Report: What Brings Gen Z to the Library?

From an EdSurge Article by Jennifer Howard:

Gen Zers, born between 1997 and 2012, spend a lot of time online, consuming and creating digital content. Ninety-two percent check social media daily. But they still like print, and they still like to go to the library, according to a survey of Gen Z and Millennial public library use and media consumption released by the American Library Association last fall. With Gen Z now making up a substantial portion of today’s college students, their attitudes toward libraries have implications for higher education.

“The report is quite interesting from an academic library perspective,” said Beth McNeil, 2023-2024 president of the Association of College and Research Libraries and dean of libraries at Purdue University. “A number of ACRL members would say ‘Wow, we see a lot of similarities in terms of usage and media consumption.’”

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At Purdue, a staggering 98 percent of undergraduates actually spend time in the libraries, McNeil said. (The ALA survey found that 54 percent of respondents visited the public library in a 12-month period). Many undergrads come to study or to track down academic resources, but there’s a social pull as well, another trend flagged by the ALA survey. “They might be coming in for coffee. They might be coming in for a class if we’re in a combined library/classroom space. They might be coming in to see their friends, but we know they’re coming into our physical spaces,” McNeil said. “It’s about space and place for most of us, especially undergraduate libraries,” she added.

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Timothy Bottorff is the head librarian at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He’s also the vice chair of ACRL’s New Roles and Changing Landscapes committee. He’s seen firsthand how different groups of students seek out specific amenities. At a large university with both general and specialized programs, humanities majors might prioritize quiet spaces for study, while pre-professional students in, say, a management program “need more collaborative spaces, places to work together, and they need the technology,” he said. For those students, “the library becomes this place to come and utilize technology that you need to do your work.”

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