Emily Fardoux LIS 768 Fall 2013 November 12, 2013 Assignment 3

Warren-Newport Public Library A Reflection for Seniors

A few years ago, my grandma suffered a small stroke and lost enough vision that she was forced to relinquish her drivers license and sell her car. My mom, having one day off from work during the week, offered to drive up to Gurnee to take my grandparents to the grocery store, the post office, the library, and anywhere else they might need to go. My work schedule was such that I was able to accompany her on these weekly trips, which was a great way to get to spend time with my grandparents as well as check out their library. Warren-Newport Public Library serves several northern suburbs in a 55-square mile area, including Gurnee, where my grandparents live. It is a large facility recently renovated and added to. According to their website1, the population served is 66,690 with 39,617 cardholders between July 2012 and June 2013.

Library Materials & Services

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "!#$$%&''((()(*%+),*-.',*/01)%#%'+,234356%3.-,+0'!!

The library has multiple options for seniors to acquire materials they have a robust bookmobile with a vast daily schedule, as well as homebound service. The large print collection is quite extensive, including several genres not widely included in my own public librarys large print collection (western and nonfiction, for example). Also available are inlibrary magnifiers to use with print resources in case a patron needs to use a library resource that is not available in large-print either in the library or via Inter-Library Loan. Digital magnifiers can assist with enlargement of whatever is on computer screens. The library does not only provide senior services through the enlargement of resources, however other physical accessories are available to assist elderly patrons around the library (which will be discussed later). The library also offers one-on-one computer tutoring the tutors are scheduled for several days of a month and the sessions are firstcome, first-serve basis. Many of the authors scheduled to visit the library are popular with the senior community and are scheduled at appropriate times for seniors to attend. There are many other resources each month for seniors e-book and e-reader classes, book discussions, etc. That library is a vibrant place for anyone in the community!

Post-Renovation

After the 2011 renovation and expansion of the library, my grandparents and I felt that seniors and those with physical disabilities had been largely shortchanged by the new facility. In the previous layout of the building, several handicapped parking spaces were within several feet of the front door, with no obstacles like planters between the door and the parking area. The new arrangement of the library repositioned the front door to be three times further from the handicapped spaces and the spaces were not moved. Furthermore, between the spaces and the new front door were several planters that required my grandparents to do some maneuvering not a big deal for the normal library patron, but for someone like my grandpa, whose emphysema causes him to be out of breath walking even a few feet a huge hindrance. The inner configuration of the library changed significantly as well. The large print books had never been particularly close to the entrance of the library, but in the new setup they were one of the furthest collections from the entrance and the previously existing benches for breaks were removed. The new lobby area, elongated because of the front door move, meant that to even get to the first book display, my grandparents had to walk four or five times further than in the old library. Coming to the library, usually a pleasurable experience for my grandparents, who are big readers and savvy library users at the most basic level, became a significant physical workout. They began waiting in

the car dejectedly, sending my mother in with book titles to check out written on scraps of paper. My grandpa used to have a great time using the librarys really intuitive self-checkout (he felt so empowered knowing how to use that simple piece of technology something that seniors rarely feel, in my experience) but the physical layout of the renovated library made this experience unhealthy. My mom and I encouraged my grandparents to write a letter to the library voicing their complaints and so my grandma did. She received a form letter back, and wrote a second letter of complaint. Within a month or so, the New large print books had been moved to an area much closer to the front of the library; benches and small stools had been added at strategic points around the library for seniors to stop and rest; and the library even purchased two motorized carts for patron use. The handicapped spaces have not been moved, nor the planters but my mom and grandparents have begun a system where she goes in and brings the motorized cart out for one of them (usually my grandpa).

Suggestions for Change Restore the original handicapped spaces so that driving or driven seniors can have easier access to the librarys new entrance. Better publicity to seniors of library resources. I have told my grandparents about many of the library services I mentioned

above, as suggestion that they might be able to enhance their library experience. It took me almost an entire year to get them to a point where they felt comfortable even simply asking a librarian or clerk for assistance. It took another six months after that to get my grandma to think that InterLibrary Loan was a service she could use to get large print mysteries (shed thought the quality of the books she wanted was too low to merit asking the library to go through all of that trouble). From interactions with seniors at the public library I work at, it seems the sentiment of being a bother is not one only felt by my grandparents. I propose that publicity of these resources should not only describe them, but reassure seniors that they are to be used for any reason, by anyone who needs them. At an inservice at my public library a few years ago, we discussed terminology in the library and decided to start using the phrase your library in conversation with patrons as often as possible and this idea should be put across strongly in any senior literature that is created. !