Public Library Policy: Proceedings of the IFLA/Unesco Pre-Session Seminar, Lund, Sweden, August 20–24, 1979 [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9783111357218, 9783598203800

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen MexAynapoAHafl Φ Β Α Β Ρ Β Ι Μ Υ Ι Ε Η 6 Λ Η Ο Τ Μ Η Μ Χ AccoiiHaipitt Η ynpexcAeHHtt

IFLA Publications 19

Public Library Policy Proceedings of the IFLA/Unesco Pre-Session Seminar Lund, Sweden August 20 - 24,1979 Edited by K. C. Harrison

K G Saur München · New York· London · Paris 1981

IFLA Publications edited by Willem R.H. Koops

Recommended catalog entry: Public library policy: proceedings of the I F L A / U n e s c o pre-session seminar 1979, Lund, Sweden/ ed. by K.C. Harrison. - M ü n c h e n ; New York etc.: K.G. Saur, 1 9 8 1 . - 152 p.; 21 cm. - (IFLA publications; 19) ISBN 3 - 5 9 8 - 2 0 3 8 0 - 2 (in F.R.G.):

CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliofhek Public library policy : proceedings of the IFLA/Unesco pre-session seminar, Lund, Sweden, August 20 - 24, 1979 / ed. by K. C. Harrison. München ; New York ; London ; Paris : Saur, 1981. (IFLA publications ; 19) ISBN 3-598-20380-2 NE: Harrison, Kenneth C. [Hrsg.]; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: IFLA publications ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA publications) © 1981 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions The Hague, The Netherlands Printed and bound in the Federal Republic of Germany for KG. Saur Verlag KG, München by Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg

Contents

Introduction,· by K.C. Harrison, Editor

7

Anna-Maria Kylberg. Library policy in a community with a population regression caused by diminishing industry 14 E.E. Kaungamno. The public library in a changing society: the African experience 27 Barry Totterdell. Public libraries in a changing society

37

Göran Rosman. The B U M S system in Sweden

43

István Papp. The mutual influence of information, education and recreation in public library work 49 Jane Hale Morgan. The Public library as part of the educational and literacy programme for adults 62 Margaret Dunkle. T h e Public library as part of the educational programmes for children 69 Hedwig Anuar. The Public library as part of the national information system 78 P.H. Kühl. Public libraries in Denmark: their users and non-users

99

R.A.C. Bruyns. User research as an instrument to measure the policy of the public library 106 E.R. Sukiasian. T h e organisation of library service in a multi-national state 126 Jes Petersen. Library service to ethnic and linguistic minorities

135

Resolutions

148

List of Participants

150

5

Introduction

The 45th General Conference of IFLA was held in Copenhagen from August 27 to 31, 1979. It was preceded by one of those Pre-Session Seminars which since 1971 have become almost a tradition. The 1979 Seminar was staged, not in Copenhagen, but in Lund, Sweden, and it was a Seminar with a difference. Its predecessors had all been mainly concerned with librarianship in the developing countries, and contributors to them, whether or not they themselves came from developing countries, were asked to concentrate their thoughts upon the varying needs of libraries in the Third World. For instance, the 1977 Seminar held at Antwerp concerned itself with resource-sharing as a means of improving library services in developing countries. In 1979 however a departure was made from IFLA's brief tradition of PreSession Seminars. Instead of concentrating wholly upon the library problems of the developing countries, the Section of Public Libraries, backed by IFLA itself and by Unesco, decided to devote the Seminar to the theme of "Public Library Policy", making it clear to speakers and participants that the topic was to be treated universally. In other words, the theme and treatment were to have a much wider applicability than just that of solving developing country situations. At the business meeting of the Public Libraries Section Committee at Brussels in 1977 it was agreed that an Organising Committee should be formed to work out the programme for the 1979 Seminar. This conisted of P.J. van Swigchem (Netherlands) chairman, Johannes Daugbjerg (Denmark), K.C. Harrison (United Kingdom), and Gotthard Riickl (DDR), with Ina Vintges (Netherlands) as convening secretary. An invitation from the Swedish Library Association (SAB) was received and accepted to hold the Seminar in Lund during the week before the IFLA Conference in Copenhagen. The planning process began almost immediately after the Brussels IFLA General Conference of 1977. Correspondence ensued between the members of the Organising Committee, and in November 1977 it held its first meeting in Copenhagen at the offices of the Danish Library Association. There was a full attendance, and the members were joined by Flemming Ettrup, secretary of the Danish Library Association, who was enrolled as local secretary to the Organising Committee. At this meeting, topics were isolated, and speakers selected. Six months later, a second meeting of the Organising Committee was held in Berlin. In addition to all the members, plus Flemming Ettrup as secretary, Earle Samarasinghe of Unesco and Karl Plötz (DDR) also attended. By the time IFLA held its 44th General Conference in August 1978 at Strbské Pleso, Czechoslovakia, preparations for the Lund Seminar were fairly well advanced, but financial problems remained unresolved. The opportunity was 7

