Suprisingly, Gen Y'ers likely to use public libraries

Posted Jan 1st 2008 4:30PM by Zack Miller
Filed under: Google (GOOG)

I just read an interesting report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Part of the report stated the obvious: Americans are turning to the web more and more to get answers to all of life's problems. After polling more than 2,790 adults, ages 18 and older, the report found that 58% of Americans that have dealt with issues surrounding things like health, taxes, school, etc. used the Internet to seek help. Pretty expected.

What I thought was actually pretty interesting was a description of Gen Y, those young Americans aged 18-30, and their habits.

It turns out that "Generation Y was most likely to use libraries to get problem-solving information and for general purposes. In their lives, libraries are not losing value. In fact, 40% of Generation Y respondents said they would use libraries in the future to seek information, compared with 20% of those age 30 and older."

Why turn to libraries when the Internet has so much to offer? Bingo. Gen Y'ers use libraries particularly for the free computer access available. 65% of respondents said a key reason for going to a library for problem-solving was access to computers and the Internet.

So, how to play this? I've written before about Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and its goal of organizing the world's information and monetizing this process better than anyone around. I've also written about Answers Corporation (Nasdaq: ANSW), a quickly growing small cap that's attempting to do something similar. They're working on purchasing Dictionary.com to round out their content offering and bolster inbound traffic. Other search engines, while they continue to lose ground to Google, may also take share in an ever-growing pie. The search engine has replaced the traditional portal for accessing the Internet. How many of us have Google.com (or iGoogle, Google's personalized homepage) as our homepage?

What still kinda confounds me is why Gen Y'ers take to libraries to access computers. Do they not have ubiquitous access at work or on the mobile devices? Is there better software loaded onto library terminals? Or is it the combination of locating via the web and then accessing the actual info located in books?

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author holds a long-term position in GOOG.

Tags: answ, answers.com, goog, google, pew

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-02-2008 @ 4:36AM

dawggpie said...

My initial reaction as to why GenYs are more likely to use libraries is because they're more familiar with the internet and thus it's limitations. Older people who are less familiar with the internet may be more likely to be swept up by the buzz that anything can be found on the internet and therefore less likely to turn to libraries. From my experience, the internet contains a massive wealth of information and is an amazing tool to begin to research a topic, but when you really want to get into the meat and potatoes of a topic books and thus the library tend to contain more detailed information.

1-16-2008 @ 6:41PM

defconsult said...

Keep in mind that the study was focused on what people do when they seek information to solve common problems. The findings say that by far and away people are most likely to go to the Internet - just 13% go to the public library.

The study did not ask why in general people go to the library. It cannot be concluded that more GenY (or any other group) go to the library for computers than for any other service.

While many people go to the library to use computers and the Internet, numerous surveys I've conducted for public libraries indicate borrowing books remains the primary reason for visiting a library.