Barbara Nolan, Outreach Coordinator for the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, has been selected as a fellow in the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Western Regional Fellowship, Transforming Life After 50.

Barbara Nolan

In a partnership between the Idaho Commission for Libraries, California State Library, Oregon State Library, and Washington State Library, the fellowship will introduce 93 selected public library professionals from 11 states to a new framework for serving and engaging midlife adults, ages 50 and up.  The fellows will re-examine traditional views on aging and explore innovative ways in which public libraries can become centers of productive aging, lifelong learning, and civic engagement.

“We congratulate Barbara for being accepted and the Coeur d’Alene library is committed to applying new practices and tools developed as a result of this fellowship,” said Library Director Bette Ammon. “We look forward to enhancing the resources that we can provide to our midlife patrons.”

The fellowship will run from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. The yearlong program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services, Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.

After an introductory webinar in July, accepted fellows will attend a three-day institute in September, followed by a six-month online learning community in building skills and completion of three online surveys over the course of the Fellowship. Fellows will also implement Transforming Life After 50 (TLA50) approaches in their own libraries, including locally appropriate programs and engagement strategies; help disseminate the TLA50 concepts to the library community; and become active members of the onlineTLA50 community of practice, sharing experiences and insights.

Nolan’s main focus is to provide access to library services to patrons with disabilities, vision loss, blindness and/or hearing loss. Her office is adjacent to the library’s Hearing and Vision Loss Services where adaptive equipment and computers to support this task are housed. She also coordinates the library’s Books to You that provides books and other library materials through the mail to patrons who are homebound due to any disability.

For more information about the fellowship, go to: www.transforminglifeafter50.org/innovators/imls-fellowship.

Nolan can be contacted at the library at 702 E. Front Ave., 208/769-2315 Ext. 316 or by e-mail at bnolan@cdalibrary .org. More news and information about the Coeur d’Alene Public Library is available online at www.cdalibrary.org. News about the library and other city departments is also available on the City of Coeur d’Alene news blog: http://cdacity.blogspot.com/.