taken to have a further meeting of the Organising Committee, and on this occasion it as augmented by the addition of Else Granheim (Norway), István Papp (Hungary) and Jan Nyberg (Sweden). The latter, as secretary of the Swedish Library Association, was to have an important role in the organisation of the Seminar. A further meeting was held at Bibliotekstjänst in Lund on December 7, 1978 and here again the members of the Organising Committee were joined by Else Granheim and Jan Nyberg. By this time the financial situation had become somewhat clearer, thanks to promised support from Unesco, the Swedish Library Association, Bibliotekstjänst, the Danish Library Association, the Netherlands Centre for Public Libraries and Literature, and other contributors. Speakers had been briefed and were working on their papers, and the machinery for publicising the Seminar and arranging the invitations was finalised. I mention in detail all these meetings of the Organising Committee because, if the Seminar had any success (and it was generally agreed afterwards that it had been outstandingly successful), I believe it proves once again that time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted, and that meticulous preparation is needed if an International Seminar of this kind is to achieve success. In the event there were 54 participants from 33 different countries, and nearly half of the delegates came from countries which could be described as developing countries in the library sense. To this extent, the aim of the Section Committee in attempting a universal appeal could be said to have been achieved. The question arises - did the presentations hang together in a unified way or, despite the well-laid schemes of the Organising Committee, were they too disconnected? Those who were not present at the Seminar and who view its Proceedings for the first time through the medium of this volume may well be forgiven for thinking that the Organising Committee did not succeed in its objective of isolating general principles of public library policy. One criticism that can certainly be made is that many facets of policy were left untouched, but it would clearly have been impossible in the space of five days to cover every aspect. As the ensuing papers amply demonstrate, many important approaches were dealt with, such as planning, buildings and techniques, as well as public library contributions to literacy programmes, to national information systems, to ethnic and linguistic minorities, to educational and cultural programmes and, it must be added, user research was the subject of one whole session. Those who did attend the Seminar will, I hope, agree that in some indefinable way, the presentations did hang together, and did succeed in outlining some general principles of public library policy. Certainly, if the discussions were anything to go by, the Seminar was supremely successful, because the cochairmen's only problems were not those of encouraging discussions, but in 8

