18 COMMUNICATION AND READING

to find information there. These answers indicate that to many
people the library has little reality as a source of information.'*

TOPICS OF INFORMATION, BY PERCENTAGES

Communication Home Child Foreign
Sources Mentioned = Decoration Nutrition Care Countries
Library 5 7 13 24
Books 6 18 21 31
Magazines 9 8 4 I
Radio I 4 Less Less

than 1 than 1
Newspapers I 3 I I

Source: SRC, 1948.

SUMMARY Several conclusions may be drawn about the
media of communication, book reading, and the public li-
brary. It has been demonstrated that among the major public
media of communication the book attracts the smallest audi-
ence; that about one fourth of the adult population of this
country reads one or more books per month; and that book
readers tend to use other media of communication (with the
exception of radio) more than do nonreaders of books. About
one in ten adults and one in three children and young people
are “real users” of the public library, that is, use it at least as
often as once a month. Of the books read in the United States,
the public library supplies about one- fourth.** Like book
readers as a group, public library users tend to make more use
“of other media of communication (again excepting radio)
than do nonusers of libraries, and persons having book collec-
tions in their homes use the public library more than do those
without home libraries. As a source of information, the public
library has little reality for most people.

“SRC, 1948, p. 55.

"As suggested earlier, there is no contradiction between the figures refer-
ring to users and those referring to books supplied. The public library
may provide about a quarter of the books read and yet reach more or fewer

than a quarter of the readers because of the multiple and differential use
of sources by the same people.