Let’s get 2008 started off right with some interesting data on who uses public libraries and why.
For a long time now, some folks have been predicting the demise of the public library. Here in Irondequoit a few people have told me to forget expanding the library because the Internet and information technology will soon render it obsolete. Our response, in addition to citing steady increases in borrowing and visits, has been that there are still a lot of people who don’t have Internet access or are clueless about technology and really need our help.
If there is truth to the assertion that the Internet is replacing the public library it seems reasonable to assume that the age group most comfortable with the Internet and information technology would be the first to abandon us and the library would be most heavily used by those without access or without the expertise to use it effectively. Recent research shows that none of the above ideas may be correct.
The University of Illinois, working with the Pew Internet Research Group, conducted an extensive survey of public library users. They found that young adults are the most frequent library users. By that they mean that a larger percentage of this group (ages 18 to 30) indicated that they turn to the library for information and problem solving than any other age group. They are, the numbers show, more than twice as likely as other age groups to do so. This, of course, directly contradicts the widely held notion that young adults don’t use libraries much anymore because they are so well integrated into the information saturated on-line world.
To what can we attribute this surprising news? The researchers theorized that because young adults had such great access to information and information technology it made them hungry for more and they know that libraries are the place to go for it. Indeed, folks who indicated that they use the library most often cited the presence of high quality information technology and resources plus a knowledgeable staff as their reasons. Researchers also reasoned that the subjects the young adults indicated they most often researched at the library, jobs, education, financial aid and health were all things libraries do very well.
The research shows that libraries are attracting young adults because they have free broadband Internet access and computer resources. The great surprise for librarians in this report is that reliance upon the library for information and problem solving was lowest among people with the least financial resources and slow or no Internet access. We could call this group “The People We Thought Needed Us Most”. We have always marketed ourselves aggressively toward this segment and assumed and even bragged that we were drawing these folks to the library for those reasons.
The message to public libraries is clear.
1. Technology isn’t ruining the library it is extending and revising the mission.
2. Our well-informed and most tech savvy citizens most heavily use and respect the library.
3. The financially and technologically disadvantaged, despite our claims to the contrary and our best efforts to attract them, are not such heavy library users. We must redouble our efforts at reaching those who need us the most while continuing to earn the respect of the most tech savvy segment of the population.
