el WHY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY

library personnel, circulation scores over reference in a
ratio of at least two or three to one. In smaller libraries the
disproportion is even greater. During one day in the Racine,
Wisconsin, library, 1,826 people entered the library, and only

ey TABLE 26

¢ ComMpPARISON OF CIRCULATION AND REFERENCE SERVICES OF THE
PusrLic LiBrRARY, ADAPTED FROM THREE STUDIES

PERCENTAGES
Phelps, 1947* Field & Peacock Balwin & Marcus
1948 1941°
'SALARY
LOS ST. LOS STAFF EXPEN-
Services BOSTON  ANGELES LOUIS ANGELES TIME DITURES
Circulation 66 71 75 64 30 27
Reference and
information 34 29 25 20 8 8

TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

Not Not
10,802 38,897 8,828 608 given  given

“Total represents number of books withdrawn and reference questions
asked during “typical week.”

"Use of library on latest visit; other uses omitted.

‘Average distribution of library time and expenditures in a sample of pub-
lic libraries; other jobs and expenditures omitted.

140 reference questions were asked." In average figures for the
entire country, the public library circulates about five books
per capita per year, but answers about one reference ques-
tion per capita per year.” And on the whole, the circulation
and reference services of the public library are used much
more than its other facilities. In short, the circulation of books
l is the single most-used service of the public library; reference
| "Hunt, 1934.
“In both these and the Racine figures no account is taken of either the un-
recorded use of reference materials or the informational use of circulated

books (in which the reference function operates without the reference
form).