seizing the right opportunities to close them. However, it is up to each reader of this volume to decide whether or not the Seminar achieved its aims. The Seminar was based at the Lund Public Library and on Monday August 20 a brief opening session was held there under the chairmanship of P.J. van Swigchem. Opening speeches and welcomes were extended by Preben Kirkegaard, President of IFLA, and by Per Blomqvist, Chairman of the Municipal Council of Lund. The rest of that day was essentially practical, with the Seminar moving to the nearby town of Landskrona which, as Anna-Maria Kylberg said in her paper, has over 37,000 inhabitants, but has the problem of a diminishing population and industry. Her very practical paper did not run away from the difficulties caused by such a population regression, and it will be found that she refers to many aspects of her work, not least of which is dealing with local politicians, and trying to convince them of the need to define public library policies, particularly in regard to media provision, and to the needs of minorities and the disadvantaged. The practical approach continued in the afternoon with a presentation by Peter Broberg and Ann Thulin, architects of the Foundation for Industrial and Ecological Building in Landskrona, this being followed by visits to two branch libraries in the town, those of Pilängen and Asmundstorp. Tuesday was devoted to studying the role of the public library in a changing society. It had been hoped to have three papers, one from a Third World librarian, one from a librarian from the Socialist countries, and another from a librarian from the West. In the event no paper was presented from the USSR, but there were presentations from E.E. Kaungamno (Tanzania) and Barry Totterdell (United Kingdom). Mr. Kaungamno traced the brief history of public library development in Africa and outlined the main recommendations of various Seminars from 1962 onwards which have been held under the auspices of Unesco and other bodies. He regretted that many of these recommendations have not yet been implemented by the Governments concerned. He urged implementation on the lines suggested in the Unesco Public Library Manifesto, and emphasised the need to integrate library and documentation services. Barry Totterdell also drew initial inspiration from the Unesco Manifesto, and then went on to describe recent trends in British public library theory and practice. He referred to a "value statement" produced by the Public Libraries Research Group in Britain, went on to mention the conflict between the needs of society and the individual, and came down heavily on the side of the individual. The participants of the Seminar were kept hard at it, and almost every evening was filled with activity. After the addresses of Kaungamno and Totterdell had been discussed, the party left for Staffanstorp, where a recent public library building was visited and admired. Here, library automation was studied, and Göran Rosman of Bibliotekstjänst AB gave a presentation on BTJ's Circulation 9

and Media Control System. This appears in the following pages because of its special interest to those who are considering the introduction of an automated system into their libraries. The next day's session began with a typically thoughtful paper from István Papp (Hungary) on the mutual influence of information, education and recreation in public library work. At the outset M r P a p p acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining balance between the three differing claims. He defended recreation as a legitimate component of the library's service, and went on to describe how best he thought the threefold spheres of activity should be satisfied by the public library. In a challenging presentation Jane Hale Morgan (USA) put forward her views on the public library as part of the educational and literacy programme for adults. She asserted that our charge is to enrich the lives of individuals, to serve as an independent community learning centre a'nd to collaborate with formal educational institutions and programmes. Speaking from her experience as director of the Detroit Public Library, she concentrated on literacy work, admitting the ineffectiveness of public libraries in helping those who do not read, and at the same time urging more active participation by libraries and librarians in this sphere. Margaret Dunkle (Australia) presented a parallel paper to that of Jane Morgan, but concentrating on work with children. As Children's Library Officer for the Public Libraries of the State of Victoria, she was able to give an authentic picture of the contemporary Australian public library scene. She deplored the enormous variations in standards of provision, but described in detail what is obviously one of the best children's and school library services in her country. Her address, and its appendix, are worthy of careful study, but what cannot be reproduced in this book is the enthusiasm of her approach, typical of the best traditions of children's librarianship. Her visual presentation, as well as many of the artefacts demonstrated and the handouts freely given to Seminar participants, augmented her paper in no uncertain way, leaving it one to be savoured in the memory. It was unfortunate that Hedwig Anuar (Singapore) was not able to attend the Seminar in person but her paper was received and is here reprinted. A librarian of great international experience, she is the director of a national library which also fulfils a public library function, and is therefore perfectly placed to discuss the place of the public library as part of a national information system. While naturally concentrating upon the Asian situation, Mrs Anuar also quotes examples from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. On the same day, Wednesday August 22, Elisabet Ingvar, the City Librarian of Lund, gave a brief illustrated talk on her library system. This was followed by a conducted tour of the library in which most of the Seminar sessions had been 10

