Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change, Paul Taylor and Scott Keeter, editors

As much as has been about Millennials over the past five years, it is occasionally good to look back with circumspect and see if any speculations have come true. Certainly, the generation has matured since first making waves in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s but there are some expects of the generation that remain steadfast no matter the age.  I have read this Pew Center study several times, but never from the vantage of a perspective librarian.  My views of the generation have not changed completely but I look at them (myself on the upper end) now a particular challenge to libraries.  All the while, the tech savvy generation is not vastly unlike.

Most striking to me about this article is the close proximity of the "generation gap" between Millennial and the generation before them.  Generation Xers and Millennial bare striking resemblances in their use of the news and best technology, their dependence of soft skills, and their somewhat nonconforming behaviors.  As a library, seeking patrons this poses a potential boom in business, if pursued correctly. 

Millennials function almost completely on technology.  A point proven as they have aged and become breadwinners on their own. The rising flocks of new technologies specifically target at the Millennial who is now just beginning their first a salaried jobs.  Because this generation grew up on the crest of the technology booms, they are more adapt at working these technologies, but had persistent about learning new and better ways to use them on a daily basis.

The drive for the new and innovative ways to use technology is not a new push and like the generation before, Millennals can just as easily turn to the public or college library for help using technologies to their full potential. Like the generation before, which pursued libraries at a much higher rate, the Millennial Generation can approach the library as a place to create new and innovative applications with library maker-spaces, hardware and software.  Libraries would benefit a surge of new patrons if they implemented and maintained polices that promoted the library a viable option for the Millennial. 

This struggle to meet the needs of a new generation altogether different from previous generations in not new to the library Though Millennials have made it clear they are kindred spirits with the generation before them, that used the library with greater frequency. By using and improving methods of attraction and retention used on the Generation X patron, libraries might well serve the Millennial with great success and growth.