Drawing the 20- and 30-Something Crowd into Your Library

By Becky Spratford

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2011 RA News Newsletter. Sign up for this and other newsletters.

Childless adults in their 20s and 30s just are not big library users. Look around your building. Where are they? The answer is "somewhere else." We know we have much to offer them, but until we put ourselves on their radar and show them how indispensable we can be, they will continue to ignore us. However, we cannot ignore them: this demographic includes the voters who will decide the fate of your library for the next 50 years. We need them. Thankfully, they need us too. In this article, I will outline three easy steps to winning the battle for their attention and making them regular visitors to your building.

Step One: Go to Them

Leaving the confines of your physical building and going out to meet patrons where they already congregate serves two purposes. First, it shows that you truly want to help them; this simple gesture can help younger adults to re-think what the library has to offer them. Second, it implicitly shows them that you understand their needs. By going to where they already hang out, we demonstrate that we "get" them. The good will you earn by meeting these patrons on their turf goes a long way toward grabbing their attention and earning their respect.

But where to begin? Why, with a book club of course! They are very easy to move off-site since all you need is a good location and a staff member to run the club. At the La Grange (IL) Public Library, the staff actively appeals to young professionals with their "Noir in a Bar" book club series. There is no need to pre-register: simply show up, order some food or drinks, and talk about the book. Past titles have included World War Z by Max Brooks and Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. The "Not your mother's book club" type of title selections paired with a hip, laid back atmosphere make a perfect combination for attracting patrons in their 20s and 30s.

At the Berwyn (IL) Public Library, we created the Book Lover's Club, which meets at a local martini bar every other month. Our group is a social club for readers rather than simply a traditional book discussion group. Each participant talks about a book of their choice, beginning a short discussion. Library staff moderate discussions and take notes, which are distributed later.

Book discussions aren't the only way to capture more of this demographic, however. At Berwyn, we also host a regular "Trivia Night" at a local pizza joint. "Trivia Night" is not only fun, but also underscores the library's role in town as the place to go for answers to your questions. People love it, and positive word of mouth buzz gets around! (While paying for gas recently, a staff member was asked about the event by the station attendant.).

However you choose to target these patrons, making the effort to go to where your 20- and 30-something patrons already are ensures that they'll notice you. Once the library is on their radar, they will investigate what else you can do for them.

Step Two: Enhance Your Virtual Services

You've brought some of the library to the 20s and 30s something crowd. You've piqued their interest. Now it is time to use your newfound access to this demographic to promote yourselves! Virtual library services are a great first step to introduce these patrons to the library. Begin with two basic services:

Your catalog needs to be available prominently on the front page of your website. From your online catalog patrons should be able to not only search, but place their own holds, pay for any fines, and download audio or e-books.
You should also have a separate link to your downloadable content provider directly from the homepage.

This is the bare minimum; with only a little more work, you can give them an even richer online experience. . Consider these additional easy steps:

Open Facebook and Twitter accounts; I will discuss using them in more detail under Step Three.
Post instructional video (how to use the catalog, download e-books, or how access library databases) on your website.
Sign up for one of the popular book-related social media sites, such as Goodreads or Shelfari. Keep track of what you are reading and invite patrons to share their reading with you there, too.
Post any reading lists that staff compile to hand out in-house online, too.

After you hook your 20- and 30-something patrons online, you'll find it easier reel them in to your building to see what else you have for them. With your virtual presence in place, you are ready for the final step.

Step Three: Bridge the Physical Virtual Divide

Patrons in their 20s and 30s see their virtual experiences as equivalent to their physical ones. This millennial mindset is often misunderstood, but I feel it is the key to capturing this elusive audience. Libraries sometimes err in developing their virtual presence without first thinking about how to clearly connect their online services to those already offered in the physical library.

Make a conscious effort to think of virtual services and the methods you use to help readers already in the building as two sides of the SAME coin. Seeing your virtual and physical services as symbiotic should drive everything you do to attract 20- to 30-something patrons, who will want to use your physical and virtual services interchangeably. What are some specific ways you can bridge the physical/virtual divide to meet this group's expectations?

You can begin by using Facebook to start a conversation about books. We use it to host a Thursday Book Chat, where we post about a book a staff member has been reading and ask patrons to comment on it -- or on whatever they're currently reading instead. We also send out a Tweet to remind our followers that the book chat has begun.

The Thursday Book Chat is a good example of successfully bringing the virtual/physical library connection together for 20- and 30-somethings. Part of its success owes to the Book Lover's Club -- where we take the library to the patrons, and pique their interest with information about our virtual services. In between meetings of the Book Lover's Club, we use our virtual presence -- like these Facebook conversations, and others -- to bring the patrons to the library, after getting them interested in a book they've run across during one of these interactions. See how it all comes together?

But our greatest success bridging the physical/virtual divide in order to attract this coveted demographic is our Browser's Corner. The Browser's Corner is both a physical corner where we display books and reading lists in the library building AND a blog you can access from anywhere.

Library staff members, across multiple departments, create "shelf talkers" by writing signed descriptions articulating the appeals of a particular book. The books are arranged face out on the shelf with these personalized descriptions hanging underneath. The same information is available virtually on the blog. Patrons are drawn to both versions and use them interchangeably. They now serve as permanent and popular staff recommendation areas.

The virtual/physical divide is not a chasm, and overcoming it is essential to attracting 20- and 30-somethings into your library. Implement the steps discussed here and you'll win their hearts for today -- and secure their votes for tomorrow.

Becky Spratford is a busy 30-something Readers' Advisor. When she is not sitting at the RA desk at the Berwyn (IL) Public Library, she is writing for her two critically acclaimed and popular blogs, RA for All and RA for All: Horror and corrupting the minds of students at Dominican University's Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She is the author of The Readers' Advisory Guide to Horror, 2nd edition (ALA, 2012) and a proud member of the Horror Writers Association.