held. It was a good opportunity for delegates to examine the building in detail, to ask questions, and to meet the Lund librarians. The morning of Thursday was devoted to the important topic of user research, with two papers, one from Denmark and the other from The Netherlands. Dr. P.H. Kühl of the Institute of Social Research, Copenhagen spoke on the users and non-users of public libraries in Denmark. He described an investigation undertaken throughout Denmark to try to obtain a spectrum of the amount of reading and its correlation with social criteria. The survey covered pre-school children, who were interviewed with the help of their parents, school children, and adults. Dr. Kühl summarised the results of the investigation in an admirable way, which led on naturally to the next presentation. This was by Dr. R.A.C. Bruyns of the NBLC, President of the Association of Dutch Public Librarians, and lecturer in Management at the Amsterdam Library School. His brief was to discuss user research as an instrument to measure the success or otherwise of public library policy. He based his talk on the results of two surveys carried out by NBLC during the period 1975 to 1977. The results of these surveys appear as an appendix to his paper. Readers will find it interesting to compare not only the Danish and the Dutch experiences, but also to match them against the results of similar surveys which may have taken place in their own countries. Certainly both papers attracted lively discussions. For the remainder of Thursday, members of the Seminar were again on safari, this time to the city of Malmö, which has such fine public library traditions. At Malmö Stadsbibliotek there was a welcome from Bengt Holmström, Director of the Malmö Public Libraries. His brief address touched upon the past and future of public library services in general, with special reference to the situation in Malmö. There followed conducted tours of the main library, after which the party was conveyed to see recent branch libraries at Bellevuegârds shopping centre, and at Lindängehus, where we found a library as part of leisure centre. A very busy day was concluded by a visit to the twin towns of Skanör-Falsterbo, including an inspection of Skanör Library. Friday morning was heralded by a paper on the organisation of library service in a multi-national state, in which E.R. Sukiasian (USSR) gave a comprehensive account of the rich experience of the Soviet Union in this area, outlining the problems and detailing the solutions which have been realised. One of his paper's many merits was that it gave information on Soviet methods of stock acquisition, classification and cataloguing of many national literatures, as well as referring to research, personnel training, and accommodation problems. After Mr. Sukiasian's address and the ensuing discussion, there was a slight alteration to the published programme. This was caused by the fact that Jes Petersen (Denmark), who was due to address the Seminar on library services to ethnic and linguistic minorities, could not be present, However, his paper was ably presented by Aase Bredsdorff, his colleague from the State Inspection of 11

Public Libraries, Copenhagen. Jes Petersen outlined the size and scope of the problems facing librarians, not just in Denmark but in many other countries as well. He sketched a philosophy for library service to minorities, dealt fully with many of the practical aspects, and asserted that the question is a truly international one, with librarians everywhere being able to benefit from each other's experience in this field of provision. Introducing the paper, Aase Bredsdorff gave examples from both Sweden and Denmark. Sweden, she said, was the Nordic country which had done most for its immigrants, of which it has 400.000. Swedish standards laid down that there should be three books per immigrant in the immigrant's own language. Denmark has fewer immigrants, about 38,000, and there the idea of a central collection was being pursued. The final session was devoted to consideration of the Resolutions, the text of which will be found at the end of this volume. So concluded a memorable Seminar, during which the participants heard fourteen presentations and visited no fewer than eight Swedish public libraries. If I may be permitted a personal reaction it is to note how frequently consideration of the needs of the individual cropped up. In paper after paper, the needs of society are considered and acknowledged, but over and over again it is the individual member of society, and his or her library needs, that are emphasised by the presenters. I find this very encouraging, a sign that augurs well for the future of the public library and its work and services. It only remains to express thanks to all the organisations and individuals who contributed to the success of the Seminar. These were so numerous that, in attempting to mention them all, I am certain to be guilty of omissions, for which I apologise in advance. Acknowledgments must first be extended to the Executive Board of IFLA for so readily supporting the suggestion of the Public Libraries Committee to hold the Seminar; to Unesco for both moral and financial support; to the Swedish Library Association and the Swedish Government; to the Danish Library Association and the Danish Government; the Netherlands Centre for Public Libraries and Literature; Bibliotekstjänst AB, its director and staff; the Municipal Council of Lund; Lund Stadsbibliotek, its chief librarian and staff; the Municipal Council of Landskrona; Landskrona Stadsbibliotek, its chief librarian and staff; the City Council of Malmö; Malmö Stadsbibliotek, its chief librarian and staff; Staffanstorp Bibliotek, its chief librarian and staff; Skanör Bibliotek, its chief librarian and staff; the Chairman and Members of the Organising Committee, together with Ina Vintges, Flemming Ettrup and Jan Nyberg; all the speakers and presenters; Kerstin Osborne, Karin Ljunggren, Ninna Widstrand and other rapporteurs. Thanks to the generosity of our Swedish colleagues the co-chairmen were able to present to all speakers and presenters a charming souvenir in the shape of a Dalecarlia horse in Swedish crystal. It was my privilege to present one of these souvenirs to P.J. van Swigchem, chairman of the IFLA Public Libraries Section 12

