84 WHY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY

are the controlling factors, rather than, or more than, the
professional activity of the librarians.
Percentage of All Dissatis-

Study factions Due to Inadequate
Book Collection

Haygood, 1938 86
James, 1941 93
NORC, 1946 96
Field & Peacock, 1948 78

The library clientele is satisfied with the librarians. The at-
titude of more than go percent of all library users was favor-
able to the public librarian.** Only a small proportion of the
complaints recorded in these studies deal with the inadequa-
cies of library personnel. There are few institutions in the
community with as good a record.

PUBLIC IGNORANCE OF LIBRARY SERVICEs  The general pub-
lic, however, does not score particularly well on its knowl-
edge of the public library and its services. Only 33 percent of
the adults in certain large cities knew how the public library
is financed and only g0 percent knew that the library offers
other services in addition to book lending®; only 56 percent
of the adult population in Los Angeles knew correctly the
location of the nearest branch library®’; fully 25 percent of the
library users in the same city did not know of any library
services “‘aside from lending books®®;” about 22 percent of the
residents in a Michigan county did not know the location of
the nearest library outlet (Turbeville, 1948); and more than
25 percent of library users the country over did not know
what the card catalogue 1s.*

This lack of knowledge about the public library is, per-
haps, at the core of the reaction to the public library by

®SRC, 1948. ¥NORC, 1946. *Field and Peacock, 1948.
“Ibid. ¥SRC, 1948.