Pew Internet has done a new study about reading habits. They looked at American populations in urban, suburban and rural areas and compared them. They asked about several categories:
- Purposes for reading
- Libraries
- Book recommendations
- Newspaper and journal readers
- E-books vs. print
All of these were then shown in the three categories of urban, suburban and rural. Fascinating stuff for librarians in particular who are wondering about support for libraries in a changing world.
59% of those in urban settings have a library card and 71% of urban people say that libraries are important to them and their family. 45% of urban dwellers checked out a print book from the library in the last year. Not shabby at all!
Other numbers are less high. The number who borrowed an e-book from a library in the last year was only 13%. People also tend not to get book recommendations from staff in libraries or library websites with only 19% saying that they do.
Take a look for the populations that you serve. The numbers vary quite a bit for the three sorts of populations.
