NOTE ON METHOD 143

LIMITATIONS OF THE REPORT As a descriptive summary, this re-
port is bound by the limitations of the material—the “scientific”
literature on the use of the public library. The limitations are of
two kinds.

In the first place, they are substantive. The report is restricted
(for the most part) to the data available in the published litera-
ture. Some problems have been studied a good deal, some only a
little, and some not at all—and the report reflects this fact. Thus,
for example, it contains a good deal of data on the users of the
public library, a little data on what happens to books circulated
from the public library, and no data on the “social value” of the
reference questions submitted to the public library. In addition,
the report is limited by the categories which have been adopted
in studying various problems. If there is little indication in this
report of the “psychological” or “political” characteristics of
those who use the public library or of the value of the library for
vocational advancement, it is because such studies rarely or never
appear in the literature.

Another substantive limitation has to do with the locale of most
studies. According to the latest survey,” there are about 7,400
public libraries in the United States, serving about two thirds of
the population. But this service varies widely. About 70 percent
of the libraries have expenditures of only $4,000 a year or less;
about half of them are open only twenty-four hours a week or
less. Such small libraries—which also have the least professional
assistance and the weakest book stocks—are in the smallest towns.
Most studies reported here were carried on in much larger com-
munities, and hence describe the “better” libraries in the nation.
The studies also deal predominantly with municipal rather than
county libraries. In many respects, conditions in particular lo-
calities may be at variance with those in the “country at large,”
but an attempt was made to present an over-all picture of public
library service in the United States today.

In the second place, the limitations are methodological. The
studies reported here vary widely in scope, in design, in tech-

*U.S. Office of Education, Library Service Division, Public Library Statis-
#ics, 1944-45-