20 LIBRARY USERS

public library registration and almost half of the public library
circulation. The “juvenile” category 15 generally defined in
public library records at about the fifteen-year age level and
below, and “juvenile circulation” in terms of books with-

TABLE 5

“JuveNiLes” (UNDER FIFTEEN) IN THE POPULATION, IN
REGISTRATION FOR PuBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE AND IN
PusLic LiBrary CircuLATION, BY SizE oF CiTy*

Percentage Percentage of Percentage of

of Population Registration Circulation

under 1§ Which Is Which Is

Size of City over § Juvenile Juvenile®
25,000—3 5,000 17 28 39
35,000—50,000 16 36 46
50,000—100,000 14 30 43
100,000—2 50,000 16 32 42
250,000 and over 15 37 45
Total (approximate) 16 33 43

*Constructed from census data and from Public Library Statistics, 1944—45,
issued by the Library Service Division, U.S. Office of Education.

*This figure may be high because of the absence of some adults (in the
armed services) during this period. In the similar statistics assembled in
1938-39, juvenile circulation was 36 percent of the total circulation.

drawn from the children’s room. If the child-youth group
were defined as everyone below voting age, it would probably
account for about half the registration and perhaps 6o percent
of the circulation.® This “loading” of young people in the li-
brary clientele, though it may vary somewhat from commu-
nity to community, is generally applicable throughout the
country and greatly affects the use of the library. The young
constitute a major segment of the “library population”; about
half of public library service goes to them.

This condition, of course, depends particularly on the status of the school

libraries in a local community and on the arrangement between them and
the public library for service to children and youth.