8/4/2019 How Americans Use Online Sources and Their
Libraries
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30 Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community
HOW AMERICANS USE ONLINESOURCES AND THEIR LIBRARIES
Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context a
Perceptio i raries, 2010: Context a
Social useskyrockets
The popularity o social
sites hasdoubled in the
last three years.All ages
are participating.
Socialnetworkinguse
2010 2007
100%
90%0%
70%60%
50%40%
30%20%
10%
AGE1417
+11%
AGE1824
+17%
AGE2545
+122%
AGE4664
+247%
AGE65+
+208%
TOTAL
+78%
%CHANGE
ECONOMICALLYIMPACTED
NOTIMPACTED
Socialmediause
2010 2007
100%0%
0%70%
0%50%
40%
30%20%
10%
AGE1417
+55%
AGE1824
+52%
AGE2545
+143%
AGE4664
+241%
AGE65+
+278%
TOTAL
+106%
%C%CHAHA GEG
ECONOMICALLYIMPACTED
NOTIMPACTED
Allagesclickhere
Online sources are heavily used but users areless impressed
Growth in the use o online sources including e-mail, search
engines, social networking (e.g., Facebook), social media
(e.g.,
YouTube) and ask-an-expert sites (e.g., Yahoo! Answers) has
continued to climb since 2005, with search engines and
e-mail
hitting almost total saturation with online users.
Economically
impacted Americans are even greater users o online
resources,
especially social networking and media sites. Use o library
online
resources and the library Web site does not relect the
growth
trend, with online library use levels lat to 2005.
As Americans become more amiliar, maybe even expert,
with a wide range o online services, excitement with and
overall impressions o inormation resources have declined.
Inormation consumers are just less impressed with
inormation sources than they were fve years ago.
E-mail and search engines hold on as top resources,but social
sites are closing in fast
E-mail (94%) and search engines (92%) still lead as the most
widely
used online resources with usage rates or both services
jumping
up almost 30% when compared to our 2005 study results. Most
use e-mail and search engines daily. Hal o Americans report
using
e-mail alerts as a primary means o receiving news and
inormation.
E-mail and search engines have achieved near-ubiquitous
status
among online Americans, and social networking and social
media
are quickly catching up.
With 66% o Americans now using social sites, the reach o
these
sites has exploded in the last our years. Social sites were
amongthe astest growing online resources in our survey. More than
hal
