this area to library staff. monitor trends and support regional libraries in the development of programs and services to older adults.

ALA's seniors services guru Allan Kleiman will be presenting at the upcoming CLA/APLA/NLLA conference in June, in a session called "The Boomers are Coming! Supporting Positive Aging Through Public Library Services to Older Adults". This should be a great session; kudos to Heather for submitting this proposal.

Hooray for Halifax!

Books to Retire With!

Vancouver Public Library has created a list of fiction for and about seniors. Any other great lists out there? Or any fiction books you'd like to recommend for and about seniors?

Marketing to Boomers

The Toronto Star has an interesting article on how the label "seniors" does not appeal to boomers. The boomer cohort, writes author Judy Gerstel, have essentially re-branded aging, emphasizing vitality rather than "decline". Libraries should note that boomers "want to be recognized as active, adventurous, attractive and sexual and they'll respond to messages reflecting that image. They don't want to be stigmatized with outdated stereotypes. In their 50s and 60s, they don't want to lumped together with people in their 80s."

A Search Engine for Boomers

This comes courtesy of Marcus Patz at the Vancouver Public Library -- this article on Cranky.com, which bills itself as "the first age-relevant search engine"!

Welcome Everyone!

Greetings! This is the new blog for the Canadian Library Association's Library and Information Services to Older People Interest Group. My name is Desiree Baron, and I'm the current convenor of the interest group.
Previously, we published in a newsletter format called "Changing Faces, Changing Times". Our interest group's mandate is primarily "To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information pertaining to the development of library and information service for the aging in Canada", and this blog is a great way to do that!
Please visit the information page on our interest group here.