76 WHY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY

for current reading. Similarly, the periodical collection is
probably more useful for other purposes than for current
reading (for example, the consultation of back files of jour-
nals), except, perhaps, in the smaller libraries. Only about 2 to
3 percent of the magazines read are provided by the public
library, with a range from less than 1 percent to a high of
about 5 percent. The public library does not compete with
newsstand purchases and subscriptions as a major source of
newspaper and magazine reading in this country.

Percentage of Magazines
Read Obtained from

Study Public Library

Ellsworth, 1937 (Chicago) 0.1
Ellsworth, 1937 (St. Louis) 5.5
Waples & Carnovsky, 1939

Extown 1.5

Wytown 3
Field & Peacock, 1948 1.0
SRC, 1948 4.0
LIBRARY SERVICE IN READING GUIDANCE Several years ago

it was the fashion in the public library to provide special read-
ers’ advisory services to which a client could come for indi-
vidualized reading lists, for discussion of his reading, and for
general guidance in his reading problems. Currently, the tend-
ency is to provide such services through the staff generally
rather than through a particular subdivision of the staff. In
either case, however, few studies concerning this service have
been published.

In the New York Public Library during the 1930s, the
major reasons clients used the formal readers’ advisory services
were the desire for advancement in occupation and for self-
improvement through liberal education.” Fully 8o to 85 per-
cent of the users during this period had one or another of
*Flexner and Hopkins, 1941.