According to a Gallup poll, American libraries are still very important even in this digital age where information is at our fingertips at any time.
Gallup asked a sample of 1,025 adults across all 50 states and the District of Columbia the number of times they engaged in nine leisure activities in the past year. The winner was taking a trip to the local library.
Yeah, really.
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Participants responded that they made 10.5 trips to the library, which was more than the runner-up activity of going to see a movie. That came in with an average of 5.3 times. The zoo had the least amount of visits at 0.9.
Here’s what’s interesting… Gallup did a similar poll in 2001 and found the results were similar in this follow-up. This suggests that trips to the library are just as important even as technology advances.
Libraries also offer many free amenities like wifi and use of computers. Pollsters found that people from low income households tended to rate libraries high on their list.
A Pew Research Center study in 2016 also found that 29 percent of people used libraries for these services.
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More expensive leisure activities like gambling or trips to amusement parks sat at the bottom of the Gallup list.
Women tended to visit the library more than men at a rate of 13.4 visits, on average, compared to 7.5 visits for men. Men also wanted to participate in activities that require tickets such as theme and amusement parks.
As far as those movie numbers, adults without kids went to the movies the most often.
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But, in these fast-moving, high-tech times, it’s nice to know the old-fashioned library is still serving our communities as well as they did in their beginnings.
Long live the library!
