WHY PEOPLE USE THE LIBRARY 85

people in general. In a survey conducted in several large
cities, respondents were asked how much difference it would
make (2) to them personally and () to the city if there were
no public libraries in the community. The replies demon-
strated the wide discrepancy between the two sets of evalua-
tions. A sizable group felt that the absence of a public library
would strongly affect the community generally, but not
themselves. Only a relatively small group felt that they them-
selves would be affected a great deal. In other words, the pre-
vailing sentiment seemed to be that a public library is sym-
bolically a good thing for a city to have, as a civic institution
or as a monument or as something for other people to use.
Here, too, is reflected the specialized nature of the library
clientele.

PERCENTAGES
DIFFERENCE TO

The Individual ~ The City

Great deal 21 78
Quite a bit 16 16
Not much 61 2
Undecided 2 4

Source: NORC, 1946.

SUMMARY In summary, the public most frequently uses
its library as a collection of books from which to borrow.
WNearly half the books borrowed are juvenile, and nearly
two thirds of the total circulation is fiction. The circulation

. of nonfiction reading is fairly evenly distributed over all

subjects, but is highly concentrated among a small, homoge-
neous group of readers, especially students and those with
considerable formal education. The library circulates many
more recent books than old ones, and at a higher rate of turn-
over. The number of classics circulated by the library is
steady, but extremely small. There is no reliable evidence to