How Americans recognize libraries

How libraries are perceived by the US people: 2010

OCLC report: “Perceptions of Libraries, 2010”By Nalsi

2011.3.12 @北邮图书馆

Perceptions of libraries and Information Resources (2005)

• 82% of users use search engine as the start point of their information-searching process; 1% use library websites

• Users give a higher valuation toward search engine than library concerning the quality of source.

http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm

TOC

• A long view: In Internet time (p. 2-7)•In context (p. 10-49)•By community (p. 50-93)•A long view: Looking forward (p. 94-100)•Appendices

In context

• The development of Internet and technologies• The Great Recession• How American use online resources and their

libraries• The library brand

• http://nalsicat.blogbus.com/logs/103034895.html

In context: some conclusions

• Libraries are playing an vital role to supply the users with free new technologies

• Paradoxically, economic recession makes libraries more important, especially for those economic impacted people

• Libraries are still seen as a physical supplier of books, even though other services have been supplied for a long time

• Users value librarians very higher, even more than they value libraries

By community

• College students• Teens & young adults (12-24)• Generation X (25-45)• Boomers (46-64)• Seniors (65-)

College Students

• Users of new technologies– 92% use SNS（ 2/3 of them log in everyday）– 81% use social media websites

• Recognition of libraries– 43% of them take library as the most reliable

sources (the highest group)

UW How college students seek information in the digital age report

• University of Washington’s Information School: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age, conducted in 2009

• http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2009_Year1Report_12_2009.pdf

• http://catwizard.net/posts/20091205150856.html

Some findings

• College students use the same set of information sources when conducting different tasks (professional or everyday)

• College student rely heavily on their social network when they search: for example, friends

• Less than half of students consort to librarians; 1/3 of students find it useful to ask librarians questions about homework

• While col. students rely library resources, they don’t like librarians

Teens & young adults

• Teens take information habits with them when they mature– Young adults lead in using online resources, IM

and blogging, which was the habit of teens five years ago

• Teens are using: Wikipedia, Ask-an-expert sites (the highest of all), SMS (rather than IM)

Are teens are still using email?

• A research conducted by Nielson Co. in 2010 found that the time people spending emailing dropped by 28%. (time spent IM dropped by 15%)

• Kids love texting, with half send 50 or more per day, 1/3 send 100 or more.

• A Pew report: only 11% of teens use email every day(?). While in OCLC’s report, 96% of teens use email.

Gen X

• Most impacted group by the recession, with their lifestyle greatly changed: reduce spending and using libraries more

• Using all online information sources increased; the gap between them and teens & young adults bridged

Boomer

• Similar with Gen Xer, closing the age divide

• Again, greatly influenced by the recession, that their lifestyle changed a lot

Seniors

• Again, closing the age divide in using all the new technologies

• Not impacted seriously by the recession, however, lifestyle changed too

Conclusions by community

• Americans who have a negative job impact rely on libraries

• Teens are among the most heaviest library users– 75% have a library card (2/3)– 72% visit the library annually (62%)

• Americans value librarians

Conclusions by community

• Nearly all Americans use email and search engines (94% and 92% respectively)

• Two-thirds of Americans use SNS• Wikipedia is broadly-used too (73%)– Again, based on a report conducted by Pews in

2010, 53% of Americans who use internet (42% of all) use Wikipedia

Some of the final conclusions

• Library websites: of 68% of all the users who use libraries, only half of them (33% of all) visit library websites– One way to promote transitional values of libraries

is to promote our online presence, no matter presence on SNS or online resources we offer

– One of the main concerns of the users is that the opening hours of libraries are too short

Some of the final conclusions

• Libraries need promotion:– Only 17% of all the library users have ever seen

ads or promotional materials of libraries (11% of college students), and most of the users saw them in the library

• Promote the library services, resources, ideas and values by asking librarians and users to tell his/her story about the library

OCLC’s Geek the Library project• Libraries encourage the users to tell the story of his or her of what they geek (means what they passionate on), and tell the users that the library will support all what they want to do in order to increase the public awareness of their local libraries

• The second step (and the most important one) is to increase the public awareness of funding difficulties faced by their local libraries and to make them do something (by voting, for example) to help the libraries

Some of the final conclusions

• Users still relate libraries primarily with books, ignoring other services libraries supply, especially e-resources

• New services to meet local needs, such as helping users to find a job, or free internet connection

• Literacy in the new age– To establish the foundation of a democratic

society (f.g.)

Any questions?