Teens, technology, and libraries: An uncertain relationship

Abstract

A growing body of research examines teens’ use of digital technologies to meet their academic and personal information needs, but few studies have considered how public and school libraries fit into modern teens’ information practices. This study uses data from surveys of and interviews with 25 teens enrolled in a highly technological urban US high school to consider how the prevalence of technology in their daily lives has influenced their perceptions and use of libraries. The results indicated that this group of students tended to think of libraries as largely outdated institutions with little connection to their technology-focused daily information practices. Thus, libraries might better serve teens with high levels of technology access by reframing their services in terms of promoting social interaction and community building as well as focusing less on providing materials and technology access and more on teaching how to search and evaluate information housed outside of libraries’ physical and virtual boundaries.