Musings on law, tech, chess & other topics by a geek

Today’s Access to Justice Tech Committee meeting had a great presentation on How people use computers at public libraries.  The full report is Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Librariesand the presentation was given by Mike Crandall. I also recommend checking out the toolbox section which helps libraries use the study for local press and outreach.  Here are my quick and dirty notes:

2/3 of people in the US use the library
1/3 use public computer access at libraries
1/2 youth use the libraries and most of them do so once a week on average

44% of people at or below the poverty line use computers at public libraries while less then 25% of the wealthiest Americans use public libraries for computer access

Only 2% use the wireless exclusively

22% of users rely sole on the public library as their sole source of internet access

63% of users helped someone else using library computers 31% was people helping strangers!

How people use the public computer access:

Social Networks 60% (74% connect with family & friends, )

Education 42 (37% do homework, 24% take online classes, 14% applied for a program)

Employment 40% (76% searched for jobs, 47% worked on resumes 3.7 million people got hired after submitting an application)

Health & Wellness 37% (83% learned about illness)

Law 37% (57% learn about laws or regulations, 57% find Gov’t forms 38% looked for legal advice 8.3 million people got legal help online!)

Community Engagement 33% (79% learned about candidates or issues)

Managing Finances 25% (60 online banking, 53% purchase something, pay bills 50%)

Entrepreneurship 7%