Libraries continue to fulfill their historic role as information centers and sources, even as the internet has made so much data available.  At the same time the role of the library in helping people deal with one of the specific matters in this survey is changing.

Use of libraries as a source for dealing with these matters is higher among those who are younger and those with lower incomes.

One in five, 21%, of those in Generation Y (age 18-30 years) say they sought information or assistance at a public library. Those in the oldest age group, age 72 years and older, are next most likely, at 15%, to use the library. This compares with just 11% of those in Gen X (age 31-42 years) and most of the other age groups.

Income is also a significant variable:  17% of those with incomes under $40,000 say they went to the library, compared with only 9% of those with higher incomes. More than one in five African-Americans (26%) and Latinos (22%) went to the library, compared with 9% of white Americans.

But there were no differences by education or gender in problem-oriented library use. Nor were there were significant differences between internet users (13%) and non-users (11%); or between those with low-access to the internet (12%) and high-access to the internet (13%).

Two of the contradictory themes of internet use – access and income – converge in the problem-focused use of libraries.

Among these users of the public library, the highest rate of usage is among those who have high internet access and also have low incomes. This is a result of the large number of young people who have high-access to the internet and yet have relatively low incomes because they are still in school (perhaps part-time) or are starting out on the lower-paid steps of the career ladders they have chosen.