We recently shared Pew Internet Project’s new community quiz tool for libraries to find out how engaged their users are. Now Pew has released some data about the more than 15,000 library users who’ve already used the quiz and compared them to their national library typology findings.
Of course the results aren’t really surprising: More than 6 in 10 of the quiz-takers fall into the “Library Lover” category, which was just 10% of the national study. About a quarter (26%) of quiz-takers were in the “Information Omnivore” category, a bit closer to the national picture with 20% falling into this type. These folks are the ones who really get what libraries are all about, too: 3 in 5 (61%) say the closure of their local library would have a major impact on them or their families, twice as many as the overall group (29%).
This group is also active with library services: More than 9 in 10 (94%) have a library card and about 9 in 10 visited a library in person (87%) or through the website (88%) in the past year. Nationally, 61% have a library card, about half (48%) visited a library in the past year, and just 30% used a library website in the past year.
Create your own library user quiz here. Best of all, you and your community will be able to see aggregate group results—share your findings with us on Twitter!
Note: This post is part of our series, “The Weekly Number.” In this series, we highlight statistics that help tell the story of the 21st-century library.