Anniee's Weblog

Both Web 2.0 and the movement of the Baby Boomer generation into retirement represent big changes in our society and most certainly in our libraries but are the two phenomenons more intricately connected to each other? In my paper, I discuss the possibilities that Web 2.0 presents for serving the new senior citizens and whether or not this technology should be the ultimate focus of that service.

Boomers are more active and plan on keeping up with their faster-pace lifestyle both physically and mentally (Dempsey 39, 2007). They will have more leisure time and more money which they will want to spend on travel and other leisure activities.
Also, because boomers want to keep their brains active and are already quite familiar with technology having had to work with computers in their careers, they will want to be able to put their skills to work through new jobs or volunteering. In short, the research shows that Boomers want to work, play, connect, and contribute. My paper states that to meet those demands, we will have to rethink everything from collection development to outreach to basic human interaction and so the answer cannot be as simple as one resource or one technique. Web 2.0, though, can be our right-hand man through it all if we know which ways to apply it.

My paper defines specific Web 2.0 applications such as flickr.com, social networking sites such as eons.com, and user contributed sites such as youtube.com and matches them up with the needs Boomers will have to work, play and contribute.