Committee, and Chairman too of the Organising Committee. Without his inspiration, enthusiasm and persistence, the Seminar might never have taken place so, without his permission, I take the liberty of dedicating this volume to him. K.C. HARRISON Editor Co-chairman of the Seminar

13

Library policy in a community with a population regression caused by diminishing industry by Anna-Maria Kylberg* "A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going, is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built on sand" Dorothy L. Sayers in "Creed or chaos"

The very word "Policy" can also be read POLITICAL SAGACITY (Concise Oxford English Dictionary) and where in the world - the library world - do you find political sagacity in the consideration of library policies? In Sweden we have had plenty of policy discussions of late. But it has mostly been librarians' discussions and has not involved political debate at Parliamentary level. We have, as you probably know, no Public Libraries Act in our country. Bibliotekstjänst, our library service bureau, has however gathered some examples of programmes for public libraries in a booklet (Program for Bibliotek, Lund 1975, Biblioteksdebatt). These examples are meant to be the bases for further policy debates all over Sweden. They have been very useful for those cultural committees or library boards which so far have no written policy. Libraries get a reasonable amount of taxpayers' money and it seems reasonable that the aims and purposes of institutions getting nearly 800 million Swedish crowns in working capital should be clearly outlined. Where in the world of trade can you spend 800 millions without having a clear-cut definition of the purpose of your expenditure? SWEDISH C U L T U R A L POLICY GOALS " T h e question is", said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things". " T h e question is", said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - thats all" (Lewis Carroll). From Fact Sheets on Sweden published by the Swedish Institute you can read about today's policy debate in our country. I will outline the goals in eight points: Cultural policy shall - help protect freedom of expression and create genuine opportunities to utilize this freedom - provide people with the chance to carry out their own their own creative activities and encourage contacts between people * Director, Landskrona Public Library, Landskrona, Sweden.

14

- counteract the negative effects of commercialism in the cultural sphere - further a decentralization of activities and decision-making functions in the cultural sphere - be designed with regard to the experiences and needs of disadvantaged groups - facilitate artistic and cultural innovation - guarantee that the cultural heritages of earlier periods are preserved and kept alive - further the exchange of experience and ideas in the cultural sphere over linguistic and national boundaries. These eight points of our official cultural policy make fine reading. They can, however, be hard to fulfil by local authorities without library legislation to back them up. At present it is up to the local authority to decide the library policy for its community. How do these points - these official assumptions - apply to a minor city like Landskrona? LANDSKRONA Landskrona has today 37,451 inhabitants and a large percentage of the population is over 65 years of age (1979/6,400 over 65 years of age). Landskrona is a modern industrial city, situated almost opposite Copenhagen with the small island of Ven in between. During the 15th century, Landskrona used to be one of the large cities of Scania (Skâne). Malmö to the south, Heisingborg to the north and Lund southeastward, could compete with Landskrona in size during the Danish ruling period, but when Scania became Swedish in 1658 by the peace of Roskilde, Landskrona became the capital of Skâne. (Some people still think it is! or rather that it should be! ) In 1800 it was the second biggest town in the district. Today, with shipbuilding declining, several other industries on the verge of closing down and even the characteristic blue and white ferries between Landskrona - Tuborg (Copenhagen) in danger of being moved down to Malmö, the future looks dark. All these facts cause a population regression that can be fatal. The harbour and the central situation at Öresund together with the city being very attractive and with several idyllic parts preserved make me sure however, that it will expand again, but we certainly have some tough years ahead of us.

