Gen Z and Millennials have an Unlikely Love Affair with their Local Libraries

Authors

Kathi Inman Berens, Portland State UniversityFollow
Rachel Noorda, Portland State UniversityFollow

Published In

The Conversation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-12-2024

Subjects

Book industries and trade, Publishers and publishing -- United States, Books -- Marketing, Consumer behavior, Book industry -- Digital humanities

Abstract

A phone fixation may seem at odds with an attraction to books. But the latter may offer a much-needed reprieve from the former. In our recent study of American Gen Z and millennials, we discovered that 92% of them check social media daily; 25% of them check multiple times per hour. Yet in that same nationally representative study, we also found that Gen Z and millennials are still visiting libraries at a healthy clip, with 54% of Gen Zers and millennials trekking to their local library in 2022. Our findings reinforce 2017 data from the Pew Research Center, which showed that 53% of millennials had gone to their local library over the previous 12 months. By comparison, that same study found that 45% of Gen Xers and 43% of baby boomers visited public libraries.

Rights

CC BY-ND 4.0 DEED Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 International

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41071

Citation Details

Berens, Kathi Inman and Rachel Noorda. "Gen Z and millennials have an unlikely love affair with their local libraries." _The Conversation_ https://theconversation.com/gen-z-and-millennials-have-an-unlikely-love-affair-with-their-local-libraries-220632