LIBRARY USERS 37

into the relationship of the occupational composition of the
public library’s clientele to that of the population as a whole.
Is the library clientele a representative sample of the total
adult population by occupation? Again the answer is “No.”
Professional and managerial people, students, and white-collar
workers make greater use of the public library, relatvely
speaking, than do the other occupational groups (Table 15).
In every case, members of these groups become registrants or
actual users more frequently than do housewives or wage
earners. Despite the common belief to the contrary, house-
wives actually make up a smaller proportion of the library cli-
entele than they do of the population at large. To some extent,
of course, this disproportion in registration and use of the li-
brary reflects the relative educational status of these occupa-
tions.

Thus, the public library attracts more representatives from
the “higher” occupations in the community than from the
“lower.” In absolute terms, it mainly serves housewives and
white-collar people among the adults (that is, among the non-
student population).

ECONOMIC STATUS Little direct study of the use of the
public library by different economic groups has been made.
The available data, based upon income or socio-economic
classifications, reveal greater use of the public library by the
higher economic groups (Table 16). Again, this can largely
be attributed to the differential in education among the eco-
nomic levels, but despite this disproportion in relative use, the
major number of the library users come from the “middle” in

come levels (Table 17). In general, the public library is not
used much by either the very wealthy or the very poor—the
former, in all likelihood, because they prefer to buy most of
the books they read or because they have other private
sources, and the latter because their level of education makes