Gen Y’ers in the Library?
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Several news organizations (among them, AP and Reuters) are covering today’s release of a Pew study showing that the most frequent users of libraries are in the 18 to 30 year old age group. The reports acknowledge that many library users are “drawn in by the computers rather than the books.” Unfortunately, the study itself doesn’t indicate how many users come to the library only for online access. A quote from Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey leaves the impression that the collections are the draw, “Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries,” she said.
Librarians I spoke to say it’s definitely the computers. Minutes after a library opens, all terminals are taken. Since computer users come more frequently than book users, that also increases the stats. “We see many of the computer users every day, unlike book users who check out material once a week or once a check out period,” says Lynn Wheeler, director of the Carroll County Public Library. She further notes that “the demographic for computer use is widening as more people come to the library to use the Internet.”
Sno-Isle Public Library, as reported earlier this month in the Seattle Times, developed a program that addresses the generational divide. Teens are tapped to teach computer skills to seniors. Five years after the program began, over 300 seniors have been trained.
As most librarians already know, meeting the demand for computer time can be a challenge. This is verified by a recent article in First Monday, “The Looming Infrastructure Plateau? Space, Funding, Connection Speed, and the Ability of Public Libraries to meet the Demand for Free Internet Access.”
