Great US study about the use of, and importance of public libraries & other research

The well regarded Pew Research Centre in the US has undertaken a number of studies about Americans' use of public libraries.  One of their recent pieces of research was funded by the Bill 

& Melinda Gates Foundation & is called  The Power and Relevance of Libraries.

The research was presented at the American Libraries Association conference in May this year.  The key take out messages from this report are summarised in a slideshare here.  

Obviously the findings of these reports are not directly applicable to the Australian environment, however I believe that they are very encouraging and useful in helping us to think about our own service provision and customer needs.

Some other Pew Research Centre papers include:

• Younger Americans' Library Habits and Expectations
• Americans' reading habits over time
• Parents, children, libraries and reading
• Library services in the digital age
• E-book reading jumps; print book reading declines