This may come as shocking development, but millennials and Gen Zers love to read books.
Real books, too. Not just whatever they download onto a Kindle.
Even if they aren't readers, they love their local libraries.
But don't take our word for it. Two studies released over the last eight years provided an eyebrow-raising fact about the users of America's public libraries.
A 2017 study by the Pew Research Center found that 53% of millennials -- ages 18 to 35 at the time -- had used a public library or bookmobile in the previous 12 months. That made it the generation with the largest share of library usage, compared to Gen X (45%), baby boomers (43%) and the Silent Generation (36%).
Five years later in 2022, that finding was reinforced by a study from the American Library Association, which found 54% of Gen Zers and millennials had visited a physical library within the previous 12 months.
It also found "younger Americans' distinct preference for physical versions of books," as survey respondents reported they had read and bought on average "twice as many print books per month as any other category."
On top of that, more than half of the 43% of Gen Zers and millennials who don't identify as readers had been to their local library in the past 12 months.
Three years on, the generations known for "cutting the cord" -- or not even knowing what "the cord" is -- are embracing analog reading options and everything libraries offer, especially in Central Arkansas.
"A lot of people may not be able to afford (a) new book, so they can (get it) at the library," said Nate Coulter, the executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System.
If they really want to own a book, they can buy it used during one of CALS three used book sales in a given year.
"We get about 100 boxes of books a week across the system," Coulter said, typically from people who are "downsizing, or they've had a death in their parent's circle" and don't want to throw books away.
The prospective new owners of those books are "an intersection where some people who are in this Gen Z, millennial cohort group" can be found, says Coulter.
REACHING OUT
Last month, CALS established a strategic plan to help chart its path forward from 2025 to 2030.
It came after a similar one was done for 2019-2022.
"This library had not done a strategic plan in the 25 or 30 years before I got here," Coulter said. "I got here in 2016, there had not been one done, best I could tell, since 1985."
The goals of the strategic plan: to help raise awareness of the library and all that it offers to the roughly 350,000 people in CALS service area; build "lasting relationships" with communities; "combat loneliness and isolation for those often overlooked;" and to achieve "organizational excellence."
For context, there are 149,691 patrons who have CALS library cards. Of those, 60,225 have birth dates from Jan. 1, 1980 to Dec. 31, 2000, about 40% of the overall number.
As part of making the strategic plan, which was finalized on May 22, a consulting group called Constructive Disruption conducted a survey of nearly 3,500 people -- including children -- to find out what they want from their local library.
A "particularly strong response" came from respondents who were ages 30 through 49.
While that age range makes up 18% of the population in the CALS service area, it represented 32% of the survey takers.
"This age range is often very difficult to reach through Library community surveys," said Constructive Disruptions final report. "So it is a credit to CALS to have this high level of participation in the survey."
Why is it so difficult to reach people in that age range and engage with them?
"Making it exciting and fun enough to compete with (everything) else going on in their life," said Amy Miller, CALS youth collection coordinator. "But everybody else is doing the same thing. I think it's just competing for their time."
Also, the users in that age range likely are not going to answer a call from an unknown phone number.
In the North Little Rock Library System, Executive Director Crystal Gates said that when it comes to the interest of 25- to 40-years-olds, "we can capture them with programming that is tailored to new parents, young parents."
The trick really comes with people who are single.
"Those who are not in a family unit, that don't have a spouse, who don't have children, those young professionals sometimes, how do we reach them?" Gates said, who compared the problem to operating a church.
"What do you have for the mid-range adults who love youth group and all of that, and then they left?" Gates asked. "They went to college, and they don't come back till they have kids and they want their kids to grow up in church. So it's kind of like that, how do we capture this group that is so busy building their career or maybe building a family?"
When respondents to the CALS survey were asked about what they use the library for, 67% said it was to borrow physical materials, like books and movies.
The next largest answers were "to attend a program or event" (21%) and to use the space to study, work, relax, meet friends or bring their kids.
Of the latter, the survey found that "there is more likelihood that younger adults, ages 20--49" primarily use the library for this purpose, with 30% of respondents in that age range answering with it.
"I feel like I get asked a lot about meeting spaces," said Tameka Lee, a communications expert for CALS. "So those are actually really popular, and people are usually interested in how they can have a meeting somewhere."
THIRD PLACES
With each passing decade in modern history, society has become more and more isolated.
The phenomenon, famously documented by Robert D. Putnam in his 2000 book "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community," has been furthered by either technology or personal choice.
"The library is one of the remaining few places for providing connection if you're in some ways lost because of the sort of antisocial nature of our culture," Coulter said. "We're not just working remotely, we're living remotely. People are more and more buying things online. People go to restaurants now just to pick up. They don't sit and dine with friends as long or as often as they used to. And part of that has been going on for a long, long time, since the '70s or '80s."
In a search of a lifestyle that doesn't involve just existing at home ("first place") or work ("second place"), the term "third place" has become widely used in recent years and libraries are viewed as a safe example of them.
Meredith Li, 26, is a Memory Lab coordinator for CALS.
Even though she works for the system, Li utilizes its branches as her own "third places."
"If I don't want to go home, and I know I work for the library, but I don't work at each branch, I can get that," Li said. "I think it's important to engage in the community in that way."
Li gave her perspective on why she thinks her generation is infatuated with libraries and all that they offer, from physical book to movies.
"I think my generation is a little bit skeptical of (things) like streaming services," Li said. "We're being forced to pay for everything. There's sort of like a financial agenda with everything. But there's a sort of like third space in it, like a genuine authenticity that the library provides, where my generation feels a little more like comfortable supporting. So there's like a genuine enthusiasm for the library."
That enthusiasm is seen across the Arkansas River at the North Little Rock library system, where events like "Murder Mystery Night" at the Argenta branch is "popular with millennials" said Gates, along with speed puzzle building
There's also the Mary Oliver Club, which is dedicated to going on nature walks and reading poetry.
Also popular is Life Skills 101, aka "Adulting 101."
"There's such a large group of people who they missed out on life skills," Gates said. "It's things like how to change a tire, how to check your oil. It could be cooking classes for how to cook for one rather than four or five. It could be cooking on a dime, cooking on a budget. Those kinds of classes are really useful for" millennials.
Coulter sees libraries as being "part of the answer" to a renewed growth in social gatherings.
They can be "public spaces that draw people for different reasons, and they get there and by accident, unintentionally, maybe serendipitously, maybe they just find somebody they like, or they have some interest in getting to know," Coulter said.
"We all want to be around people who affirm our views, who have our background, and it's the library in some (ways) where you encounter that."