46 LIBRARY USERS

of a “natural service area”; and distance, like other character-
istics, has an important effect upon the use of the American

public library.

OPINION AND COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AND LIBRARY USE In
addition to the several characteristics (in the narrow sense)
which have been discussed, library users and nonusers can be
differentiated on other bases as well. One category of partic-
ular importance refers to opinion and community leadership.
Are the library users particularly influential within the com-
munity?

In every community and in every group within the com-
munity, there are certain people whose opinions and judg-
ments are particularly respected by the other members. Such
people—not just civic leaders, club officials, and the like, but
“ordinary citizens” as well—play important roles in guiding
and forming the opinions and interests of their fellows. Al-
though only a minority of the adult population uses the pub-
lic library with any degree of regularity, if that minority is
a particularly important segment of the community in terms
of leadership, then the public library can claim a special
significance for its services. If it reaches the people who in-
fluence other people, its own influence is greater than that
reflected by the usual measures of public library service.

The available evidence suggests that there is a positive re-
lationship between library use and opinion and community
leadership (Table 24). In each of the communities studied,
whether urban or rural, the proportion of the leaders using
the library was greater than that of the nonleaders. Here
again, differences in formal education may partially account
for this relationship. The fact remains, however, that the
public library reaches relatively more of the influential peo-
ple in the community.

There is also the question of the relationship between li-
brary use on the one hand, and political interest and opinion