CONCENTRATION OF USE 109

about 6o percent of the circulated books were used only by
the card holder; another 20 percent only by an indirect user;
and another 20 percent by both. Most of the indirect users of
the public library were members of the card holder’s family—
sisters, wives, brothers, mothers, husbands, in that order—and
only about one third of these had library cards of their own.
In other words, the library was serving a sizable group of peo-
ple of whom it had literally no record.

To what extent are the books withdrawn from the public
library actually read? In one study about 63 percent, and in
the other 66 percent, of the books circulated by the library
were read completely by someone, whether the card holder
or an indirect user of the library (Table 40).** Only a small

TABLE 40

DEeGree oF ActuaL Reaping oF Apurt Books CIRCULATED FROM
THE PusLic LiBRARY, ADAPTED FROM Two STUDIES

PERCENTAGE OF READING

Dick & Berelson Pulling
Degree of 1948 1948
Actual Reading FICTION NONFICTION FICTION NONFICTION
Completely 83 36 76 54
Half or more 7 23 9 22
Less than half 7 37 ; e
Not at all 3 4 5 4

TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

450 352 186 170

fraction of the books, about 3 percent, were not read at all.*”
Thus, the discrepancy between circulation figures and actual

“In a Michigan county 73 percent of the books withdrawn by users under
sixteen years of age were read completely, as against 85 percent of those
borrowed by adults. This probably reflects the greater use of nonfiction by
the former group.

*Dick and Berelson, 1948.