#AA LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY FULL#

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. Several said that almost every day, they will be speaking with a patron who had come in for a specific service, and would mention other services or resources and hear the patron reply, “I didn’t know that was available.” What is important for libraries to offer Many of the librarians in our in-person focus groups agreed that it was difficult to reach patrons and tell them about all the services the library offered. This parent said that they often weren’t even aware of events until she heard the announcement that the event was about to start, when it was too late for her family to change plans. One parent loved their library and described it as “unbelievable,” but said that she only heard about events when they were already in the library with their children, on their way to participate in another activity or event. Instead, they said they usually stumbled across listings either at their library in-person, when trying to do something else online, or by seeing signage outside the library as they were driving past. However, focus group members say that having resources and events listed on their library’s website wasn’t enough-as several participants pointed out, they probably weren’t going to go to the website to look for events (or even to sign up for email newsletters) unless they already knew that the library had those events. One focus group member loved her local library and rated it highly in all areas-except communication “there’s so much good stuff going on but no one tells anybody.” Another said, “they do so many fabulous things, they have horrible marketing.”

#AA LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY FULL#

One aspect mentioned very often, both in focus groups and in qualitative work from previous research, is that people wish they were more aware of the full range of services offered by their libraries. Respondents under the age of 30 are also less likely to say they know much about library services than older adults, particularly those ages 30-64. Women are also more likely to consider themselves well-informed of library services than men, and those with higher levels of education are more likely to say they’re aware of at least some services than those with less education. Whites (23%) are more likely than Hispanics (16%) to say they know “all or some” of what their library offers, while Hispanics are more likely to say that they know “nothing at all”-21% say this, more than twice the rate among whites (9%) or blacks (11%). Another 20% say they know “not much” about services offered by their library, and 11% say they know “nothing at all” about what is available at their library. While about one in five (22%) feel they are aware of “all or most” of the services and programs their public library offers, a plurality (46%) feel they just know of “some” of what their library offers. In general, Americans feel somewhat well-informed about the various services offered by their local libraries. How much people know about what their library offers We also examined how important Americans feel various library services are to their communities, and explored what sort of activities and resources people might be interested in using at libraries in the future. In addition to asking people how they use their local public libraries, we also asked them about how much they felt they know about the different services and programs their library offers.

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