New research is turning traditional thinking about libraries on its head. More than half of U.S. residents visited a library in the past 12 months to use computers instead of search for books, according to a survey from the Pew Web & American Life Project.

Specifically, 58 percent of participants in a national phone survey said they used the Net at home, work, a public library, or some other place to get help in solving problems during the past two years.

“These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down,” Leigh Estabrook, Dean and Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois, and coauthor of a report on the results of the survey, said in a statement.

Library’s New Purpose?

Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, young adults age 18 to 30 — commonly known as Generation Y — were the biggest library computer users, according to the Pew study. Compared to

their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving data and general patronage.

Overall, more than two-thirds of library patrons of all age groups said they used computers during their library visits. What’s more, Net users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users.

Young adults said they are most likely to use libraries in the future when they come across problems: 40 percent of Gen Y said they would do that, compared with 20 percent of those above age 30 who say they would go to a library.

“Librarians have been asked whether the Net makes libraries less relevant. It has not. World Wide Web use seems to create an data starvation and it is information-savvy young citizens who are the most likely to visit libraries,” Estabrook noted.

Meeting Citizen Needs

According to Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Net &…

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