The structure of the population in the Kiri library region, which comprises nine municipalities, is aging at an ever increasing pace. For this reason, libraries have already considered ways to organize specialized training in information acquisition for the elderly population.

The number of staff in Kiri libraries, as
in libraries in general, is at a minimum
and assigning someone to systematically
instruct information acquisition is
impossible. Therefore, the libraries made
a decision in the autumn of 2005 to
apply for funding from the Ministry of
Education to hire an informatician to
work with senior citizens.

The purpose was for the informatician
to organize the government-funded
‘Finland in the information society’
program for the elderly population to
teach the elderly how to use modernday
sources of information. The program
would take place in the Kiri libraries.
The name of the project was ‘Informaticians
and work with the elderly’.
The total budget for the project was
16,660 euro and it took place between
1. September 2006 and 28. February
2007. The Ministry of Education accepted
the application and in spring
2006 made a decision to grant the Kiri
libraries funding amounting to 11,500
euro to initiate the ‘Informaticians and
work with the elderly’ project.

Librarian Kari Blomster was hired as
the informatician for the project, which
was called ‘Old man’s moped’ for practical
reasons. In autumn 2006, he planned
a curriculum, organized the times
and places for the training and inserted
advertisements in the local newspapers
about ‘The old man’s moped that has
room for the madams too!’

A total of 183 people participated in
the program, and they met a total of 19
times during the spring term. There
were as many as 18 participants at one
time, which is certainly the maximum
for one instructor at a time. The participants
were aged 35 and up, and the
majority of them were men although
the advertisement invited women to
hop onto the moped as well.

Paying the bills via internet is easy. Kari Blomster shows how to do it.
Photo: Maaselkä/Marita Nissinen

They didn’t dare use the computer

In Haapajärvi, a rather young, married
couple joined the instruction while
their kids were at school.When the
lesson was over, they hurried home to
practice using the Internet before the
kids returned home from school. They
said they didn’t dare use the computer
while their kids were watching because
their kids had such better skill at using
a computer than they did.

The training provided knowledge
about the basics of using the Internet,
the more common search engines,
online banking, and using email. Participants
also searched for time schedules
for trains, information on health,
discussion forums, etc. For homework,
the participants were to send email to
the instructor after certain time periods.
Participants were extremely
motivated and said the training was of
great benefit to their everyday life.
Their motivation was also evident in
the fact that all of the people that attended
the training the first time
signed up for the continuation course.

Local newspapers, mainly small parochial
papers, were invited to the
courses, and they wrote complimentary
articles about ‘Old man’s moped’,
which most likely prompted people to
participate in the subsequent course.
The aim is to rev up the moped again
in the autumn and offer review and
additional tips for those who participated
in the spring courses, as well as
to teach new participants the basics.

Old man’s moped: an extremely positive
experience!

Eila Telinkangas

Library Director
Haapajärvi

eila.telinkangas@haapajarvi.fi

Translated by Turun Täyskäännös