Amongst all the other things I’ve been doing for this
summer’s fantastic reading program, I squeezed in a webinar on the impact of
libraries on early reading development.
To be fair, I grumbled about the timing of the program. I mean, what are they doing presenting this
program to Children’s Librarians at the busiest time of the year? But then I decided that I could probably fit
in an hour, especially if it was quiet in the library. As it happened, I was only interrupted 5
times, which was very manageable. Anyway, while I learned some new information
on early reading, I learned far more about how parents (and others) around our
nation feel about libraries from Lee Rainie of PewInternet.org.
The Pew
Research Center
is considered to be the gold standard for unbiased, scientific community
surveys, so I fully expected the presenter to be somewhat dull and perhaps a
little boring. Imagine my surprise when he sounded downright giddy to be
talking about their recent report concerning libraries. To quote:
“We just don’t see these numbers in other areas. This level of agreement throughout our nation
is unheard of in any of our other studies.”
Yikes, and they’re talking about libraries?
Well, this got my attention and I completely ignored the
ruckus being raised at the puzzle table.
What I learned is that parents and the general populace really like
us. I mean they really, really, like us
and they think we’re important to them.
The number one takeaway from this vast nationwide study is that
libraries are appreciated. A full 91%
(this was the statistic responsible for the giddiness) of the respondents said
libraries were important to their community. Another 76% said they were important to their
family and them personally. And then, when
it comes to parents, 94% said libraries are important for their children. Ok, so I knew that, but I never in a million
years thought that many other people knew it too.
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| from http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/05/01/parents-children-libraries-and-reading/ |
Wow! I confess that I
was starting to feel a bit like Sally Field when she won her Oscar. Then Mr. Rainie began with the survey
comparisons between libraries and other institutions. Once again libraries came out on top. (Mr. Rainie was almost jumping out of his
seat now.) Did you know that Americans
have more confidence in libraries than just about any other service provided by
our fine government (excepting those hunky firemen), and even many other services
provided in our communities? Yep, libraries
beat out banks, TV stations, newspapers, schools, hospitals, big business and
more. Of course I believe this, but no
one can accuse me of unbiased thinking when it comes to libraries...
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| from http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/05/01/parents-children-libraries-and-reading/ |
So, what about our future?
I’ve heard plenty of doomsday prophecies. E-books are the death of libraries; print
books will be gone, etc. How does America really
feel? Well, more than 80% of them say
“keep the books”. Hmm... not only do Americans like libraries,
but they also like print books. I’m
starting to think that perhaps the rest of the world is finally catching on to
the wonder my world. Way to go, Pew!
Click HERE to read the summary of findings.
-Dawn Heisel, Public Services Librarian
