-7 A host of other Congressional enactments reflects Federal concern for the needs of the aging: Higher Education Act of 1965. Adult Education Act. Older American Community Service Employment Act. Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973. Food Stamp Act of 1964. Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964. Federal Aid Highway Act of 1973. Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973. Most of this legislation advocates goals of independence, self-help and dignity for our senior citizen population. The public library has become an increasingly important resource for achieving these goals. One of the current HEW guidebooks for the elderly ("To Find the Way") specifically urges older persons to make use of community public libraries: "Libraries usually publish lists of local activities at least once a month, and The importance of libraries to senior citizens has already been recognized by Congress through its 1973 amendments to the Library Services and Construction Act creating a new Title IV ("Older Readers Services"). This new title authorized grants for training of librarians to work with the elderly, special library programs, the purchase of special materials, and similar aids for the elderly. Commendable as these special programs were in concept, the appropriations have never been forthcoming. But they have had a more fundamental defect--they do little to help insure the continued operation of the public library facilities themselves. Instead, the effect would be to actually increase the demand for local library services while leaving the burden of funding those services to local government. -8 Public libraries have become an increasingly important resource for meeting the needs of senior citizens. In keeping with its commitment to senior citizens, Congress has an obligation to ease the strain on those resources and to contribute to their continued viability. The course is clear--the Federal Government must provide long-term financial aid to the general operating funds for public libraries, in partnership with state and local units of government. What the Public Library Means to the Many of the elderly who regularly use libraries are "invisible" users. They hold no library cards, never take out books. This is particularly characteristic of poorer neighborhoods where people are often afraid to sign their names or are timid about the procedures. Frequently, older naturalized citizens come by for a few hours each day to read foreign language newspapers. Many older people regularly travel long distances from their homes to return to the library of their childhood. If one of them fails to show up, the librarian knows something is wrong. For many senior citizens--alone and forgotten--the public library is the center of their lives. Sometimes the elderly spend time at their local public library "because they have nowhere else to go"--the building is air conditioned in summer, heated in winter, and it is a safe place to be. Others may come by for half an hour ("you can see a lot in half an hour") to look over the new acquisitions or stay a bit longer on Thursdays when the new Time and Newsweek come in. Cutbacks in hours and days are particularly hard on the regular users. For those elderly whose lives are given structure and substance by daily visits to the library, cutbacks in service work are a cruel hardship. A number of libraries provide special services for the elderly. These include putting books into the hands of those who are unable to get to the library--bookmobiles (some of them with special facilities for wheelchairs); books by mail; personal distribution; and deposit collections in senior citizen centers, nursing homes, and apartment buildings for elderly persons. Or librarians may lead book talks, discussion groups, or offer film programs at senior citizen centers, churches and nursing homes. -9 Libraries also provide special materials for those with impaired hearing or eyesight. These include large print books, material in braille, special magnifiers, special films, as well as books, lectures and religious services on tape. More and more libraries are filling information gaps by providing information and referral services for the elderly-for those who have been defrauded by a door to door salesman, or have trouble with their landlord, or have not received their social security check and don't know where to turn for help. It would be difficult to find a more graphic and succinct statement of the very special meaning of the public library to the individual senior citizen than the following comments by a user of the Brookly Public Library: "Since retirement I have become dependent |