IMLS Report: Libraries Trusted, Valuable Information Providers

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 3/6/2008

A new report sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), InterConnections: A National Study of Users and Potential Users of Online Information, “provides evidence that public libraries and museums are thriving in the Internet Age as trusted providers of information to people of all ages,” according to the IMLS. Beyond that, libraries and museums remain more trusted than other sources, the Internet is not replacing in-person visits to libraries and museums and may actually increase them, and museums, libraries, and the Internet serve to complement each other.

On the other hand, the report does note that more people use the Internet than libraries to access information. The report notes that libraries and museums are trusted far more than other sources of information, including government, commercial, and private individual web sites. The most frequently used source of information is the Internet (33 percent per occasion), followed by other people (29 percent), books (14 percent), newspapers and magazines (ten percent), and other sources (14 percent). How do they get information?

Some 83 percent of people use the Internet, 70 percent of people use museums and public libraries, and 47 percent use all three. Given that some 96 percent of public library users continue to visit libraries in person, the Internet is not replacing in-person visits, the researchers conclude. Indeed, online access seems to have contributed to increased in-person visits, as has Internet use. The study intimates that the time and cost visitors spend to get to museums and libraries suggests that users value both of them highly. The study does imply, however, that the Internet remains competition. The most-used remote online services are search engines (70 percent of all uses), obtaining information from a librarian or the library (53 percent), looking at another web site (46 percent), and viewing or downloading articles (68 percent).

Search engines remain the most helpful services. What if public libraries weren’t available? Those surveyed said they’d get the information from another source some 85 percent of the time. The researchers analyzed “contingent value,” the total cost to use alternative sources less the current cost to use public libraries. The conclusion: “The net benefit of having public libraries is that visitors save about 1.4 billion hours in their time and $35.8 billion in dollar costs per year. Remote online visits save about 790 million hours and $10.9 billion in other costs. In-person online visits save 170 million hours and $7.1 billion in other costs. Other in-person visits save 460 million hours and $18 billion in other costs. Clearly, public libraries save their users a substantial amount in time and money.” 

The research was conducted by a team at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, led by dean and professor José-Marie Griffiths and professor Donald W. King. IMLS director Anne- Imelda Radice announced the results of the report today at the 2008 WebWise Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World in Miami Beach, FL.