Abstract Funded by a grant from the Association of Mental Health Librarians, this 3-part video was done as part of a training request from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System to provide a brief overview of special populations within the library service community. Part 1 deals with problems of the elderly patron. Part 2 focuses on patrons with physical disabilities, such as mobility or hearing impairments. Part 3 reviews working with patrons who have a mental illness or a substance abuse disorder, persons with sexual disorders, and persons who are homeless. Each part is between 12 to 15 minutes in length.

You will need the latest version of the MS Media Player and a connection capable of a sustained 1 mbit/sec. to view the videos. There are three bandwidth versions of each video. The bandwidth determines the quality of the video display. 56 is used over a 56kb modem, 250 is for cable or a faster modem than 56kb, and 1000 are for those using a direct Internet2 connection. All three versions are best viewed in a quarter screen size format.

PART 1- Understanding the normal aging process : 56   |  250   |  1000
PART 2 - Understanding people with disabilities : 56   |   250  |   1000
PART 3 - Approaches to working with special populations : 56  |   250  |   1000

About the Grantee
Ardis Hanson is Director of the Research Library of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, a college at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, a position which she has held since 1991. She is the current President of the Association of Mental Health Librarians. This product of the AMHL grant was further developed as part of the Digital Libraries meritorious application in USF's National Science Foundation Grant #ANI-9810154 "High Speed Connections to the Internet". For more about the Digital Libraries project, please download this brochure.

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