By Neil D. Grimes, Education & Curriculum Materials Librarian, William Paterson University 

Being part of the Millennial Generation, also known as Generation Y, has helped to shape the way I experience and interact with technology in my everyday life.  My experiences are different than other generations' experiences.  This article seeks to answer the following question:  What insights can be learned from providing services and support to Generation Z, most of our current students in higher education today?  

Before this question can be answered, Generation Z needs to be defined. Generation Z consists of students born between 1995-2010 and their preferences as well as the ways in which they interact with technology in the world is completely different than other generations.  Dayna Bradstreet, assistant director of admission at Simmons College in Boston indicated that “Generation Z expects instant answers to their every question” (Loveland, 2022, passage 15). This instant demand for service and answers can help to label Generation Z as the “Instant” Generation.  Furthermore, these students are entrepreneurial, desire practical skills with their education, and are concerned with the cost of college (Loveland, 2022).  Many more students in this generation are going to community colleges because there is more of a conscious decision to look at cost as a major factor in students’ college choice decisions (Loveland, 2022)

Further insights about Generation Z can be drawn from the highlights of a Northeastern University (MA) 2014 study (Loveland, 2022):

• 85% have an interest in learning about financial literacy 

• 81% believe that college is critical to starting a career

• 79% want to integrate their higher education experience with employer internships

• 72% want a more customized college experience that allows students to design their own course of study or major

• 67% indicate their top concern is college affordability

• 63% have a desire to learn about entrepreneurship

• 42% expect to work for themselves at some point in their career 

These insights can help to inform academic librarians, higher education faculty, and staff across departments and divisions as to what the current needs and desires are of Generation Z students.  These needs and desires can help to shape their college experiences.  For example, academic libraries and librarians should consider creating a LibGuide with financial literacy and entrepreneurship resources as a way to help educate Generation Z students on topics they are interested in learning more about.  

Generation Z considers different factors than other generations when it comes to college choice. This generation highly values input from their peers more than their parents or other role models such as coaches or teachers.  Peer influence impacts their selection of what college or university to attend.  Geography is another factor that contributes to enrollment and college choice. According to Wexler (2016), “Most public college students enroll within 50 miles of home, so location is more influential than policy makers think, a new study finds.”  

In addition to valuing the opinion of their peers and considering attending colleges or universities close to home, Generation Z feels strongly about social issues such as social justice and community service that contributes to making the world a better place (Loveland, 2022).  Of all student generations, Generation Z is the most tech-savvy because they are mobile and “app-native” (Loveland, 2022).  In terms of communication, this generation prefers face-to-face interaction, as well as texting over emails and expects instant answers to their every question.  When it comes to their social media platform preference, this generation prefers Instagram over Facebook (Loveland, 2022). 

When it comes to doing research in the digital world, researchers note that more than half of Generation Z teenagers consider social media platforms and YouTube to be good sources for doing research (Loveland, 2022).  This should come as no surprise because according to the American Library Association (ALA) only 61% of all schools have access to a full-time certified school librarian in an era where students need information literacy including research specific skills and digital citizenship skills to address the “fake news” that is found in social media and other media outlets now more than ever (Saperstein, 2022; Carmichael, 2020). Generation Z students will often use Google, social media, and YouTube as starting points for their research over more widely known academic research databases and Google Scholar (Loveland, 2022).  

The newly established partnership between the NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ Marketing & Outreach committee and the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) seeks to better prepare New Jersey high school students for academic research and scholarship at the university and college levels through virtual orientations to the academic library and subject specific research virtual panel sessions.  The subject specific virtual panels for high school students will be offered for the first time during the Spring 2022 semester.  I have volunteered to serve on one of the panels and will address research in the field of education.  High school librarians will connect to the virtual panels of subject specific academic librarians via Zoom and high school students will have the opportunity to talk about research in their subject area of interest.  More information on this new partnership and providing high school students with college and career readiness skills using Zoom can be found in the Fall 2021 NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ Newsletter article written by Katie Cohen.

In meeting Generation Z’s desires for mobile accessibility for library resources and services, I looked for a research article that addressed this specific need. The most recent research article on library mobile accessibility was published 8 years ago.  In this article, Bomhold (2014) surveyed 73 high-research universities to assess their mobile accessibility to library services.  In total, 52 (71.2 percent) high research universities had some sort of mobile access to library services with 39 (53.4 percent) high research universities having university apps with access to the library.  If this same study were to be conducted in 2022, I imagine that many more universities would have mobile access to library services with their university apps. This can be attributed to education shifting fully online in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  That shift to the online environment is here to stay as many universities have expanded their online and hybrid course offerings.  

The pandemic has certainly changed the way that academic libraries provide resources and services to their different generational (Generation X, Y, and Z) student communities and has brought the need for mobile accessibility to library resources and services to the forefront of academic librarianship in the 21st century.  The pandemic has also stressed the importance of having face-to-face communication with students in currently available virtual spaces using Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet to provide library support for student projects.  This is done through virtual library instruction classes or virtual library 1-on-1 research or citation sessions.  Continuing to provide Generation Z the option to text an academic librarian 24/7 or meet virtually with an academic librarian will become the preferred way of providing library services to support their scholarship throughout their undergraduate or graduate education experiences.

References

Bomhold. (2014). Mobile services at academic libraries: meeting the users’ needs? Library Hi   Tech., 32(2), 336–345. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-10-2013-0138

Carmichael, J. (2020, April 12). School libraries - state of America's libraries 2019. News and Press Center. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2019/school-libraries

Loveland, E. (2022). Instant generation. National Association for College Admission Counseling. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.nacacnet.org/news--publications/journal-of-college-admission/instant-generation/

Saperstein, E. (2022, March 11). We need to teach kids about misinformation. passing a N.J. bill is a good start.: Opinion. NJ.com. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.nj.com/opinion/2022/03/we-need-to-teach-kids-about-misinformation-passing-a-nj-bill-is-a-good-start-opinion.html

Wexler, E. (2016, February 3). When students enroll in college, geography matters more than policy makers think. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/03/when-students-enroll-college-geography-matters-more-policy-makers-think