Galway City Library – An Age Friendly Space

Description

Galway City Library began a multi-year programme of Age-Friendly Initiatives. This began with a pilot of age-friendly and dementia-friendly wayfinding signage to reduce concerns which people with dementia have with toileting, wayfinding, and identifying important information. Working with Galway City Council’s Age-Friendly Office, and a dementia nurse from the Western Alzheimer Association, the library’s internal layout was redesigned to create a brighter, more navigable space.
The wayfinding signage incorporated bilingual language requirements, colour-coding to provide visual cues, braille-encoding for individuals with visual impairments

A walkability and accessibility audit was carried out in conjunction with stakeholders from Galway City Council’s Age-Friendly Office, Galway City Council’s Access Office, Galway City Council’s Active Travel Team, Healthy Galway City, Galway Older Persons Council, Access for All, Galway Cycling Campaign, and individual library patrons. This enabled us to identify ways in which access to the physical library, as well as moving around inside it, could be improved. This audit resulted in the installation of new bollards at the wheelchair-accessible crossing to increase visibility.

The library extended its remit with a series of initiatives to create a more socially inclusive and space with the creation of a weekly Scrabble for Seniors weekly meetup to support social interaction and encourage those who remained impacted by Covid fears to begin re-engaging in a controlled environment,
a bicycle parking rack which supports older patrons who cycle,
the provision of an age-friendly trolley to support users to carry their books while browsing in the library,
installation of an accessible PC with larger keys and high-contrast colour keyboard supporting users with poor eyesight and visual impairments, and stiff fingers or wrists. The library has 8 public access PCs which are available to use and also provides free WiFi.
the creation of a specific reserved section for older persons, with comfortable, supportive chairs. Large print books were relocated so they are immediately accessible from those seats. There is a clear, unobstructed sightline to the main library desk, should assistance be required, and the seating is positioned slightly away from the high traffic areas of the library to provide a more restful and comfortable space. Several acoustic dampening screens have been positioned to the rear of the space to allow patrons to have a “wall” to their back for privacy and comfort. The new space was launched by a former Chairperson of the Older Persons’ Council in Galway
In addition, there are several smaller innovations Small portable power banks can be borrowed from the main desk to charge mobile phones.
Reading glasses can be borrowed from the main desk while in the library.
Several Jigsaws for Grown-Ups sessions have been run throughout the year, to enable puzzle-lovers to come in and spend a few hours in a quiet space, with others who like doing the same thing.
A monthly Classical Culture screening was streamed in our Event Space, allowing older people to enjoy ballet, classical concerts, and opera in comfortable seating, in a warm space, free of charge.

Aim of Initiative

To make Galway City Library an inclusive, accessible and age-friendly space so that older people feel welcome and actively supported as members of the library community.

Who is it aimed at

Older people in the community

3 Steps critical to success

1. Support of Senior Management teams in Galway County Council, Galway City Council and Library Management. Engagement with the Age-Friendly office and provision of funding through various departments for age-friendly equipment and furniture.
2. Re-organisation of the library floorspace to create an open and easy to navigate space
3. Engagement with external stakeholders- both organisational stakeholders, and individual older people, to assess needs and gather feedback.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. Getting funding – each change required separate funding.
2. Not owning the library building meant that we had challenges with installation of bike parking. It also impacted the requests for installation of external library furniture.
3. Staffing limitations meant that the time required to move large volumes of shelving and books took longer than anticipated on each occasion when it was necessary.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. Library staff reported a drop in wayfinding queries in the first two weeks of installation of the new signage
2. Scrabble for Seniors event has been running successfully for over a year with participants coming weekly to meet their friends. The average time spent is 2 to 2.5 hours.
3. Our most recent feedback survey has indicated that it is older people who tend to use the bike parking