.LIBRARY USERS 2K

Wide variations in the nature and the quality of school li-
brary service, as well as in the administrative arrangements
between the public library and the school system, make it in-
appropriate to analyze in any detail the use of the public li-
brary within the student group.* Students who use the public
library are generally the more intelligent of the student group
(as indicated by standard L.Q. scores). In one study® it was
stated that the average library patron of the children’s depart-
ment of the library was mentally advanced about six months
beyond the normal for his grade. “The median number of
pupils (patronizing the public library per school) came from
schools with an L.Q. average of 105—9. The average 1.Q. for
the city is approximately 1oo.”* Another study® also showed a
small correlation between 1.Q. and public library use on the
part of school children. Incidentally, such correlations should
not be interpreted simply as indicating the contribution of
public library use to the child’s I.Q. It seems more likely that
use of the public library is a consequence of general intelli-
gence. In any case, the public library is serving the more intel-
ligent children of school age.

The predominance of children and young people in the
clientele of the public library suggests another important fact,
namely, that the use of the library falls off sharply at the
school-leaving age (Chart I). According to the nation-wide
survey of the Survey Research Center, 1948, almost a third of
the school-age group had used the public library during the
previous month as against less than one tenth of the groups
just beyond school age. And more than half (56 percent) of
the adult population indicated that they had used the public
library more when they were younger, most of them when of

*For a detailed study of the comparative use of the public and the school : é
library by a single student population see Janecek, 1948.

*Lewerenz, 1931.

‘bid., p. 172.

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