Gen Y uses the library more than other groups

Good news to start the new year!! In a new Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, shows that Generation Y (defined here as 18 - 29 year olds) is using the library more than any other age group when searching for government-related information.
Here’s a paragraph from the announcement:

The survey results challenge the assumption that libraries are losing relevance in the internet age. Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, not just the problems mentioned in this survey. And it was the young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) who led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose.

Furthermore, it is young adults who are the most likely to say they will use libraries in the future when they encounter problems: 40% of Gen Y said they would do that, compared with 20% of those above age 30 who say they would go to a library.

The study also looks specifically at users on both sides of the digital divide, those with broadband access to the Internet at home and those who either have no access at home or only through dial-up connections. Interestingly enough, users with access at home were as or more likely to use the library than those with low or no access.

Read the announcement and the report.

 

The Mildly Attractive Men of SLIS…

Still looking for that perfect gift for hard-to-buy-for librarian in your life?  Want something neat to hang on your office wall?  How about the Mildly Attractive Men of SLIS at the University of South Carolina 2008 Calendar?

The calendar features a “different guybrarian each month.  One for every taste!”  All the photos are of male graduate students in the School of Library and Information Science at USC.  Proceeds of the calendar will be used to send students to the World Library and Information Congress in Quebec, August 2008. 

Calendars are $12.00 + $1.00 shipping, and can be purchased on the LISSA website or on Ebay.  I ordered mine today!

 

Impact of Revised Child Porn Legislation on Libraries Uncertain

From American Libraries Direct…..

The House approved a bill December 4 that expands an existing law penalizing internet service providers that knowingly fail to report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children images passing along an ISP’s network of child pornography or child sexual exploitation. The Securing Adolescents from Exploitation-Online (SAFE) Act of 2007 (H.R. 3791), sponsored by Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Tex.), passed by a vote of 409–2 and increases the maximum fines from $100,000 to $300,000.

Privacy advocate Declan McCullagh said in a December 5 CNet news report that a broad interpretation of the legislation could affect libraries that provide wireless access, as well as social networking sites and e-mail service providers. Trevor Kincaid, a spokesperson for Rep. Lampson, responded in a subsequent posting that the intent of the act was to “stop the trafficking of child pornography on the internet without dissolving civil rights.”

The legislation as proposed does not require service providers to “monitor any user, subscriber, or customer of that provider,” a clause that is carried over from the existing act (U.S. Code Title 42, Section 13032).

ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone told American Libraries, “Library advocates need to monitor this legislation to see that nothing critical gets added or amended. While on the surface these changes do not seem threatening, a $300,000 fine, triggered by a third party, can lead to extremely serious consequences.”

Posted December 14, 2007.

 

The Netflix Model for Borrowing Books

Kathy Sheppard showed me this new service called Paperspine. By joining Paperspine you can borrow books for a monthly fee. There are no overdue fines, you keep the books as long as you need to. Monthly subscription rates run from $9.95 and up and they have 150,000 titles. The library community should watch and see if Paperspine catches on with the general public.

The local ABC affiliate in Phoenix has an online video story about Paperspine here. Seattle blogger John Cook has a posting about Paperspine here.

 

59% of parents believe the Internet is beneficial, BUT…

From the Pew Research Center….

…while a majority of parents with online teens still believe the internet is a beneficial factor in their children’s lives, the number of parents who see the internet as a good thing for their children has declined since 2004.

At the same time, there has not been a corresponding increase in the percentage of parents who think the internet has been a bad thing for their children. Instead, more parents are neutral about the internet’s impact, saying it has not had an effect on their child one way or the other.   Read the entire story.

Question: Internet….Beneficial? Bad thing? No effect? All of the above?

I’m going with A and B. It’s hard to argue that the Internet has NO benefit to kids. It’s given access to a variety of new information sources. It’s given them the ability to connect socially with people all over the world. Has it also been a bad thing? Yes. It’s given predators a whole new avenue for finding and contacting young people. It’s too easy to get lost in the mass of information and never find what you’re looking for, and yes, it’s very easy to end up looking at the screen and ignoring everything else, including friends and family and work. The group that think there’s no effect one way or another….well, I just don’t know what they’re thinking.

What do you think?