Teens and library services: experiences, expectations, perspectives: an exploratory study

Abstract

Young adults visit public libraries all over the world, but they receive in some cases, particularly in Italy, no high attention from the librarians’ side. Research on the relationship between adolescents and library use is not abundant. Mainly, studies on young adults concentrate on their reading habits, thus remaining bound to sociological aspects. The researcher noticed a research gap in considering young adults as key informants to their needs as potential / real users of the library. Hence, this study investigating experiences, expectations and perspectives on library use was developed and carried out. This study should promote greater understanding of the factors affecting library use by young adults. It is likely to be of interest to other librarians, teachers, educators and carers working with adolescents. Also administrators and funders of public libraries which provide services to this age group might be interested in this study, since some specific recommendations are provided. A mixed-method, essentially qualitative approach was deemed to be particularly suitable to the research project. A small quantitative element to the study was provided by some of the questions devised for the questionnaire, while further qualitative data were collected through a limited number of in-depth interviews and focus groups. Key findings are that young adults believe libraries are important institutions that they fancy as places where communication and dialogue is fostered. The key factors affecting their frequency to the libraries, as emerged from data collected, are linked with how they spend their free time.