What Do Teens Want?

What do teens want in terms of library services or books to read? Publisher's Weekly just published a survey generated from the membership of teenreads.com which tries to answer that very question. Although the survey was open to the entire membership of teenreads.com, the overwhelming majority of responders were female and the results are reflective of that fact. Over 53% of the respondents indicated that they have changed their book buying habits due to the economy and are now utilizing their libraries more. So what are they looking for in the library? Well, it seems that they are reading romance and fantasy books and 48% indicated they wanted more help from "experts" in selecting their reading materials. This is an opportunity where we as the "experts" can help teens find books they like by posting peer reviews of books. Over 83% of the respondents indicated peer recommendations as the reason they read a book so peer reviews could be a very powerful marketing tool in our libraries. Take a look at the survey and see what you find interesting or intriguing and let's start a discussion in this space on how this information might help us to serve our teens better.

Publisher's Weekly
The Sassy Librarian (reflections on the survey)

iPod Winner!

Congratulations to Cherie Curtis of Millard Public Schools. She won the drawing for the iPod Shuffle during the NLA/NEMA Conference!