Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Parents think libraries are important for themselves and for their community and they visit their local public library more than other adults. How important libraries are to individuals and their communities In our survey, we asked people about their general library patronage — if they had experiences with libraries in childhood, how often they visit […]
Using both focus groups and a non-scientific sample of people who volunteered to participate in Pew Internet surveys, we asked library staff members from around the country about their thoughts on many of the library services discussed in this report. This section includes some of their comments on library services for parents and children, including […]
Parents value libraries for their children The previous section highlights the importance parents place on public libraries for themselves and for their communities and the fact that parents are more likely than other adults to view libraries as important. Given those findings, it is not surprising that parents of minor children view public libraries as […]
Our new report takes a close look not only at how Americans are using public libraries, but also what sort of services and programming they think libraries should offer — and what they say they would use in the future. For this last point, we asked about a range of potential offerings. Here are illustrations of some of these more innovative services, to see what they look like on the ground — as well as some “fun and funky” services that we’ve seen pop up at libraries across the county.
Libraries’ strengths In addition to asking our online panel of library staff members about various services that libraries do offer or might offer in the future, we also asked about what they considered to be libraries’ strengths. One common theme was libraries’ role as a community center, and their connection to patrons and other local […]
Introduction There is a growing policy discussion about how government should act in an environment in which personal information—about both children and adults—is widely collected, analyzed and shared as a new form of currency in the digital economy. Many details about the lives of online (and offline) Americans can be found using simple search queries […]
Throughout focus group discussions, teachers noted that their experiences with middle and high school students cannot be isolated from broader trends shaping this generation, and that much of what they see in their students’ academic habits, characteristics, and attitudes are reflections of much broader impacts of growing up in a digital age. To probe these […]