This paper looks at older adults' use of books and the public library, synthesizes and analyzes work completed in this area, and offers recommendations for future studies. A review was performed of the U.S., Canadian, and British literature over the past 20 years on the use of library materials by older adults. The literature review is divided…

Report on a survey of 462 public librarians highlights existing bibliographic practices in managing nonbook media in library collections; attitudes about nonbook media as information sources (cost, informational value, storage and use); and attitudes about bibliographic access to nonbook media (integrated catalogs, classification schemes). Eleven…

Statistics on book budgets, population served, and collection size of individual public libraries in New York State were correlated with their circulation data to examine efficiency of scale for mid-size libraries. Findings show that circulation increases erratically with increased book budgets and size of population, but consistently with…

Describes steps taken to improve usage of a public library young adult collection: (1) a survey of students' reading interests and needs; (2) analysis of the collection; (3) comparison of survey results with the collection; and (4) selection of additional titles. An annotated bibliography, the questionnaire, and survey results are appended. (11…

Presents preliminary results of Clearwater Public Library's study of the usefulness of "Output Measures for Public Libraries" as an indicator of reference performance, and the impact of collection development choices on reference output measures. Data on turnover rate, in-library use, reference fill rate, and reference transactions per…

This guide was developed to help students and researchers conducting undergraduate-level research find collections of Vermont materials throughout the state. It is not a catalog of specific titles or archival collections, nor is it comprehensive. Information about 38 libraries, all of the academic libraries in the state, some of the larger public…

Overlap (two libraries own same title) and duplication (one library has more than one copy) in children's collections of books and audiovisual materials were measured. It was found that there was less overlap between two school libraries than between a school library and a public library. Six references are cited. (EJS)

This survey of librarians in public and school libraries serving a significant number of Hispanics found that, although 60 percent of the respondents report that books in Spanish for Spanish-speaking children and young adults serve an important educational purpose, many of the remaining respondents are very much opposed to increasing their…

The first of a two-part series covers research published since 1970 that is directly relevant to interlibrary loan in the United States, with emphasis on studies of total volume, growth rate, nature of exchange relationships, characteristics of requests and types of material requested, users and uses, and financing. (47 references) (EJS)

Reports results of a survey sent to business school graduates from the classes of 1977 and 1983 on their use of libraries both currently and as students. Areas covered include: use of monographs versus journals and use of online services, public and corporate libraries, loose-leaf services, and popular current reading. (EM)

This study was conducted to determine how library users in California say library use helps them. While most library effectiveness studies infer effectiveness by looking at the movement of materials or reports of user satisfaction, this study proceeds from the assumption that libraries need to know how library use helps in user terms. The study…