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Running head: THE BABY BOOM GENERATION AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARYThe Baby Boom Generation and the Public Library Dian Hauser  Emporia State University
 
AbstractThe Baby Boom Generation, that of Americans born between 1946 and 1964, had a largeimpact on society because of the unprecedented increase in births during those years.Boomers were concerned with retirement: how to manage money, how to continue tohave meaning in their lives, how to enjoy their new freedom from work-when it came.Boomers, too, were still contending with the sandwich effect of having the generation below them and above them needing their support. Boomers also dealt with a rapidlychanging technological world--some of them more successfully then others. The publiclibrary, as an institution, helped the boomers by recognizing their needs and attempting tofill those needs. The Lawrence Public Library was used as an example of how a librarycould fulfill its duty to serve this particular group.
 
Baby Boomers and the LibraryThe mission of the Lawrence Public Library as stated, included the lines, "We arededicated to the development of full and equal access to information for all people,” and"We ensure access to information for people of all ages, abilities, and means" (Lawrence,2006). This library was committed to serving the public as completely as possible.In serving the Baby Boom generation, this vision of service meant looking at the population’s special needs and attempting to meet them by providing information pertinent to this group. The oldest boomers were turning 61 years of age in 2007, andwhile these first-born of the generation had not yet reached retirement age, this was fastapproaching. (Wikipedia, 2007). Thus, library support included information regardingretirement concerns: how to manage money, how to continue to have a meaningful life,and how to enjoy the freedom that a post-work life afforded.Library resources for money management included ValueLine stock informationin a text or online format. Another source of financial information was The Motley FoolInvestment Guide: How the Fool Beats Wall Street's Wise Men and How You Can Too(Garner, 1996) and Suze Orman’s Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny (Orman, 2007). This book had information applicable to male boomers as wellas to women.Resources for boomers seeking meaning in a post-work life included books onspiritual discovery, such as Deepak Chopra’s How To Know God : The Soul's JourneyInto The Mystery Of Mysteries (2000). Another information source was ThePower of Now: a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle (2001).
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