42 LIBRARY USERS

in availability, owing to great rural distances. On the whole,
book reading and library use have been studied much less in
rural areas than in urban areas.*

Thirdly, there is a relationship between the size of a city
and public library use. In consistent progression, the smaller
the city (down to 25,000), the larger the use made of library
service (Table 21). More of the population registers with the
public library in the smaller cities, and a somewhat larger per
capita circulation is maintained. The public library thus has a
greater impact upon the community in smaller cities than in
larger cities, at least in terms of such gross measures of library
use as registration and circulation data. Although small com-
munities (below 10,000) do have “public libraries,” often
they are not well staffed or stocked or open on a full-time
basis. Although there are exceptions, the curve of library use
may decline in such small communities. A survey of the pub-

TaBLE 21

PusLic LiBrary REGISTRATION AND ANNUAL PER CAPITA
CircuraTioN Data BY Size or Crry”

Percentage of Annual Number of

Population per Capita Libraries

Size of City Registered Circulation Sampled
25,000—3 5,000 ' 39 5.1 30
35,000—50,000 34 5.0 27
50,000—100,000 28 4.9 31
100,000—2 §0,000 24 4.0 28
250,000 & over 23 3.6 36

“Source: Constructed from Public Library Statistics, 1944-45, issued by the
Library Service Division, U.S. Office of Education.

lic libraries in Connecticut, for example, showed that per cap-
ita circulation in small libraries (below 25,000 volumes) was
much less than in larger libraries.**

“For a review of such studies see Hodgson, 1944, and Hodgson, 1946.
“Wight and Liddell, 1948.