Advocacy

To advocate for something is to provide active support of an idea or cause. When we talk about advocating for older people as valued library clients perhaps we need to spend some time exploring the idea. After all, aren’t all library clients valuable and isn’t the mission of a public library to be all things to all people? Why are older people special and what would “active support” look like?

Older people are rapidly increasing in numbers and proportionately in all communities in developed countries. Research tells us that people over the age of 65 use public libraries five times as much as other people. Their needs (and demands) must be part of our planning.

One of the great roles a public library plays in a community is building social capital. Libraries do this in a variety of ways, including:

• providing a meeting place for people from a diverse array of ages, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds
• minimizing barriers that prevent people from engaging with their library via housebound services, online services, mobile libraries, information in community languages
• matching services to the needs in their community
• building and facilitating communities

Active support for services to older people would include activities and collections targeting older people, but perhaps more importantly considering the 'senior angle' in all planning, for example:

• is advertising age neutral or senior friendly? (eg. consider the wording, images used)
• are programs accessible to older people? (eg. consider suitable venues, locations, times)
• is the technology available to assist participation? (eg. consider hearing aid loops in meeting rooms and at service counters, the screen and font size of presentations)
• are there opportunities for seniors to volunteer or participate?