may09ff.indd


G a r y  P a t t i l l o  

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@email. 
unc.edu 

Web browser market share 
As of March 2009, Internet Explorer accounted for about 67 percent of Web 
browser usage. Firefox accounted for 22 percent, and Safari recorded about 8 
percent. These numbers represent a steady increase in browser share since 2004 
for Firefox and a steady decrease for Internet Explorer. In 2004, Internet Explorer 
recorded a 91 percent share while Firefox accounted for only about 4 percent. 
“Browser Market Share,” March 2009, Net Applications, Aliso Viejo, California, marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market 
-share.aspx?qprid=0. Retrieved Apr. 9, 2009. 

Homeschooling 
An estimated 1.5 million students were homeschooled in the United States in 
2007. This represents an increase from the estimated 1.1 million students who 
were homeschooled in 2003. In addition, the percentage of the school­age popu­
lation that was homeschooled increased from 2.2 percent in 2003 to 2.9 percent 
in 2007. Those numbers are up from 1.7 percent in 1999. The reason reported 
by the highest percentage of homeschoolers’ parents as being most important 
was to provide religious or moral instruction (36 percent). Twenty­one percent 
reported the most important reason was concern about the school environment, 
and 17 percent reported dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available 
at other schools. 
Stacey Bielick, “1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007,” NCES 2009030, National Center for 
Education Statistics, December 2008, nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf. Retrieved Feb. 3, 2009. 

Online sectors 
Social networks and blogs are now more popular than e­mail. Defi ned as “mem­
ber communities,” they have become the fourth most popular online category, 
ahead of personal e­mail. Social networking activity is growing twice as fast as 
any of the four other largest sectors: search, Web portals, PC software applica­
tions, and e­mail. As of December 2008, Internet searching was performed by 
about 86 percent of the online population, while e­mail was used by about 
65 percent. Time spent on social networking sites is also expanding. In 2008, 
activity in member communities internationally accounted for one in every 15 
minutes online; now it accounts for one in every 11. 
“Global Faces and Networked Places,” March 9, 2009, The Nielsen Company, New York, New York, blog.nielsen.com 
/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nielsen_globalfaces_mar09.pdf. Retrieved Mar. 12, 2009. 

Digitization milestone 
“The Library of Congress will digitally scan The Heroic Life of Abraham Lin­
coln: The Great Emancipator as the 25,000th book in its ‘Digitizing American 
Imprints’ program, which scans aging brittle books often too fragile to serve 
researchers. The program is sponsored by a $2 million grant from the Alfred P. 
Sloan Foundation. The Library, which has contracted with the Internet Archive 
for digitization services, is combining its efforts with other libraries as part of 
the open content movement. The movement, which includes over 100 libraries, 
universities and cultural institutions, aims to digitize and make freely available 
public­domain books in a wide variety of subject areas.” 
“25,000th Digitized Book—the Library Today (Library of Congress),” Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., www.loc.gov 
/today/pr/2009/09-10.html. Retrieved January 14, 2009. 

320C&RL News  May 2009