5-Star Programming and Services for Your 55+ Library Customers (Ala Programming Guides)

The latest in the ALA Programming Guides series, this comprehensive resource gets to the heart of what seniors need and want—from continuing education to recreation—and how to reach out to homebound seniors.

Retiring after 25 years as the head of the Ohio Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, Barbara T. Mates now works as an independent consultant specializing on topics related to senior services and accessibility options for persons with disabilities. She is a longtime member of ALA’s Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), having served as the association president in 2007–2008, and she chaired ALA’s 2010 Schneider Family Book Award Committee. Mates has presented numerous papers and workshops across the country, and she is the author of 5-Star Programming and Services for Your 55+ Library Customers (ALA, 2003); “Computer Technologies to Aid Special Audiences,” which appeared in Library Technology Reports in 2004; and “Assistive Technologies for Today’s Libraries,” for American Libraries (2010). In 2001 Mates received the prestigious Francis Joseph Campbell Award. In 2010 she received the ASCLA 2010 Exceptional Service Award for her advocacy on behalf of persons with disabilities and older adults in regards to library services as well as within the ALA infrastructure.