Study: 1 in 4 Boomers Won't Retire Because They Can't

Take a look at this study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Massachusetts EqualAccess Materials Online

Massachusetts EqualAccess materials for 2007 are available on the Webjunction site. The deadline to apply for an LSTA EqualAccess grant is January 19, 2007.

Informational conference calls about the EqualAccess program and grant application process are being held on January 3 and 4, 2007.

The MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures BreakThrough Award

The MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures BreakThrough Award is for innovative organizations that tap the passion and experience of people over 50 to improve society. It’s a salute to any nonprofit or public sector agency that takes on local, national, or international challenges by engaging this vast and vibrant workforce for good.

Libraries are included!

Applications are due February 1, 2007.

Online Institute for Programming Ideas - August 9

You may be interested in this SirsiDynix Institute, "Beyond Bingo for the Boomers: Public Libraries to Fill a Void," on August 9 at 11:00 AM EDT. You can register at the top of the page.

Boomer Required Readings

Here's a webliography that Chelmsford compiled for its "Becoming the Butterfly" series.

BoomerCafe, an online newletter for Boomers. Remember Ellen Freudenheim from our NMRLS September 2005 Lifelong Access Institute workshop? See her article on exercise as your smartest investment.

NRTA-AARP publication, Staying Sharp: Learning Throughout Life.

Lifelong Access Libraries Leadership Institute (TM) Begins July 31

In recognition of the public library’s unique position to act as a springboard for the millions of baby boomers currently reaching retirement age, Americans for Libraries Council (ALC) is convening an elite group of librarians in North Carolina at the end of this month to participate in the nation’s first Lifelong Access Libraries Leadership InstituteTM. The Institute will train these Lifelong Fellows to lead the nation’s libraries in enhancing services for older adults with opportunities for active learning, creative exploration, and meaningful civic engagement.

The Institute will run from July 31 - August 4, 2006, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It is one component of a multi-year Lifelong Access Libraries initiative funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, which is described in more detail on the Lifelong Access Libraries website www.lifelonglibraries.org. The Institute is being co-hosted by two entities at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: The School of Information and Library Science, and the Institute on Aging.

More: http://www.lff.org/lifelong/documents/LifelongInstituteprFINAL71706.pdf

In Tempe (AZ), New Café in Public Library Serves as One-Stop Resource for Boomers Planning Next Chapters

As baby boomers redefine the traditional retirement years, experts predict they'll challenge the institutions set up to serve them to change too. The traditional "senior center" is one such institution that's likely to undergo big changes in approach, marketing, and services. After all, boomers may not flock to something called a "senior center," but they will still need a place to go to get the information, services, and networking opportunities they're looking for as they plan the next chapters of their lives.

In Arizona, a coalition known as Tempe Connections is breaking new ground – in more ways than one. This month, it's celebrating the grand opening of the Connections Café, a one-stop resource for boomers, built on the first floor of the Tempe public library. Those who visit can sip a latte while searching for paid or volunteer jobs that provide service to the community, visiting with a career coach, attending life planning workshops, finding out more about caring for aging parents, exploring adventure travel opportunities, signing up for classes, attending cultural events, and comparing notes with other boomers entering the same stage of life.

Read more: http://www.civicventures.org/nextchapter/stories_tempe_1.cfm

Baby Boomer Women: Secure Futures or Not?

Baby boomer women are in trouble. Unlike any other time in our nation’s history, unless there are dramatic policy shifts, in terms of absolute numbers, baby boomer women, most particularly minority women, will find their elder years to be a "never ending" struggle. After selflessly caring for their children and aging parents, a significant number of our country’s 40 million plus boomer women will not be able to afford to retire, will fall below the poverty line and experience financial insecurity and poorer health in their later years with limited aid from traditional safety nets.

See this Harvard Generations Policy Program and the Global Generations Policy Institute study.

What Will Your Library Have for This Patron?

Will you direct him to the Large Print books?

