W-HY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY 63

circulate recent titles to its clientele. Its distribution is almost
certainly, however, less time-bound than that of any other
major distributor of adult books, except, perhaps, the home
collection.

CIRCULATION RELATED TO “QUALITY”’ Finally, there is the
basic, and perhaps the most important, classification of books,
that is, by their “quality.” Does the American public library
circulate many or few “good” books, however that term is
defined?** Attempts which have been made to distinguish
“good” from “bad” books (or “better” from “worse”) for the
purpose of evaluating public library service have largely been
limited to fiction. Although no generally satisfactory defini-
tion of “quality” has been devised, the available classifications
do provide some sort of differentiation within the general
category of fiction.

To what extent does the public library circulate “good”
and “bad” fiction to adults? Although no single answer can
be given to such a question, there are certain suggestions in
the literature based upon the different definitions of “quality”
employed (Table 31). Considerable variability appears be-
cause of differences in clientele (for example, as between
Carnovsky, 1935, and Krieg, 1939, the former reporting on
an upper middle-class suburb and the latter on an industrial
community) and differences in holdings (as between most
other studies and Wilson & Wight, 1935, which reported on

4Some librarians have tended to define this characteristic in terms of the
distinction between fiction and nonfiction, on the assumption that it is
somehow “better” to read nonfiction. They have thus been particularly
pleased at increases in the proportion of nonfiction in the circulation. As
suggested above, however, the variations within these categories are so great
that it is unsatisfactory to make them synonymous with a distinction by
“quality.” Another possible classification deals with the “types” of fiction;
in the public library of Kansas City, Kansas, 23 percent of the fiction cir-
culation was composed of mysteries and 13 percent of westerns (Quinly,
1048).