Online Resources for Seniors

Presented by
Kathleen Olsen and John Vanderby, Literature Section
San Diego Public Library

This Subject Internet & Technology session will give you an introduction to using and exploring the various online resources for seniors.

Introduction
Today we're going to look at just a few of the many useful sites for seniors on the Web. We'll show you a good way to get started, then look at a few sites in more detail. Then, you'll have some hands-on time to try even more sites listed below.

Library's Home Page

We'll begin with the Library's home page, shown as Figure 1.

Figure 1 - San Diego Public Library

Select "Searching the Internet," and you will see a screen with the heading "Searching the Net," as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Searching the Net

Librarian's Index to the Internet
Just below the title is the Librarians' Internet Index or LII, a first-rate directory to about 10,000 sites that have been personally examined and approved by librarians all over California. [Editor's Note: The LII site was changed and updated in September, 2005. Links here do work, but some of the images and/or content may have changed.]

Using the search box here, type "Seniors" and Enter, and you will be searching LII for the word you entered in the search box.
There are about 40 hits in your search results; these will look like the screen shown below.

Figure 3 - LII "Hits"

Take a look at the items found, including key entries like Senior Journal and First Gov for Seniors. We'll come back to these shortly.

Advanced Search on LII
If you think 40 or so is too many items to browse, you can use Advanced Search on LII, and reduce your search results. You can use words here to COMBINE your results with other keywords like AND. You can MERGE results from keywords with OR to find more items in a broader search. And you can use NOT to eliminate from your results keywords that don't fit. For more help, see the LII Help section.

Another Search Try
Using "seniors AND nutrition," as your keywords in the search box, you will see only about 3 hits in LII. This is a good way to learn using LII with keywords -try to see what you get for various words you want to search.

Senior Journal
Let's take a closer look at Senior Journal. As you can see below in the figure illustration of the home page, it's very busy -4 columns of densely packed information.

Figure 4 - Senior Journal home page

Let's go back to the home page, and look at the list on the right-hand side of the page, and select "Seniors Websites." This is a good directory of over 700 sites just for you, and you can search it, too.

Government Portal, FirstGov for Seniors
FirstGov for Seniors is just for seniors, and part of FirstGov, a government portal that is provided by the U.S. Government. Take a look at the opening home page, shown below.

Figure 5 - FirstGov for Seniors home page

The site includes listings by various government departments, and covering matters like tax issues, health concerns, and Social Security.

Additional Senior Sites

Premium Online Resources
The Library has subscriptions to a number of premium online databases that will have information of interest to seniors. You can check for news, magazine articles, and research information with the databases, using just your Library card for access from home in most cases. Or, you can use them in any Library. For more information, see the Articles & Databases' page. As one example, you may want to check the Health & Wellness Resource Center for senior health information.

Federal
There are a number of sites that will let you check on benefits from the federal or state government, or other useful services.

Social Security Administration - Gives you up-to-date information on benefit changes, has a benefit calculator, and has a list of the most popular baby names for the last 10 years.

Medicare - You can find out your eligibility, enroll online, look up the new benefits for 2003, and check out all the Medicare-approved nursing homes, including their ratings.

Benefits Checkup by the National Council on Aging - This site allows you to enter information and see if you are eligible for any public benefits you are not receiving, and supplies links to help you apply for them.

Savings Bonds - - All about savings bonds, including an online calculator to help you find out how much any bonds you own are worth today.

Disability Information - The federal government offers this one-stop site to supply information on the federal government and persons with disabilities, such as housing, Americans with Disabilities (ADA) questions, and transportation.

National Institute of Health - A wealth of databases and directories on health is available at the NIH site.

Clinical Trials - This site offers the latest on new and ongoing clinical trials and their criteria to be a part of each study.

State and Local Sites
Medi-Cal site - Get up-to-date information on eligibility and forms to enroll. This has a link to the Department of Health Services for the State of California.

City of San Diego Senior Services - This site lists all City of San Diego services offered to seniors.

County of San Diego - This link is for the County of San Diego home page and offers a link to the Health and Human Services Agency.

ElderHelp of San Diego - This site is a non-profit social service agency dedicated to helping seniors live independently and with dignity.

A Special Resource for Seniors, in the Library