Posted December 9, 2005.
OCLC Survey Charts Information Perceptions
People are using libraries less and read less since they began using the internet, according to a June survey commissioned by OCLC of 3,300 English-speaking residents of the United States and five other countries. Borrowing printed books is the library service they use most often, and users perceive books as the library’s brand, the study also showed.
Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources is a follow-up to the organization’s 2003 environmental scan, which was intended to serve as a reference document for librarians as they worked on strategic planning for their institutions.
Other survey findings include:
- Most information consumers are not aware of, nor do they use, electronic information resources offered by libraries.
- College students have the highest rate of library use and make the broadest use of library resources, both physical and electronic.
- Only 10% of college students indicated that their library’s collection fulfilled their information needs after accessing the library website from a search engine.
- Some 90% of respondents are satisfied with their most recent search for information using a search engine.
- Search engines fit the information consumer’s lifestyle better than physical or online libraries. The majority of U.S. respondents age 14 to 64 see search engines as a perfect fit.
- Comments from respondents provide clear directions for physical libraries: Be clean, bright, comfortable, warm and well-lit; be staffed by friendly people; have hours that fit users’ lifestyles; advertise services; and find ways to get material to people, rather than making them come to the library.
The survey concludes that libraries have a great potential to rejuvenate their brand beyond books. Achieving this “depends on the abilities of the members of the broad library community to redesign library services so that the rich resources—print and digital—they steward on behalf of their communities are available, accessible, and used.”
Posted December 9, 2005.