The Pew Internet Project provides information on issues and trends that impact on children, families, communities, and schools. This latest report revealed unexpected findings: more younger adult Americans used public libraries last year than any other age group. 62% of Gen Y (18-30) and 59% of Gen X (31-42) while 42% of Matures (62-71) and 32% of After Work (72+) visited libraries.
The biggest surprise is that internet users (61%) are more likely to be library patrons than non-internet users (28%). Broadband users (62%) use libraries more than dial-up users (38%).
There is no significant differences by race or ethnicity. 53% of Whites, Blacks, and English-speaking Hispanics visited libraries in the past year, but households with higher income (61%) and college graduates (68%) were more likely to be public library patrons.
Most popular problem-solving searches at libraries:
Library patrons like what they find at the Library and want more of the same, especially personalized services provided by library staff members they trust. People are overloaded with information and they come to libraries for help in dealing with the volume and speed of information.
Anyone interested in stocks and mutual funds will find a wealth of 
LP books aren't just for older people - readers of all ages are discovering opportunities when larger type makes reading much easier.
Yesterday was the official launch of our new web page. We appreciate all the comments and suggestions received from library staff and patrons during the beta testing and you will see that we incorporated many of them in our final release.
The application we used was Mambo, an open source content management system, which will allow Tech staff to make changes or emergency announcements via the web either at work or at home. We also like the Template Chooser feature on the lower right hand side of the screen, which will allow our users to change the appearance of the web page by selecting their favorite skin. Right now we have only four skins available, but I'm sure some of our creative staff are working on new ideas for release throughout the year.
Our default template is "BlueAndOrange" (voted most popular choice by our patrons and staff) to reflect the Twinsburg High School colors (Blue and White) and the reddish brick color of our building. We modified the original orange color to match the brick of the image at the top of the page. We hope you like it.
We decided to stay away from drop down menus or menus that would slide over to one side or another in favor of having major categories easily visible. We realize this will please some people and displease others, but we have to go with our gut instincts and experiences with the general public.
One feature I really like is being able to search the Catalog, Web Site, or link to the Internet with our easy keyword search bar located right under the image of the library. The default choice is Catalog, so you will need to click on the radio button in front of either one of the other choices (Web Site or Internet) if you want to look elsewhere.
One other thing to keep in mind: if you go to a site that is not maintained by the library (for example, the Library Catalog is hosted by Cleveland Public Library) you will need to use the browser arrow at the top of the screen to get back to our page. You can return to our main page by clicking on the word Home or anywhere on the image of the library, book, or icon at the top of the page for almost everything else. Remember, if you don't see the graphics with our name and address at the top of the page, then use your browser arrow to go back.
