• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, July 18, 2012

The emergence of digital content has disrupted industries and institutions that have enjoyed relatively stable practices, policies, and businesses for decades. News organizations, record companies, broadcast and movie producers, and book publishers have all been dramatically affected by the change.

As part of the exploration of the new ecosystem of books, according to the Pew Research Center, their study found that personal recommendations dominate book recommendations, while, at the same time, logarithms on websites, bookstore staffers, and librarians are in the picture.

In the survey, respondents reported several key sources for book recommendations:

• 64% of those ages 16 and older said they get book recommendations from family members, friends, or co-workers
• The demographics of this 64% include: women (70%), whites (67%), those under age 65 (66%), college graduates (82%), those in households earning over $75,000 (81%), parents of minor children (69%), suburban residents (66%), and all types of technology users (tablet owners, e-reader owners, internet users)
• 28% of those ages 16 and older said they get recommendations from online bookstores or other websites
• The demographics of those most likely to get online recommendations include: internet users who are: women (38%), those ages 30-64 (38%), college graduates (47%), those in households earning more than $75,000 (46%), tablet owners (51%), and e-reader owners (64%.
• 23% of those ages 16 and older said they get recommendations from staffers in bookstores they visit in person
• The demographics of those most likely to get recommendations from staffers include: college graduates (28%), those living in households earning more than $75,000 (30%), parents of minor children (27%), technology owners and users, urban and suburban residents, and those connected to librarie.
• 19% of those ages 16 and older said they get recommendations from librarians or library websites
• The demographics of those most likely to get recommendations this way include: women (23%), 16- and 17-year-olds (36%), college graduates (26%), owners of e-readers (25%), those who have read a printed book in the past year (23%), and those who have listened to an audiobook (37%.

The online patron respondents said they received recommendations from a variety of sources, with the vast majority saying they get recommendations from family and friends, book reviews, and website recommendations.

In addition to friends and family, respondents frequently mentioned book clubs as the recommendation source of their most recent book. Some also turned to browsing (both a library’s physical stacks and external websites), podcasts, TV and radio reviews, and award lists for more recommendations.

78% of Americans ages 16 and older read or listened to a book in the past year. 54% of print readers and 61% of readers of e-books say they prefer to purchase their own copies of these books rather than borrow them from somewhere else. In contrast, most audiobook listeners prefer to borrow their audiobooks.

In terms of device ownership, those who own e-readers or tablets are more likely than non-owners to have bought the last book they read–and they are more likely to say they prefer buying books than getting them other ways. Some 64% of e-reader owners purchased their last book, compared with 46% of non-e-reader owners. For tablet owners, 59% purchased their last book, compared with 47% of non-tablet owners.

Beyond device ownership, those who had read an e-book (on any device) in the previous year were also more likely than print readers to have bought their most recent book: 55% of e-book readers had bought their most recently read book of any format, compared with 49% of print readers.

In our December 2011 survey, three-quarters of people who read e-books (75%) said that when they want to read a particular e-book, they usually look for it first at an online bookstore or website, while 12% said they tend to look first at their public library.

One in twenty e-book readers said that they usually first look for e-books someplace other than an online bookseller or their public library. 71% of e-book borrowers say they get book recommendations from online bookstores and websites; 39% say they get recommendations from the staff at bookstores they visit; and 42% say they get recommendations from librarians.

For additional information about the study, and access to the PDF file of the complete study, please visit here.