You may think that in this age of selfies, instant information and e-books, Millennials would have no use for a library. Why go to a library when you can access practically any book in the world with the touch of a button, albeit you have to pay for it. But still, the convenience of instant literary gratification may be too big of a luxury for most young people today to pass up.
Well, if you would go so far as to say that Millennials probably don't even know what a library is today, you'd be wrong. New research from the Pew Research Internet Project shows younger Americans' reading and library habits. The report brings together several years of research into how public libraries fit into the lives of young people aged 16 to 29 years old, the age group we sometimes not-so-lovingly refer to as Millennials. This research is especially interesting now that access to information is increasingly becoming easier and digital-only.
It turns out younger adults read just as much as the older generation. However, 88 percent of Americans under 30 had read a book in the past year compared to 79 percent of people age 30 and older.
And if you think the Millennial idea of "doing research" only entails reading a couple of Wikipedia pages, guess again. Pew found that young people are more likely to think that important information isn't available online, to the tune of 62 percent of younger people compared with 53 percent of older Americans. This means that when your mom asks a question on Yahoo! Answers, she might actually believe the answer.
So does that mean Millennials are hitting up the library when it's time to write that term paper? Maybe, but they might not actually know what to do when they get there. While they're just as likely as older adults to have used a library card in the past 12 months and more likely to have used a library website, Millennials are less likely to think that the closing of their local public library would affect them. Along with that, 36 percent of young people say they know little to nothing about their local library's services, compared with 29 percent of older adults.
As sad as it sounds, with more and more advances in technology, the community's use for a library diminishes. Not only is this the case with the library's main purpose of lending out books when they're so easily available through digital methods, but this is also the reality in terms of a library as a social location within the community. Libraries are places where people can read, do research and study, but they are also places where meetings are held for community organizations, classes are offered and children can participate in creative and educational programs. As our lives become increasingly fast-paced and overrun by technology for leisure activities, people forget that the library has helpful social resources.
Americans will always find a way to access great literature, be it through a book or a tablet. However, we are slowly losing the power of the library to bond a community.
