Public Library Provision of Books about Social Problems
| Autor: | Lowell Martin |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1939 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Library Quarterly. 9:249-272 |
| ISSN: | 1549-652X 0024-2519 |
| DOI: | 10.1086/614506 |
| Popis: | HILE argument continues to center about the quality Wv versus quantity and the education versus recreation theories of public library service, it is a rare critic who challenges the statement that one of the objectives of the library should be to provide and circulate reading materials about current political, economic, and social problems. This is the common ground on which controversy ceases and agreement begins. As an agency of a political system founded upon the assumption that enlightened men are able to govern themselves, the public library has a primary responsibility for providing print which contributes to that enlightenment. We are therefore justified, in an evaluation of one phase of the institution, in asking this question: To what extent does the public library act as a center for the dissemination of print about issues of current political, economic, and social importance? Various analyses of library circulation, based on data gathered in such widely differing communities as the Fordham district in New York City, an industrial section in Chicago, and a typical community in St. Louis, have found that only a relatively minor portion of the reading in the agencies investigated relates to this important subject field. Ellsworth found that |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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