Deals with the historical role of public libraries in the United States especially relating to the poor; the commitment on the part of libraries to serve the underserved growing out of the turmoil of the Sixties and the War on Poverty, and the effect of changing inner-city populations on the future role of libraries. (Author)

This review of the effectiveness of bibliotherapy as a correctional rehabilitation tool discusses the need for library educators and associations to recognize that the function of prison libraries is to advance the freedom to read, not to provide formal educational or rehabilitational programs. (10 references) (CLB)

Defines at-risk adolescent students, including remedial readers, pregnant teenagers, handicapped students, speakers of English as a Second Language, and public library dropouts; and describes literacy programs that enhance self-esteem and establish the library as an alternative learning source, many developed in a literacy course at the University…