Liz Kristan wanted to bring four-legged friends to patrons who needed them the most.
Kristan, outreach services coordinator at Ela Area Public Library (EAPL) in Lake Zurich, Illinois, knew that the presence of pets has been associated with health benefits like reductions in stress and blood pressure. In 2022, she introduced robotic pets to the library’s collection, taking them on visits to assisted living and memory care facilities to entertain older adult residents.
“We’ve seen people with advanced dementia in near catatonic states actually light up, smile, and begin speaking when we place a pet in their lap,” Kristan says.
Libraries like EAPL have been adding these animatronics to their collections in recent years to bring companionship and health benefits to patrons, especially older adults. Compared with live animals, robotic pets require less upkeep and pose fewer allergy concerns. They are interactive and often lifelike, with some reacting to touch by purring, meowing, licking paws, barking, panting, and wagging tails.
EAPL staffers use real pet carriers to bring one or two of their four available pets—three cats and one dog—to facilities in the community. While carriers are used to create an experience that replicates having a pet, the team never pretends that the animals are real, Kristan says, to avoid fright or confusion.
“When [older adults] get moved into these kinds of facilities,” she says, “many of them have to give up their pets.” Studies have shown that interactions with these robotic pets can also improve cognitive function and feelings of isolation, particularly for those with memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.
In Lake Zurich, a community of nearly 20,000 people, the population of those age 65 and older has grown by about 162% over the past two decades. This aligns with the country’s expanding older adult population. Census data shows that those 65 and older made up nearly 17% of the US population in 2020, or about 59 million people. Over the past century, this demographic grew nearly five times faster than the total population.
A top manufacturer of lifelike robot pets is Joy for All, a subset of Rhode Island–based wellness company Ageless Innovation. Its cats and dogs range from $125 to $140, and EAPL is among the company’s customers. The library’s program has received overwhelmingly positive feedback, Kristan says.
This gives them that opportunity to, in a way, still take care of something.Michelle Filleul, assistant director at Reading (Mass.) Public Library
She recalls one adult child of a patron with dementia who saw their mother interact with one of EAPL’s cats. “[It] was the most animated and engaged her mother had been in weeks,” Kristan says. “Some of our patrons with advanced dementia will see the robots and start referring to them by the names of their own childhood pets.”
Eugene (Ore.) Public Library (EPL) has received similar praise after adding three cats to its Library of Things collection in September 2023, says Katherine Berry, adult services supervisor. EPL’s tuxedo cats—Bandit, Mr. Pickles, and Purrceval—are available for checkout for up to three weeks. Within the first six months of their arrival, Berry says the pets have received more than 20 checkouts and over 40 holds—mainly from older patrons but also some teens and those in their 30s and 40s.
“Our older adults are often forgotten,” Berry says, “especially because they don’t have the opportunity to come into the library as much.” She adds that she wants EPL’s Library of Things to not only include fun checkouts but also items that show patrons and the community that “we’re thinking about how to help others.”
Berry says EPL chose to offer cats because their purring has been found to contribute to lower levels of stress. The purchase of the cats was funded by EPL’s Library Foundation, which funds the Library of Things collection.
At Reading (Mass.) Public Library (RPL), staffers purchased a robotic cat in early February 2022 with funds from the library’s equipment budget. RPL currently offers individual checkouts for patrons with dementia and their caregivers and has also brought the cat to a memory café event at the library.
RPL’s cat has had only four checkouts in the two years it’s been available but staffers plan to promote it more, says Michelle Filleul, RPL assistant director. Going forward, Filleul says the goal is to take it to memory care facilities and the town’s senior center to help those with dementia.
“This gives them that opportunity to, in a way, still take care of something,” Filleul says.
While EPL’s Berry expected the pets to be one of the library’s more “goofy” items, she says it’s considering growing the collection because of its popularity among patrons.
“It kind of exploded into something I wasn’t anticipating,” Berry says. “We’re just really excited to see where it goes.”
The post Librarian’s Pet appeared first on American Libraries Magazine.
