120 FURTHER RESEARCH NEEDED

educated and poorly served, or vice versa. Is it well to build a
new branch library in a district with a high level of schooling,
thus tending to maximize library use, or would it be better to
build in a district with a low level of schooling in order to
stimulate the more poorly educated to use the library because
of proximity? Presumably, the better-schooled will travel far-
ther for library facilities and will find their way to books in
any case.

The location of a library depends partly upon a decision as
to the most appropriate objectives and values for the institu-
tion. Is it more important to reach some of the unresponsive
(for example, the poorly educated groups) or to reach more
readers by catering to the responsive groups? The decision
might also rest partly upon reliable data indicating varying
degrees of use in different kinds of districts. This is a problem
in the distribution of cultural resources within the commu-
nity, and analysis of specific situations might provide a sub-
stantial basis of information for policy decisions.

The Library’s Influence on Reading Selection.—A basic ar-
gument for the American public library is that it improves the
reading taste of its community. But no one knows whether or
how it does so. In order to improve reading patterns, the li-
brary must be able to influence them, and no one quite knows
how effectively the library does or can do that. Presumably,
the public library can affect the reading pattern of the com-
munity in four important ways. It can stimulate certain kinds
of reading through various sorts of promotional activities,
such as book talks, window displays, radio programs, book
lists, and so forth. Secondly, it can stimulate certain kinds of
reading through the physical arrangement of the library’s
book collection, by making selected titles more, or less, acces-
sible to the casual seeker of “something to read” (who are a
significant part of the clientele). Thirdly, it can do so through
the advice and guidance of library personnel. And, finally, it