Bernhard Eversberg wrote:
On the other hand, there _remain_ also those cases when someone is actually after a book, a paper, an opus or an opera, and preferably the physical object or a complete file (and not just a page or a part or a snippet). We are used to regard these cases as the predominant ones but they likely are not - do we have any statistics?
I don't think we do, but there is the OCLC report on user perceptions of libraries that states on p. 1-17 that only 1% of people questioned say that they begin an information search in the library catalog. 84% begin with an Internet search engine. p. 1-26 has some higher figures for libraries, with the physical library getting an 11% rating for first choice for looking for information (search engines get 80%). page 1-20 has interesting stats on how people find out about new information sources (61% from a friend, 8% from a librarian). There are other figures about how many people have used their local public library and how often, and what they do when they are there. Of the services, free books and free internet access are at the top. The study was done in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia/Singapore/India. There's a real wealth of information in the report -- it's well worth studying. And I guess you CAN say that you learned about it from a librarian. ;-) http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm kc -- ----------------------------------- Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kcoyle.net ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet fx.: 510-848-3913 mo.: 510-435-8234 ------------------------------------
