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Description
ABSTRACT
This article reports the results of a written survey of ninety-seven female and male adolescents, ages fourteen through seventeen, at two U.S. public libraries. In addition to exploring gender-related variance in the reasons for which teenagers use public libraries, the survey investigated how frequently the respondents needed information relating to twelve major topic areas and how useful they considered public libraries in helping them to find information relating to these topics. For the most part, the results indicated no significant gender difference in the respondents' reasons for using libraries or in their frequency of information needs. The only major gender difference was the girls' tendency to rate libraries as more useful in helping them to meet their personal information needs, making public libraries "female-friendly spaces" for adolescent girls. The authors conclude with suggestions for helping both female and male adolescents realize the full potential of public libraries and public library services.
INTRODUCTION
Do girls and boys choose to use public libraries for the same reasons? Are there differences in the kinds of information that girls and boys look for at public libraries? While the effects of gender on youth behavior has been an area of considerable interest in related disciplines, such as education (e.g., Klein, 2004; Volman & Van Eck, 2001) and computer science (e.g., Countryman, Feldman, Kekelis, & Spertus, 2002; DeKeuster, Walter, Colar, & Holcomb, 2005), it has received surprisingly little attention in library and information science (LIS) research. As a result, we are unable to answer many of these kinds of questions relating to youth, gender, and libraries. This article will review the existing body of LIS research relating to gender and youth. It will also report the results of a recent survey of teens' public library behaviors and perceptions, focusing on gender related variance and offering suggestions for librarians who want to make their libraries friendlier and more useful to adolescent girls and boys.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In the early 1990s, Burdick (1994) reviewed the major findings of education research into gender and learning and called for LIS researchers to examine these issues in library environments. However, few researchers have responded to her call.
Gender, Youth, and Computers
Most of the LIS researchers who have done work in this area have focused on gender, youth, and computer uses and attitudes. Many of these studies have investigated the computing gender gap, the idea that girls use computers less than boys and exhibit less positive attitudes toward computers. Major related LIS findings include evidence that this gap has largely diminished, with the exception of computer gaming (e.g., Agosto, 2004; Jakobsdottir, Jonsdottir, & Hjartarson, 2004; Leong & Hawamdeh, 1999), and suggest methods for encouraging girls to become more comfortable with computers (e.g., Dobosenski, 2001;Jacobson, 1991, 1994).
Other LIS researchers interested in gender, youth, and information technology have focused on gender-based differences in online searching behaviors. Major findings include boys' tendency to browse more quickly when searching online, and boys' tendency to follow more hyperlinks than girls (Large, Beheshti, & Rahman, 2002; Schacter, Chung, & Dorr, 1998).
Still other LIS researchers have focused on variance in girls' and boys' preferences in evaluating digital information resources. These studies indicate that girls place more value on graphic (visual) content than boys (Agosto, 2004; Fidel et al., 1999; Hirsh, 1999) and that boys are more likely to use more technologically complex language to discuss computers than girls, even though girls and boys hold equal interest in computing (Enochsson, 2005).
Gender, Youth, and Libraries
Of more interest to the current project are LIS studies of gender, youth, and library use and attitudes. In the earliest such study, Jacobson (1991) examined female and male high school seniors' library use anxiety, computer use anxiety, and anxiety in using library computers for research. She concluded that the library "seems to be a 'friendlier' environment for girls" (p. 275).
Five years later, Burdick (1996, 1997) studied the impact of gender on the information-seeking processes of 103 high school students in a school library media center. She found limited behavioral variance by gender. The only two areas of significant difference were students' preferred research topics, and their affective judgment of the research process, with the girls being more emotionally connected to their projects than the boys.
Gross, Dresang, and Holt (2004) also found no identifiable patterns of behavioral variance by gender in their study of children's computer use at three urban public library branches. Although their study did detect some minor gender-based variance at each of the branches, across the three branches the data showed girls and boys to use library computers for the same three most frequent reasons: gaming, chat, and e-mail, and at basically the same preference levels for both girls and boys.
Most recently, Cook, Parker, and Pettijohn (2005) found a gender-based difference in public library attitudes that reinforced Jacobson's (1991) earlier study of school library attitudes. The authors showed that:
Along with age differences in library use, there were also differences in the perceptions of the public library based upon one's gender. Females were much more inclined to rate the services of the library higher than were males. This was particularly true for rated statements such as: ! like to go to the library; I like to check out books; People who work at the library are nice to me; I would go to teen activities at the library; I like the way the library looks; and I like the restaurants at the library. (p. 159)
While these studies provide a preliminary look at the kinds of things girls and boys do at libraries, such as using computers for gaming, chat, and e-mail, they do not explain why girls and boys go to public libraries in the first place, nor do they show us the specific kinds of information that youth seek when they turn to... |
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