MLA - Lee Rainie - The Power and Relevance of Libraries

Here is a link to the presentation that Lee Rainie, director of  Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, gave at ALA's Legislative Day in Washington D.C.  It is very similar to the presentation that he gave at MLA as the keynote speaker.

Pew is a fact-tank, not a think-tank, so as Lee related, they just collect and analyze data.  Their data is available to anyone who wants to use it.  Their surveys are available for anyone who wants to use them in their own communities and Pew will consult about how to do that effectively.  So, just data, but Lee is also a huge fan of libraries.  He went through 11 "key takeaways from the Project's library research."

1. Libraries are appreciated (especially by parents)
2. Libraries stack up well against others in terms of public confidence
3. People like librarians
4. Libraries have re-branded themselves as tech hubs
5. E-book reading is growing, borrowing is just getting started
6. People are open to even more tech at libraries
7. The public invites us to be more involved in knotty problems
8. Libraries have a PR problem/opportunity
9. There is churn in library use  (increase and decrease in library usage)
10. Mothers are special
11. There is a truly detached population out there that matters to us

If any of those points make you wonder what Lee was talking about - check out his slides or talk.   Very quick, very easy to make sense of, very important for us to know how the public perceives us and what our opportunities are. 

In short, people feel warm and fuzzy about libraries.  They want us to do everything we used to do and everything new too.  Parents of young children need us and use us the most and mothers are our biggest untapped PR opportunity.  Lee suggested finding Mommy bloggers who are library users...

While 91% of people think libraries are important to their communities and 76% say libraries are important to them, a lot of those folks don't use libraries.  And even more don't know what we offer...here's where we have the most work to do.