15

LANDSKRONA PUBLIC LIBRARY Landskrona public library today consists of a very old-fashioned main library, much too small for a city of its size (800 m 2 when we should have 4,500 m 2 to be able to maintain proper library service) - 9 branches but no bookmobiles. We administer a library at our hospital and serve as consultants to the local government library in our town hall. We share the staff with the hospital library as well as with the governmental library. Our working capital is 3,414.000 Swedish crowns (1979). Our staff consists of 10 librarians (7 full time), 11 clerks and about 20 persons on an hourly pay-roll scheme. We have three branches integrated with school libraries, one is situated in the same building as a home for old people, one is on the island of Ven and our newest branch is in the same building as an after school home for schoolchildren and a recreation centre. One of our oldest branches is situated in the annexe of a school on the second floor with a sign in the window way up above a fire escape. You can hardly see the usual flight of stairs - hidden as it is behind the corner. An old lady had heard about the nearby library and you could see her standing outside looking up at the big sign behind the steep and narrow fire escape. She was standing quite still - then she sighed and you could hear her say - "Well - no - I give up! " The road to culture sometimes appears to be impassable. LIBRARY BOARD Our library board (we are among the few communities still having a library board - generally the libraries are governed by a cultural committee) consists of 14 politicians chosen from the local political parties in an election every third year. On our library board it is the Social Democratic Party that holds the majority with 5 ordinary members and three deputies, two from the Liberal Party (one ordinary and one deputy) two are from the Centre Party (one ordinary one and deputy) and two are ordinary members from the Conservative Party. This library board is responsible for the library to the local government. The library director serves as a secretary at the board meeting and at the working committee meetings. The working committee consists of the chairman, the vice-chairman, one representative of the ordinary board members and the library director. The union representatives are since the MBL - the law which grants the right to codetermination - informed on everything that goes on in the library board and no resolutions can be passed until the representatives of the unions' have been informed. If they are not satisfied with the intentions they can negotiate with 16

the library board. The library board has however the political responsibility and of course they can decide against the unions' intentions when it comes to political questions. To take an example: If the board wants to give priority to library service to children - then it is their political right to suggest it and to decide that a larger amount of the working capital should be spent on, for instance, children's books. The union representatives can of course disagree but it is the decision of the library board that overrides in this case. " T H E CULTURAL REVOLUTION STARTS IN THE COMMUNITY." The director of our local museum Sven Β Ek has written a book with the above-mentioned title. He stresses how important it is to start your "political sagacity" at home. That you know what aims and purposes you have with your cultural policy and how important it is for the vitality of cultural life that you have a museum and a library taking an active part in everyday life with a close connection to the people living and working in the community. I must say that our local museum - in spite of a shortage of funds - tries very hard to follow this rule. I am afraid the library has not so far found its real place in the life of the people of Landskrona. We have been "short of dragons" and our castle has been too small and too much covered with ivy. Heaven help us that it won't turn out to be poisonous! We circulate about 7.5 media per capita in our community and that is below the average. It might be that the increase of unemployed people will also cause an increase in patrons using their library and new patrons finding their way to their library. We know however that this could mean the need of more media and more staff and our long-time budget does not allow us more than 5 % increase during 1980-1984 which, in fact, means a decrease in our service capacity. ELECTION YEAR This year is election year for the communities as well as for the parliament. A new main library building is on some of the programmes of the local political parties. The Centre Party and the Liberal Party mention it in their written policies and so does the Social Democratic Party, but none of them give it priority. They all stress the need of a new main library as a necessary basis of decentralized library service that will even reach the outskirts of the community. The Centre Party has almost a whole page in their policy programme about the necessity of a well planned spacious main library as well as a bookmobile to support the branches. 17

