BWHY PEOPLE USE THE 'LIBRARY 61

CIRCULATION RELATED TO CURRENCY A common belief
about public library circulation is that it is made up of the
“latest” books or “recent best sellers.” There is surprisingly
little evidence in the literature dealing with the “age” of books
in library circulation. Only one limited study contains such
data, and this has been augmented with a special tabulation

TaABLE 30

Currency or Pusric Lirary CircuraTion (ApuLt)
FROM Two STUDIES

PERCENTAGES
Cole Montclair®
May, 1947 October, 1947
Publication NON- NON-
Date FICTION FICTION  TOTAL FICTION FICTION  TOTAL
1947 6 4 5 49 27 40
1946 25 18 22 17 14 16
104§ 16 6 12 6 6 6
194344 15 14 15 6 9 7
.1040—42 19 16 18 6 12 9
1030—-39 11 30 19 10 20 14
§92029 2 5 3 4 7 5
§900-1919 & 4 4 2 4 3
Before 1900 2 3 3 s 1 ’

TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

274 181 455 8,805 5,724 14,529

*Original date for nonfiction unless revised. Original date for fiction except
for pocket-sized reprints.

®Less than 1 percent.

from an atypical library, that of Montclair, N.J. (whose
mechanical circulation records permit the easy production of
such data).’* These two surveys of currency of circulation
do not correspond closely (Table 30). In the Cole survey
*The Montclair library is atypical, because it ranks among the top levels in

support, circulation, and other factors. By A.L.A. standards of library serv-
ice, it is definitely a better library than the average for its size.