WHY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY 81

motion pictures in the library; about one fifth think they
would borrow recordings or films or join study groups; and
only one twentieth think they would make use of meeting
rooms in the library. This scale of preferences indicates the
public’s reaction to the major current suggestions of new
(nonbook) services to be offered by the public library.

Of the residents of a Michigan county, 18 percent said they
would borrow records from the public library, 14 percent
sheet music, g percent pictures, and 8 percent films.*

But who are the people who would use (or more strictly,
who say they would use) these services? Some librarians
argue for such extension of service as a means of drawing new
people into the library’s clientele and thus extending the
library’s impact upon its community. Would such services at-
tract new clients to the library, or would they be used mainly
by the present clientele? On the whole the projected services
would be used relatively more by those who at present use

TABLE 34

ProjecteEp Use oF NEw Services oF THE PusrLic LiBrRArY
BY DEGREE oF PRreseNnT Usk

PercENTAGE WHO SAY THEY Wourp (or
Micut) Use SPECIFIED SERVICES

Used Library Never

One or More Used Library Used

Specified Services Times in the  but Not in the Public
Preceding Year Preceding Year  Library

Motion picture showings 88 76 53
Rental films 73 59 28
Loan collections of phono-

graph records 54 41 27
Study groups 58 41 20
Meeting rooms 15 5 4

Source: Adapted from SRC, 1948.
*Wylie, 1948.