Study: Young adults heavy library users

Interesting that young people are using libraries but there is no information about how much use is book related and for other use such as library computers. In the library students can access computers without parental supervision although I imagine libraries block porno sites etc. However, the students can indulge other interests that they might not want their parents to know about.

Study: Young adults heavy library users

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
Sun Dec 30, 6:05 PM ET

Young adults are the heaviest users of public
libraries despite the ease with which they can access
a wealth of information over the Internet from the
comforts of their homes, according to a new study.

That's especially true for those who had questions
related to health conditions, job training, government
benefits and other problems. Twenty-one percent of
Americans with such questions aged 18-30 have turned
to public libraries, compared with about 12 percent
among the general adult population with those problems
to solve.

Education-related tasks — making decisions about
schooling, paying for it and getting job training —
are the most common problems drawing people to
libraries, according to a joint study from the Pew
Internet and American Life Project and the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

And people are going to libraries not only for the
Internet computers there but also for library
reference books, newspapers and magazines.

"The age of books isn't yet over," said Lee Rainie,
Pew's director.

The study found that library usage drops gradually as
people age — to 62 percent among Americans generally
aged 18-30 compared with 32 percent among those 72 and
up, with a sharp decline just as Americans turn 50.

"It was truly surprising in this survey to find the
youngest adults are the heaviest library users,"
Rainie said. "The notion has taken hold in our culture
that these wired-up, heavily gadgeted young folks are
swimming in a sea of information and don't need to go
to places where information is."

[...]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071230/ap_on_hi_te/internet_libraries