138 NOTE ON METHOD

on certain classifications of the circulation was submitted to a
sample of 152 libraries (in cities over 25,000) in the summer of
1947. The report contains material from the 110 replies. (2) Adap-
tations of data in the standard Public Library Statistics prepared
by the Library Service Division of the U.S. Office of Education
were made especially for this report. (3) A special analysis of
certain circulation data provided by the Free Public Library of
Montclair, New Jersey, was made. (4) The results of a few as-
yet-unpublished studies were adapted for use in this report. (5)
Finally, for national data on library use the report leaned heavily
on The Public Library and the People; a National Survey Done
for the Public Library Inquiry, by the Survey Research Center,
of the University of Michigan.

In general, it may be asserted with reasonable assurance that all
major studies dealing with the subject have been examined and
that this report represents a summary of what is now “known,”
in a scientific or quasi-scientific sense, about the use of the Ameri-
can public library.

METHOD OF OPERATION The problem of abstracting what is
known about library use out of a large number of diverse
studies done for particular purposes is not easy. At every point
in the process of critical summary, difficulties are encountered
which must somehow be met. Which “studies” shall be included?
How can published data be manipulated for the purposes at
hand? How can findings of disparate studies be integrated and
unified? How can account best be taken of the differences in
scope and reliability of various studies of the same problem? How
can interpretations properly be drawn from such diverse ma-
terial? Such questions must somehow be answered in the course
of the analysis of the empirical literature of any field. A brief
description of the steps by which this particular analysis was
carried out is desirable as a means of orienting the reader toward
the results.

Definition of the Problem.—The first step, of course, was to
develop a definition of the area to be covered. This report was