Can You Afford to Retire? -- On WGBH in May

Watch for this Frontline show, "Can You Afford to Retire?" on May 16 at 9:00 PM or May 18 at 10:00 PM:

http://wgbh.org/schedules/program-info?episode_id=2731820&program_id=26520

Report on Libraries Serving Aging Boomers

This new report is co-authored by Americans for Libraries Council (Libraries for the Future's parent organization) and IMLS:

http://www.imls.gov/pdf/designsforchange.pdf

New Website for Lifelong Access Libraries

Take a look at Library for the Future's newest program website, www.LifelongLibraries.org. The site is a feature of LFF's Lifelong Access Libraries Initiative, positioning libraries to meet baby boomers and other active adults with up-to-the-minute resources, referrals, meaningful life options, and more.

Among the features of the site:
- An Innovations Inventory, capturing emerging practices in library programs and services for active older adults;
- Links, resources, and training agendas to help libraries and other community-responsive institutions update services for the millions of baby boomers right now considering new options for creative work and meaningful retirement;
- Reports such as "Designs for Change: Libraries and Productive Aging," capturing insights from last fall's ALC/IMLS Library Leaders Forum, including a call to action for libraries to lead the way to new approaches to aging.

Lifelong Access Libraries Institute Fellowships

News from MBLC:

Americans for Libraries Council
Lifelong Access Libraries Institute Fellowships

July 30-August 4, 2006 at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Americans for Libraries Council (ALC) seeks Fellows for its first annual Lifelong Access Libraries Institute. The Institute will introduce participants to Lifelong Access, a new framework for working with active older adults that that promotes productive aging through learning and civic engagement. Lifelong Access is based on an understanding of older adults as resources for their communities and offers an alternative to the predominant deficit-based model of aging.

The Institute will focus on three primary areas: (1) concepts and research underlying new approaches to working with midlife and older adults; (2) promising practices in library services, including the Lifelong Access framework for new older adult services; and (3) leadership and skills in community librarianship.

The Institute is based on the principle of "action learning," in which the acquired skills and knowledge are put to practical use at libraries over a sustained period of time. Candidates and their library directors must be prepared to implement Lifelong Access in their own libraries, test and refine the model, help disseminate the model, train or mentor other adult services librarians, and participate in evaluation of the Institute. The Fellows will be linked electronically in a national community of practice based on information exchange and communications.

The Institute is part of the Lifelong Access Libraries initiative, funded by a major grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies. Institutes will be conducted in 2006, 2007, and 2008.


Selection of Fellows

Fellows will be selected by a panel of national advisors and staff of Americans for Libraries Council. Applicants should be mid-career practicing librarians. They should include in their application packet a letter from their library director in support of their application and expressing a commitment to improve the library's services and resources for midlife and active older adults.
Applicants will be evaluated in part on the basis of:

* Evidence of success in the design and implementation of new programs and services;

* Experience in building collaborations and working successfully in partnerships with community organizations, groups, or agencies;

* Enthusiasm for becoming an active member of the Lifelong Access community of practice and a commitment to sharing experiences and insights through the online Lifelong Access network;

* Readiness to make presentations at library conferences and to contribute written materials to professional literature.


To Apply
The application is available online and must be accompanied by a letter of support from the library director. Selection will be on a competitive basis. The cost of Fellows' travel, tuition, and room and board for the Institute will be covered by ALC. A limited number of qualified candidates not selected as Fellows may participate at cost. Deadline for submitting an application is April 15. Please visit our website http://www.lff.org/programs/lifelong.html for further details.


About Lifelong Access Libraries(tm) and Americans for Libraries Council Lifelong Access Libraries(tm) is an initiative developed by Americans for Libraries Council to transform library services for active older adults making the transition to new forms of retirement. Lifelong Access Libraries regards aging as an opportunity for individual and social renewal and establishes libraries as centers for lifelong learning and civic engagement. The national initiative is funded by a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, with additional support from local funders.

