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 They don't want to be stigmatized with outdated stereotypes.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.