g
1
78 WHY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY
read some interesting titles, secure some piece of desired in-
formation—in short, make full and even constant use of the
public library, without appearing in the library records (al-
though he would be identified as a library user in a general
survey). The actual incidence of such unrecorded use of li-
brary material is not known.

USE OF THE CATALOGUE The public library’s major tool
for the location of its materials is the card catalogue. How:
much is it actually used by the library’s patrons? Again, this
varies with the size of the library and with the extent of its
reference and information services. In the branch libraries of
the largest public library system, somewhat more than one
half of the clientele had used the catalogue.*” In a national
sample,” only about 4 percent of the library users (not of the
population) used the catalogue often, and another 45 percent

PERCENTAGES

Know about catalogue and use it

often 4
Know about catalogue and'have

used it 45
Know about catalogue, but never

use it 13
Do not know what the catalogue is 29
Not ascertained 9

TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

228
Source: SRC, 1948.

had used it previously, probably while students. The users
had considerably more formal education than the nonusers;
presumably, they had learned how to use the card catalogue
during their period of schooling.

*Haygood, 1938.
#SRC, 1948.