Americans for Libraries Council is a national nonprofit that champions the role of libraries in American life and promotes new approaches to sustaining and developing libraries in the 21st century. Through its program division, Libraries for the Future (www.lff.org), the Council develops and oversees national programs to strengthen individual libraries and library systems.


___________________________________________________________________________
Robert C. Maier, Director
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
98 North Washington Street, Suite 401
Boston, MA 02114
617-725-1860 or 800-952-7403 (in state) extension 249
Fax: 617-725-0140
robert.maier@state.ma.us

EqualAccess Libraries Named

Four NMRLS libraries have received EqualAccess grants from the MBLC - Chelmsford, Peabody, Reading, and Rowley. Congratulations!

The Purpose Prize: For Americans Leading with Experience

Recognizing New Innovators

An inspiring new group of role models for "engaged retirement" is emerging. Unwilling to stuff envelopes or go off quietly to the sidelines, these change-makers are taking matters into their own hands and fashioning a new vision of the second half of life, one in which the expertise and talent of a lifetime is refocused on finding solutions to challenges in our communities, our country, and the world. They are living proof that aging does not equal stagnation and decline, that later life is a time of innovation, productivity, and creativity as rich as the younger years.

Read more at: http://www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/purposeprize/why_the_prize.cfm

The Purpose Prize awards $100,000 each to five innovators who are taking on society's biggest challenges. It's for those with the passion and experience to discover new opportunities, create new programs, and make lasting change.

Almost Home -- on PBS Feb. 21

From the Missouri State Library:

A feature-length documentary chronicling a year in the life of a retirement community in America's Midwest will premiere on PBS this month.

Almost Home (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/almosthome/), which will air on February 21, appears on PBS just as a tidal wave of baby boomers reaches their 60s, meaning that half of our country is reckoning either with its own aging or that of a loved one. Almost Home follows one couple bonded by their struggle with Alzheimer's and another divided by the challenges of Parkinson's; "sandwich generation" children torn between caring for their parents and managing their own affairs; nursing assistants doing crucial but unsavory work for poverty wages while juggling precarious lives at home; healthy elders who fear the day they may have to move to the dreaded nursing home; and a visionary nursing home director feverishly working to alleviate such fear by transforming his impersonal, regimented hospital-like institution into a warm "home" that promotes autonomy and inspires independence instead of fear.

Many state associations committed to nursing home reform and changing the culture of aging are planning private viewings of the film and hosting discussions and forums throughout the spring. I encourage public libraries to contact local or state senior services agency or the Pioneer Network (http://www.pioneerexchange.org/), if your state has one, to find out how the public library can be involved in this awareness raising effort.

Thanks,
Nancee

Nancee Dahms-Stinson
Consultant, Youth & Senior Services
Missouri State Library
nancee.dahms-stinson@sos.mo.gov
http://www.sos.mo.gov/library/development/

EqualAccess Libraries Institute Deadline - Jan. 27

This is a reminder that EqualAccess Libraries Institute applications need to be postmarked no later than January 27, 2006. Each public library director should have received a packet of program and application materials in the mail in early January. The application may also be downloaded at
http://ea.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=12257

Questions about the EqualAccess Libraries professional development program, associated LSTA awards, and the application process should be directed to Eleanor.Stafford@state.ma.us or 617-725-1860 x 228.

Sincerely,
Eleanor Stafford
Massachusetts EqualAccess Program Manager Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
Tel: 617-725-1860 x 228
1-800-952-7403 x 228 (in state)
Fax: 617-725-0140

Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty to air on Sunday

From www.boomerstv.com:

As the first Baby Boomers toast their 60th birthday in 2006, our new public television series will join in the celebration. Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty examines the issues, challenges and opportunities facing Boomers as they make the transition to a new phase of their lives.

Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty will begin airing in Greater Boston on:

WGBH 44- Sunday, January 8, 2006 9:30AM