Allan Kleiman on Gaming for Seniors
Sep 15, 2010Gaming has many documented benefits to seniors: it can engage their interest, get their competitive juices flowing, facilitate computer proficiency, and work their muscles both mentally (Brain Age) and physically (Wii Fit).
Allan Kleiman, 58, former chair of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Library Service to an Aging Population Committee, is an expert on the subject (see his collection development article “The New Golden Years,” LJ 7/10, p. 40–42).
During his tenure as assistant director at Old Bridge Public Library, NJ, Kleiman headed the design and direction of Old Bridge’s “senior spaces,” whose programming included intergenerational gaming between seniors and teens.
Here, Kleiman, now a full-time library consultant, discusses his work and shares his insights and observations.
Have you been a gamer all your life?
I grew up as an avid board game player. Not good in sports, I realized early on that with the spin of the dice I could be a “millionaire.” Like the rest of my friends, I tried Pac-Man and all those early video games, but I wasn’t any good at them. So I went back to my favorite board games, learned to play chess and...card games like Gin Rummy. Games were inexpensive ways in those pre-Internet and -computer days of the 1950s and early 1960s to be entertained for hours.
How did you become an advocate for senior gaming?
In 2007, when I was at Old Bridge, I would chaperone our teens on lockdown Fridays. The teens had the run of the library and could play video games and Dance Dance Revolution. That was my introduction to the potential of gaming in libraries. The teens were having a great time!
Later that year I was challenged by Jenny Levine at ALA to incorporate gaming with seniors into my programming activities. I worked with our teen librarian and invited ten members of our Teen Advisory Board. We bought a Wii, did some initial training on “how to teach seniors” with the teens, then put the two groups together. There was an instant bond between the generations.
Can all libraries introducing such programming expect similar results?
Well, no. Libraries that are doing very little other programming for older adults are having poor results. They have no audience. Seniors are not going to drop everything to come to the library and go Wii bowling. It needs to be a bigger part of what you’re doing with seniors.
Build an audience with gaming as just a part of your overall offerings. Better yet, get the children to bring an adult or grandparent to a gaming event designed for both ages. Have Wii demonstrations in the lobby. Let the seniors coming into the library participate with staff. Like me, once they bowl their first strike, they’ll be hooked!
Is that the concept behind the “senior spaces” you created at Old Bridge?
The idea of senior spaces is to develop an area in the library as a focal point of service to baby boomers and older adults, on the same principle as the teen spaces. These areas are destination points, activity points to encourage people to stay and use the library as “place.”
Libraries are always understaffed. How can we add yet another service?
Look first to your library pages to get things started with the seniors. See if the teen librarian will run intergenerational activities. Seek out volunteers or members of the Friends of the Library to run events.
Local game stores have been sponsors of events around the country, offering their expertise, and prizes, too. In many libraries, [gaming] consoles are available whenever the library is open. Show the seniors how to set up the equipment themselves and empower them to play.
What do you see as the future of gaming for seniors in libraries?
Libraries are slowly realizing that gaming of all sorts builds community for baby boomers and older adults. It can create a positive atmosphere, break the ice, and make the library less of a “shhh” place and more of a “do” place.
I feel rewarded that many libraries have taken the lead from what we started at Old Bridge, and I predict there will be more gaming to come. After all, many boomers have been gaming all of their lives. I just bought myself a Nintendo DS and Brain Age to keep those cells fit and strong.
