Gen Z Loves Libraries

If you think that libraries are just for books and that kids today care only about digital media, then you should read a new report from the American Library Association.

Gen Z and Millennials: How They Use Libraries and Identify Through Media Use details where and how American young people read books and consume other media.

Based on a survey of more than 2,000 respondents, the report from the American Library Association identifies libraries as critical cultural spaces for individuals and for communities. It also finds these public spaces could offer publishers a welcome sanctuary during digital disruption.

Their research took co-authors Dr. Kathi Inman Berens and Dr. Rachel Noorda to public libraries around the US, where they met with young people and discussed their reading habits and media preferences.

“Gen Z likes printed books. It’s their number-one format,” according to Dr. Inman Berens, a US Fulbright Scholar of digital culture, a former Annenberg Innovation Lab fellow, and an associate professor of book publishing and digital humanities at Portland State University.

A significant insight of the report concerns identity – and the ways that people and places today have roles that are fluid and exchangeable.

“It makes sense that Gen Zs and Millennials feel at home at libraries,” Dr. Inman Berens tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“Libraries are places where we observed young people moving seamlessly between engagement with their phones and then with other people in the library, and the library collections around them.”

Perhaps the hallmark of Gen Zs’ and Millennials’ media use is that they are media-omnivorous and context-agnostic.

Report co-author Dr. Rachel Noorda, director of book publishing, and associate professor of publishing at Portland State University, explains that publishers should consider how to leverage this behavior.

“Libraries have so much to offer publishers. In addition to the robust sampling that libraries offer Gen Z and Millennials to discover new books, libraries have a free community space for author events,” she explains.

“Libraries can be especially important for independent publishers beyond the Big Five, for authors beyond the mega-blockbuster titles, and even self-published authors.”

Drs. Inman Berens and Noorda are also co-authors of the ALA report, Digital Public Library Ecosystem 2023, which describes the size and scope of the digital content ecosystem for public libraries.