ALA: Public Libraries Provide Kids with Vital Web Tools

By Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 9/8/2008 9:00:00 AM

Nearly 41 million school-age children in the United States have access to expensive online educational tools like Live Homework Help, thanks to their public libraries.

In fact, some 83 percent of U.S. public libraries provide their community’s vital—and many rural areas, only—link to Web tools that might otherwise be out of their financial reach.

This double-digit growth in online services at libraries nationwide over the last year is documented in “Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2007–2008,” a survey of 5,500 public libraries conducted by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Information Use Management and Policy Institute at Florida State University (FSU). 

The survey found that 88 percent of all libraries and 98 percent of urban libraries offer subscription databases in virtually every subject, as well as SAT and GED practice exams. 

When it comes to children and technology, the study also found that librarians report spending 38.4 percent of their time helping children with school assignments (up 3.2 percent from last year);  78.7 percent of libraries now provide educational resources and databases for primary school children—a jump of 10 percent (from 67.7) from last year; and the number of home-schooled children taking advantage of those same resources more than doubled since last year, from 14.5 percent to 33.4 percent.

The popularity of online tools continues to strain the budgets, bandwidth, and staff capabilities at many libraries, according to the report. For instance, from 2000 to 2005, there was an 86 percent spike in the number of computers in libraries. But even in 2008, 60 percent of libraries reported that patron demand for online time still outpaced supply. Over the same period, there was also an18.6 percent jump in the number of patron visits—but only a 6 percent jump in full-time staff.