The Liberal Party talks about the need for an increase of library resources and the need for a main library building as well as better branches and a bookmobile. The Social Democratic Party (the ruling party for more than forty years in our community) gives the library - a main library building - high priority but not as high as the members of the library board had wished. In times of unemployment it is understandable that the largest party for the workers has other priorities. It could, however, prove useful to be able to show prospective industrial immigrants, that the community is willing to invest in cultural institutions as well as in recreation centres. People from communities with a well-equipped library system know how very valuable a modern adequate library is. They claim it to be their legitimate right to get this service also when they move to another community. LOCAL BUILDING COMMITTEE One year ago a working committee was established to investigate the library localities needed in our community. On this committee are politicians, building engineering experts, architects, union representatives, representatives from the community council with myself as secretary. The Chairperson is the chairman of our library board. So far we have got two architects working on designs. One of them you will meet in Landskrona where he and one of his colleagues will talk to you about what they find important in library policy in a minor city. It is of the utmost importance that the politicians as well as the staff have definite opinions about how they want the library to function in the community. Then I believe there can be a fruitful and useful discussion. The architects will call their lecture " T H E LIBRARY - THE HEART OF THE MINI CITY". SCHOOL LIBRARIES - CHILDREN'S LIBRARIES The training of professional staff for public - as well as for school libraries is maintained by the College of Librarianship. I will not dwell upon this matter but if you are interested you can read more about it in a pamphlet published by the Swedish Institute and written by Greta Renborg. (Current Sweden, No 146 January 1977, Stockholm.) I will however mention the fact that the courses for school librarians have been shorter than those for public librarians and that our school libraries in the middle-grade schools are handled by teachers with shorter courses in school librarianship. For school libraries within higher educational institutions we nowadays mainly have librarians with a more professional education. Almost every school in our country has some kind of school library service. This service can indeed be of varied quality. 18

As in many other countries, our politicians have found it profitable to integrate the public library with the school library. The integration must be to the benefit of both types of libraries. If one of the libraries does not get a fair deal out of the integration I must say - leave it as soon as possible. I have seen too many discouraging examples of how the very idea of the open easy access library for the general public has been totally destroyed by an unfortunately situated integrated library. If it functions well I think that especially in the smaller communities an integration can or rather might give you a better library. SCHOOL LIBRARY C O O P E R A T I O N IN L A N D S K R O N A We do have, as I told you before, three libraries integrated with school libraries. Two of them function - but the third, situated in an old school building on the second floor, we intend to leave as soon as possible. (We have already left one school library integration and put the books into a recreation centre instead.) We have a new branch planned in a housing project centre - but because of the population regression this centre will not be built until at the beginning of 1990. If we had a bookmobile we would have closed this branch a long time ago and put a bookmobile in its place - but for the library board of "yesterday" - bookmobile seemed to be a "dirty" word so nowadays - even with a changed library policy - we sometimes talk about "mobile units" instead of using the word bookmobile. The library board has together with the staff decided on a bookmobile in our long term budget for 1981. MEDIA POLICY When it comes to buying media - the school library centre and the public library have established the same policy. We meet with the school librarians twice every semester and discuss mutual problems. One of the first things we agreed upon was to have the same media policy. We avoid buying " t r a s h " and we don't say any more that as long as the children read we are happy - we also discuss what they read. READING PROJECT In cooperation with a teacher for the middlegrades - our children's librarian has a reading project going on. This project also includes the parents and the results so far have aroused an immense interest from the newspapers as well as from the professional journals. The policy for this project has been the importance of stressing the necessity of completely mastering a language. This project has been running for two years now and some children have improved their reading ability remarkably. T h e 19

