Nationwide, there are more than 17,000 public libraries and bookmobiles servicing 96 percent of the population, but foreign-born Latinos are least likely to utilize library services.

That said, the foreign-born Latinos who visit the library greatly benefit from it, according to a new study.

According to a newly-published Pew Research Center report, 83 percent of U.S.-born Latinos revealed that they'd visited a public library or bookmobile in person (the same as white respondents). Comparably, just 60 percent of foreign-born Latinos indicated the same. By the same token, foreign-born Latinos (85 percent) who frequently utilize libraries benefit from the quiet, safe space and the reserve of books.

Latinos are far more likely to see the value of the library beyond the book lending. Roughly 68 percent of foreign-born Latinos indicated that they saw the importance of library services, such as career assistance and assistance applying for government programs. For this reasons, Latinos overall are more likely than any other group to say that a library closing would deeply impact them or their family. And 65 percent indicated that closings would have an impact on their community, according to the Pew report.

Books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, periodicals, research materials and other collections are made available at no cost at the free-to-access intellectual playground known as library. And the lack of library participation among foreign-born Latinos could be due to the fact that only 33 percent of foreign-born Latinos find libraries "very easy" to access (compared to 60 percent of U.S. born Latinos). More than half of foreign-born Latinos are Spanish dominant, so finding the library often requires skill and language that this community may not have. And for the same reason, fewer Latinos (62 percent) know what services their local public library offers, compared to whites (71 percent) and blacks (74 percent).

When accessing libraries remotely, foreign-born Latinos (38 percent) were least likely to do so, while U.S. born Latinos (49 percent) were more likely than whites (45 percent) and blacks (48 percent). Also, there's a gap when it comes to internet access. U.S. born Latinos beat out all others in regards to internet use. Ninety-two percent of U.S. born Latinos communicated that they use the internet, compared to 87 percent of whites, 81 percent of blacks and just 75 percent of foreign-born Latinos.

Eighty percent of Latinos believe libraries promote literacy and love of reading; 75 percent believe that libraries' free resources and materials play a role in personal success, and 71 percent of Latinos indicated libraries improve quality of life in a community. Even though foreign-born Latinos don't frequent the libraries quite as much, immigrants are likely to agree that libraries provide services that are hard to find elsewhere and libraries improve the quality of life in a community.

Some other important takeaways from the report: more than half of Latinos have library cards (62 percent of U.S. born Latinos and 40 percent of foreign-born Latinos). Latinos visiting the library tend to younger and less educated than other groups, but they read roughly the same amount of books, and 73 percent indicated, "I like to learn new things." And they're more eager to search for information.