30 LIBRARY USERS

tional levels than to any other factor. Characteristics such as
age and economic status are of less determinative importance,
and the educational level emerges as the most important single
factor affecting adult use of the American public library.

sex  In some quarters the public library in the United
States is considered a woman’s institution—run by women for
the use of women. It is true that more women than men are
registered with and use the public library—but the preponder-
ance is not overwhelming (Table 11). Actually, women con-
stitute from about one half to two thirds of the library regis-
tration and the library clientele (Table 12).

This ratio is dependent upon two factors. In the first place,
the larger the city, the larger the proportion of men in the li-
brary clientele.® Secondly, men make relatively more use of
the reference services of the public library,” whereas women
make more use of the circulation services.’ Incidentally, there

is a different pattern in the use by men and women of other

sources for books in the community: women (housewives)
are more likely to use the rental library and to borrow books
from friends, whereas men more often buy the books they
read (Table 13). By and large, the public library is somewhat
more of a woman’s institution than a man’s, especially its cir-
culation services.

occUPATION  On the whole, students constitute the major

occupational group in the library clientele, followed by

housewives and white-collar workers, then professional and

managerial people, and finally by wage earners (skilled, semi- |

*See surveys of New York by Waples and Haygood, of Chicago by Fair and

Ellsworth, and of Los Angeles by Field and Peacock.
*See Haygood, 1938.

“Whether this higher proportion of women is composed largely of wives
borrowing for their husbands, thus tending to equalize the sex ratio in actual
use of library facilities, will be discussed later in this report.