60 WHY P EOPLEE USE THE LIBRARWS

The relative turnover of fiction and nonfiction calculated
in one study® supports this assumption. Over the period of
a year, the average fiction book in a group of libraries circu-
lated about 7.7 times, as compared with an average of only
2.2 for the nonfiction books. In another case, involving a quite
different kind of community, the holdings were about 40 per-
cent fiction, but the circulation was 69 percent fiction.*” On
the other hand, correlations based upon circulation and hold-
ings in selected branch libraries in Chicago and St. Louis** by
seven categories of books revealed coefficients of more than
.95 for several years. Although such coefficients do establish
an extremely close relationship between circulation and hold-
ings, they do not necessarily establish the reason for it. Per-
haps circulation follows the composition of the book stock;
that is, reading is controlled or strongly conditioned by ac-
cessibility. But perhaps the librarian was fitting the holdings
(through book selection) to the expressed or implied prefer-
ences of the active clientele. The greater circulation of fic-
tion by smaller libraries probably also corresponds to the
greater holdings of fiction by such libraries, but this condition
is also subject to the same problem of interpretation. In any
case, the relationship between circulation and holdings is
obviously relevant in any description of the kinds of books
the library distributes. The big problem here is to determine
how the public library can affect popular reading through
its policy of book acquisition.

*Wight and Carnovsky, 1936.

““Scott, 1943. In the same study, the distribution of holdings and circulation
by certain classes of fiction reveals the kinds of novels preferred by the
clientele.

Plot Love Character Social Other
Holdings 36 23 28 12 I
Circulation 45 26 16 8 5

Thus, the library patrons “overuse” plot and love fiction and “underuse”
character and social problem novels.

"Ellsworth, 1937.