Libraries Retool for Boomers

It's not unusual for public libraries to set aside a large section or even an entire room for young readers.

But as the population ages, many librarians are pondering how to better serve older visitors.

They need to. By 2014, about 65 percent of U.S. library patrons will be 50 to 75 years old.

Libraries around the country are taking action -- hiring consultants, rethinking services, creating new types of volunteer positions and applying for grants to help retrain librarians to better serve baby boomers.

The California Library System, for example, recently created Transforming Life After 50, or TLA50, an initiative to help public libraries do a better job of offering boomers relevant resources and volunteer opportunities. A pre-TLA50 survey of California libraries (done in 2007) found that only four in 10 offered programs specifically for adults, according to Suzanne Flint, a California state library system employee who coordinates the initiative.

Since the initiative started, public libraries in two dozen California cities have earned grants to start boomer-related programs. TLA50 organizers also are spreading the word to library directors in other areas, and are currently sponsoring year-long fellowships for 91 library staffers from 11 Western states.

Libraries need to reinvent themselves to stay relevant in an era of online bookstores, Kindles and e-books, but also to keep up with the changing needs of its patrons, says Stephen Ristau, a Portland, Ore., nonprofit industry consultant who helped coordinate the TLA50 fellowship program. "It's in their best interest to change because boomers are living extended lives and have active lifestyles, and they're looking for not only how they could participate in programs but increasing how they might contribute," he says.

After taking part in TLA50 training, librarians in Roseville in Northern California revamped their volunteer program. Instead of simply handing out tasks, they now ask boomer-age volunteers what skills they have or work they'd like to do, says Gail McGrath, a Roseville library learning specialist, in a promotional video on the TLA50 website. "I'm just amazed at the outpouring of success that we're having," she says.

The Palo Alto, Calif., city library now offers lunch-hour health and fitness programs after older residents who responded to a poll said they were too busy to volunteer but wanted more classes, says assistant library director Cornelia Van Aken. "We developed a whole cadre of programs to be attractive not only to the citizens of Palo Alto but to our huge commuter population, many of whom had never been in that library," says Van Aken, who also is featured on the video.

California libraries aren't the only branches reaching out. The state of North Carolina hired a consultant to help local libraries better serve boomers, including creating more volunteer opportunities.

The Multnomah County Library in Portland, Ore., recently joined forces with Life by Design Northwest, a coalition that helps boomers through career and other transitions, and a service organization called Hands on Greater Portland, to start a service-oriented book club program. As part of the Book-to-Action program, library patrons read a book and then do a related community service project. One group of participants studied the plight of Portland's homeless, then helped out at a city agency that makes dinner and runs social evenings for them.

"What we've found in marketing these is that while the majority of people who are interested happen to be 50 and older and retired and at a point where they have a little more time, the issues and topics and activities are so compelling it's attractive to all ages," Ristau says. "There's a nice inter-generational mix."

Portland's Book-to-Action series has been so successful that the Hayward, Calif., public library is duplicating the series there. According to Ristau, the Hayward library is focusing on organic farming in urban environments with a service project creating gardens at area elementary schools.

Read more: The Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Explains How to Start a Book Club