University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science)

In this Early Career Research Development project, Dr. Joseph Winberry of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science will study how library and information science (LIS) education can be improved to better serve older adults. This study will answer the following: 1) How can LIS education be improved for librarians serving an aging society? 2) What skills do older adults appreciate in librarians? 3) What services do older adults want from libraries? 4) What values do older adults expect from librarians? Interviews with 75–100 older adults in North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona, and Washington will inform research findings. Project results will include a training framework that will be distributed to LIS program directors and students, a series of research studies, and a white paper with recommendations for both policy and practice. The beneficiaries of this project will be libraries and older adults.