Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
In addition to the statistics included in our report, we also asked parents and librarians from around the country about their thoughts on various library services for parents and children. These quotes are from in-person and online focus groups of library patrons and staff, as well as an online questionnaire of library staff members.
What is important for libraries to offer We asked survey respondents about a variety of services that public libraries often provide to the public, and asked them how important, if at all, they think it is for public libraries to provide each to the community. All but one of the services are considered to be […]
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 […]
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 […]
Before analyzing younger Americans’ library use habits, we will first explore the broad contours of their technology use and reading habits, as the changing reading habits chronicled in our recent reports are intrinsically tied to the new formats and devices on which people read. This section will just cover the findings from the survey conducted […]
Asked to assess their students’ current writing skills, these AP and NWP teachers give students modest ratings. Despite seeing many positive effects of today’s digital tools on student writing, teachers rate the actual writing skills of their students as “good” or “fair” in most cases, rather than “excellent” or “very good.” On each of nine […]
Roughly a quarter (26%) of the sample for the full Library Services Survey is parents of minor children, and this report examines their particularly strong attachments to libraries. Parents are demographically different from the other adults in our sample — and in the wider population. So, the results presented in the remainder of this report […]
Library Services Survey Prepared by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project November 2012 SUMMARY The Library Services Survey obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 2,252 people ages 16 and older living in the United States. Interviews were conducted via landline (nLL=1,127) and cell […]