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Given the large size of the baby boomer cohort in Australia, a key question for public libraries is what impact their retirement will have. There is likely to be increased demand for public library services, but also opportunities to entice baby boomers to work as volunteers, including in advocacy roles. This paper reports recent research focused on the impact that the characteristics of baby boomers, and the world in which they will retire, might have upon the preparations that libraries can make and the issues that should concern them. Main areas of discussion include the role of the public library as a social hub including physical and technological resource provision; innovative partnerships to enhance public library service; the role of volunteers; and planning for change, including staffing and funding.Edited version of a paper presented at the Next chapters conference State Library of NSW 1-2 May 2009.
The starting point for the project reported in this paper is the retirement of the Australian baby boomers (BBs), a group which numbers about 5.4 million1 with the 2008 estimate being about 5.6 million according to Fujitsu Consulting.2 This is more than one quarter of the Australian population. Throughout their lifetime, baby boomers have had significant influence on Australian society. They are likely to revolutionise the meaning of ageing and retirement just as they have led other social revolutions in earlier times, for example the gender revolution. As a group, boomers are better educated, more technologically literate, and generally wealthier than any previous generation.3 They have both the potential and the desire to make creative and innovative use of their retirement years, some of it partially through part time work. They are also renowned for their voracious consumption of information in all media.4
Public libraries are well placed to assist baby boomers in their retirement. Nevertheless, they must now significantly accelerate planning to ensure that their services are relevant and timely to the cohort, by developing first an indepth understanding of the needs of the retiring boomers, and secondly by assessing the service and resource changes required to accommodate these needs.
The major project, and therefore this paper, builds on a pilot study conducted in 2005 which focused on the perceived impact of the retirement of the baby...