PLA '06 Boston Conference: The Perceptions Report

You may have heard mention of the latest study from OCLC entitled Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. The “Perceptions Report,” for short, was the focus of a PLA conference session. The report summarizes findings from an international study on the information-seeking habits and preferences of consumers in 6 countries. The entire survey was done online and solicited 3,300 responses from the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the UK.

Many of the findings indicate that, while most information consumers value libraries and view them as places to learn and borrow printed books, people are still largely unaware of the rich electronic content they can access through their libraries. Here are just a few of the findings:

93% said that Google provides worthwhile information
84% begin their search for information on the Internet
70% of the U.S. population is online daily, at work and at home
51% are using instant messaging
30% have never heard the term ‘online databases’

So what could your library do with this information? The entire “Perceptions Report” is online as a PDF file here:
www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm Note that the PDF document is 286 pages, but a paper copy is available for purchase for only $19.00 from the OCLC website as well. The questions are already there, developed by a team of professional researchers at OCLC Market Research and Harris Interactive, INC. Libraries could adapt the questions for use in local surveys (here’s where NWILS “Survey Monkey” workshop comes in handy) See how answers from your community compare with the national findings. Consider what this might mean in terms of marketing the library’s electronic resources like EBSCO, FirstSearch, etc. Think about how this might fit into your library’s long-range plan. The “Perceptions Report” is interesting, important reading if you’re up for “keeping current in library land!”