IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY 129

discriminating factor in the use of reference facilities. By
and large, the reference service deals with “ready answer”
questions on a variety of subjects—questions which require
only a few minutes’ consultation of a standard reference
work. “Research” questions requiring long or varied search
in literature are asked infrequently.

Small, special interest groups use other, more recently de-
veloped, services of the public library—discussion programs,
reader’s guidance, book talks, circulation of films and re-
cordings. If such new services are to be introduced, it is
probable that those who will use them will be drawn rela-
tively more from the ranks of the present users than from
newcomers to library service. To those that have will be
given more.

Finally, the use of the “typical” library varies from time to
time, as it reflects natural and social changes. It is used less in
good times than in bad, less in summer than in winter. Over
the years, however, the people of the “typical” town are
using the public library more and more. More of them use
it now than did two decades ago, and more still will use it
two decades from now. The public library economy in the
“typical” town is still expanding.

INFERENCE FOR LIBRARY POLICY The implications that one
sees in this description of the pattern of library use depend
to some extent upon one’s assumptions about the objectives
and values of public library practice in the United States.
Any over-all evaluation of the role of the public library to-
day must start with the recognition that the adult library
clientele is relatively small. This does not mean, of course,
that the clients of the public library are not numerous in abso-
lute terms. A “relatively small” proportion of the popula-
tion of the United States is still an impressive, imposing, and
altogether important group of people. But the library clien-