Social Media and Libraries: New applications for a new generation of users Mary Madden Pew Internet & American Life Project Michigan Library Association Tech Escape 5.0

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Who we are…

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Way back in 1993, the internet was… “headless, anarchic, million-limbed” and “spreading like bread-mold” - Bruce Sterling

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Internet Marketing 101 Why use the internet? Freedom Free information and communication tools It belonged to everyone and no one These are some of the same values we associate with libraries…

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Libraries are the living internet… Libraries are connected nodes of information and community exchange that we use to communicate, collaborate, share resources and preserve knowledge.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Internet and Broadband Adoption All internet mill. Broadband - 83 mill.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Internet Access at Libraries 98.4% of public library branches in the U.S. now offer public internet access 63.3% of public library branches offer connection speeds of greater than 769kbps

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Where do teens go online? 89% of online teens have access at home 75% have internet access at school 70% go online from a friend or relative’s house 50% have gone online from a library 9% go online from a community center or house of worship

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Libraries & Teens OCLC study finds that teens and college students consider search engines a better “lifestyle fit” for their information needs. While more than 50% described search engines as a perfect information source, just 17% described libraries this way. Teenagers are increasingly becoming library immigrants in a land of library natives.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Social Media: Where Teens and Libraries Meet Teens  Technology  Libraries Using technology to connect to people and information

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Social Networking & Libraries

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Libraries 2.0

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Born 1990 Personal computers are 15 years old Tim Berners-Lee writes World Wide Web program

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – First Grade 1996 Palm Pilot goes on the market

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Fourth Grade 1999 Sean Fanning creates Napster

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Starts Middle School 2001 Wikipedia

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Middle School 2001

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Middle School 2003 Skype

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Starts High School 2004 Podcasts – 2004

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Sophomore Year 2005 YouTube – 2005

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Today’s Teen – Junior Year 2006 The Year of MySpace: More than 100 million accounts created Third most popular site in the U.S. (after Yahoo and Google) 55% of online teens use social networking sites Of those who use social networking, 48% log on to the sites at least once a day or more

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Who’s in the network? Reinforcing pre-existing relationships –91% stay in touch with friends they see a lot –82% stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person Meeting new people & flirting –49% make new friends (more for boys, less for girls) –17% flirt (mostly older boys – 29% of them flirt vs 13% of older girls)

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Profiles: Switchboards for social life –84% post messages on friend’s wall or page –82% send private messages to a friend –76% post comments to a friend’s blog –72% make plans with friends –61% send a bulletin or mass message to all friends in the system –33% wink, poke, give e-props or kudos to friends

Social Media and Libraries March 16, All the world is not a stage… 66% of all teens with profiles online have in some way restricted access to it – includes hiding it completely, taking it down, or making it private –Of those with a visible profile, 59% say only their friends can see their profile. –40% say anyone can see their profile

Social Media and Libraries March 16, MySpace might seem chaotic… But it also offers a stable sense of place in the midst of drastic social changes that happen during the teenage years.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Teen Reality #1 Teens are technology-rich and enveloped by a wired world: 83% of all teens say that “most” of the people they know use the internet 10% say that “some” of the people they know use the internet. Just 6% say that very few of the people they know use the internet.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Teen Reality #2 Mobile gadgets allow them to enjoy media and communicate anywhere 84% report owning at least one personal media device: a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a Personal Digital Assistant 44% say they have two or more devices

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Laptops 32% of teens own laptops 30% of adults own laptops

Social Media and Libraries March 16, MP3 Players 45% of teens own MP3 Players 20% of adults own MP3 players CBSMarketwatch survey

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Teen Reality #3 Teens are multimedia multi-taskers: Multi-tasking is a way of life – and people live in a state of “continuous partial attention” --- Linda Stone

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M, March 2005

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M, March 2005

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Teen Reality #4 Teens know that ordinary citizens can be publishers, movie makers, artists, song creators, and storytellers 57% of online teens have created some kind of content for the internet

Social Media and Libraries March 16, % of online teens share their own creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos Sharing Creative Work

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Bluegrass fiddler Nick Dumas: Age 16 "I'd be surprised if our band doesn't get noticed by some record company," Dumas says confidently. "People keep telling us, `You need to go to Nashville.‘”

Social Media and Libraries March 16, % have created or worked on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends or school assignments Working for Others

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Jasmine Ta: Teen Journalist “The appeal to me was mainly Holden because I could relate to him so much (…) it was just eye opening because that’s exactly how I feel and how I think, and to have it in words, it was like, I’m not alone in the world.”

