Jan

30

Y Not Go To The Library?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 30, 2008 |

The Internet is making libraries obsolete. Libraries as a place people use to conduct research are going the way of the dodo. Nobody goes to the library anymore. That’s the assumption some people make, but a brief note in the Chronicle of Higher Education summarizes a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project which has found that members of Generation Y–18 to 30-year olds–are more likely to use libraries than their older counterparts. This doesn’t mean that Generation Y is necessarily using books, though. As the article says,

Adults do use the Internet to gain information more than any other source, including government agencies and experts, according to the report. However, 18-to-30-year-olds said they used library resources—mostly computers—more than older groups.

A few years ago I was part of a committee that surveyed undergraduates to find out what they thought about the library and what, if anything, librarians could do to make the library more useful and more appealing. One of the students said that anyone could put anything on the Internet, but that doing serious research meant going to the library. I don’t know whether students still feel the same way, or whether they even realize how much libraries pay for resources like ProQuest or LexisNexis and other electronic databases which provide scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Maybe the fact that library use is up means that they do understand that libraries are more than just big boxes of books, that they’re more, in fact, that providers of free wi-fi and Internet access. Libraries are dynamic, changing with the times, and change because they have an ongoing mission to provide access to information.


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

<< Post Navigation >>

« « Book ‘Em: Attend The Tale of Sweeney Todd. | More Than A Shadow. » »