Social Media and Libraries March 16, % report keeping their own personal webpage Personal Webpages

Social Media and Libraries March 16, % have created their own online journal or blog Creating a Blog

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Remixing 19% of all online teens say they remix content they find online into their own artistic creations 35% of teen bloggers remix content

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Teen Reality #5 Today's online teens have grown up amidst the chaos of the digital copyright debate, and it shows

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Impact and Implications Those who have grown up with interactive media want to manipulate, remix, and share content. Ideas about intellectual property and fair use change They expect to be in conversation with other creators.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Most importantly… Social media is persistent and “always-on”: Conversations, research and learning don’t have to end when a student walks out the door.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Ratings and Reviews On the Table: Add functionality to library catalogs that allow users to give ratings and/or write reviews of books, movies, etc. How many people really do this and would my patrons rather do this in our catalog or on Amazon? –28% of adult internet users have rated a product, service or person using an online rating system, and 3% do so on a typical day.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Online Raters are likely to be: More experienced and active internet users Better connected – more likely to have broadband at home More educated and higher income users Young and male

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Tagging On the Table: Allow the public to add "tags" to materials in our catalogs. How many people have any clue about this? How many create tags? Use others’ tags? –28% of adult internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts and 7% do so on a typical day.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Taggers are likely to be: Under age 40 and have higher levels of education and income Better connected -- with broadband connections at home But men and women are equally likely to be taggers

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Social Networking On the Table: Create a presence on MySpace and Facebook. How many people are using SNS? Do people use MySpace to interact with institutions online, or is it person-to-person contact? 16% of online adults use an online social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or Friendster and 9% use them on a typical day. –Reminder: SNS activity is much higher among teenagers.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Who uses SNS? Among adults: Young adults: Daily internet users Broadband users Those with six or more years of online experience

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Mobile Searching and Text Messaging On the Table: Use text messaging to deliver notices about library holds. Design small screen- friendly versions of our catalogs. How many people own cell phones? How many use text messaging? How many people use their phones/PDAs to browse the web? –Roughly three in four adults in the U.S. own cell phones, but most of those users are simply using their phones to make and receive calls.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, What else are cell phones used for?

Social Media and Libraries March 16, RSS On the Table: Create RSS feeds of new materials available in the library How many people subscribe to RSS feeds? In 2005, 5% of internet users said they used RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich websites.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, RSS users tend to be: Typical early adopters – young, white, male Have high education and income levels –RSS would be well-suited for libraries that are interested in automating some of their announcements about new materials to high- end users of the library.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Online Transactions On the Table: Allow online payment of fees and fines. Should we accept credit card payment online for fees and fines? Are people over that hump of being afraid to buy online? 71% of adult internet users have bought a product online and 6% do so on a typical day. - About 3 in 4 online adults say the internet has improved their ability to shop

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Audio and Video Downloading On the Table: Provide downloadable audio and video to patrons. How many people are downloading music and video files online? 27% download music files 19% download video files 17% of internet users pay to access or download digital content online

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Downloaders tend to be: Young – under age 30 48% of those download music vs. 26% of % of those download video vs. 18% of Broadband users 34% of home broadband users download music vs. 19% of dial-up users 26% of home broadband users download video vs. 12% of dial-up users Men 32% of online men download music vs. 21% of online women 26% of online men download video vs. 13% of online women

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Podcasting On the Table: Create original library content such as tutorials and recommended reading podcasts to engage patrons. How many people download podcasts? 12% of adult internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time. -Just 1% report downloading a podcast on a typical day.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Who are these people? Men are twice as likely to report podcast downloading (15% vs. 8%) Those online for six or more years are twice as likely as those who have been online three years or less to have downloaded a podcast (13% vs. 6%).

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Trends driving interest in podcasting: 1. More mainstream and niche content 2. Easier to find, sample and subscribe to podcasts 3.More people own mobile media gadgets

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Gaming On the Table: Start video game nights or tournaments. How many play games online? 35% of internet users play games online

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Get a Second Life? Who plays games online? 50% of users % of users % of users % of users 65 and older

Social Media and Libraries March 16, What about gaming and literacy? Points for gaming privileges are earned by: * writing book reports * attending an after-school program * participating in a youth service org * embracing other positive activities

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Wireless Internet Access On the Table: Set up WiFi hotspots in libraries. How many use WiFi? Aside from laptops, any other devices gaining wide acceptance that are usable on WiFi? Some 34% of internet users have logged onto the internet using a wireless connection

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Where people use WiFi: 20% of internet users have used a wireless network at home. 17% of internet users have connected wirelessly at work. 27% of adult internet users have used a wireless connection at some place other than home or work.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Laptop users Where they connect to WiFi: 88% of wireless-enabled laptop users have logged on using a home wireless network. 36% have used a wireless network at work. 57% have used a wireless network someplace other than home or work

Social Media and Libraries March 16, PDA users Where they connect to WiFi: 49% of wireless-enabled PDA users have connected to a wireless network with their PDA at home. 38% have used their PDA to connect to the internet or at work. 56% have used their PDA to access the internet or somewhere other than home or work.

Social Media and Libraries March 16, You’re not alone…

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Best Practices Wiki

Social Media and Libraries March 16, The library of the future is… Web-enabled and participatory Also valued as a physical space Made of people!

Social Media and Libraries March 16, Thank you! Mary Madden Senior Research Specialist Pew Internet & American Life Project 1615 L Street NW Suite 700 Washington, DC