teacher has more or less thrown away the text books and uses children's books instead during the lessons. The children come to the library whenever they feel like it and now and again the librarian visits them in their classroom. T h e pupils themselves have arranged meetings with authors and we have had "Saturdays with authors" in the main library arranged by the pupils and their parents. Some of the children still read trash, however, but at least they seem to be aware o f it. They also know something about the power of commercialism behind the publishing of this trash, and they can discuss what they read, and sometimes even why! The most interesting result in this project however is the growing participation of their parents in the reading circles. The result so far goes to show important it must be to give libraries and schools joint resources for projects like this one. It must be of the utmost importance to library boards and cultural committees to form a definite policy in these questions if they want to give priority to these projects. It is also important that the staff in the public library have discussed and agreed upon priorities, thus avoiding unnecessary conflicts within the staff in other fields of library work. We have that conflict in our library right now and we have not as yet found a satisfactory solution to it. T h e library board intends, however, to talk these priority questions over with the staff, and it will be necessary for the board to define their political opinions in these matters in order to create a good climate for a much more detailed policy for the coming long term budget period. PRE-SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC L I B R A R Y The pre-schools are mostly provided with media through the public library. Some communities have employed full time children's librarians for library service to the pre-schools. T h e public library very often has an advisory committee of pre-school teachers and librarians. The pre-schools operate mainly under the social welfare authorities in Sweden. Thus the public libraries and not the school libraries have the responsibility for the provision of library media to the pre-schools. In our community a certain, but not yet very defined, collaboration exists between the social welfare council and the library board. We get some money, tor instance, for media provision to the pre-schools and we have a certain collaboration when it comes to puppet-theatres and other activities aimed at the pre-school children. We are by no means a good example of collaboration, rather the opposite. Here again it must be a question of getting the welfare council as well as the library board to discuss a policy for the cooperation.

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How you divide the resources is a political decision in our community. Even here such a decision must have been preceded by discussions on staff level at the institutions concerned. AV-MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Part of my own philosophy is that AV-media of all kinds, which we use in the public libraries, should be handled just the same as printed material. That would mean that all grades of staff working in a library, know how to handle this material. It must also mean that non-printed material should be integrated on the shelves in the adult as well as in the children's department. I also know that in reality this just won't work in a public library today. Most libraries today, at least in European countries, lend out records, cassettes, slides or other media of the non-print kind. Thay also have facilities for using these media within the library. But I do believe that an increasing number of public libraries stress the lending of these media. Children's libraries in Sweden have been pioneers in the field of service with non-print material. Most children's libraries provide TV-viewing, music listening, slide shows or video shows. Very few however lend out videocassettes. It is much more common for instance that the pre-school children go to the library to look at videoprogrammes than it is that the pre-school have their own videoplayers. In Sweden about twenty libraries provide the public with picturelending (artotek). Film libraries nowadays do not usually belong to the public library. They are very often handled by the so called AV-centrals. These AV-centrals used to serve only schools, but during the last years, they have also taken to helping institutions like the public library with technical assistance. For instance it is rather common that the AV-centrals take care of the education of the library staff in AV-media. Within the copyright laws they also help the library to copy cassettes, or records to cassettes. They also take care of the maintenance of the hardware at the library. It happens that they handle the talking books: rewinding, mending and so forth. The direct contact with the patrons is however a task of the library. Almost every community has an AV-central but I am afraid they are of varied quality as they get their funds from the school authorities. About 75 % of our communities have some kind of phonographic service in their public libraries. In 1976 public libraries in Sweden had about 370,000 music records or cassettes and about 100,000 talking books. No policy lead is given at national level concerning AV-media in public libraries. The education in these media is rather poor at our College of 21

Librarianship. The National Cultural Committee does not have any experts in this field. The Swedish Library Asociation however has a group working with AV-media in libraries serving the general public. All this has created uncertainty in the communities that have become more and more unlucky in these times of poor financial conditions and it has become a very difficult task to select these media to a more media conscious and demanding public. This uncertainty in policy questions has caused a serious set-back in our aim to develop a sensible media service to our public. AV-MEDIA IN L A N D S K R O N A In our community we have a badly equipped, understaffed but very serviceminded AV-central. Coming from a community (Hälsingborg, where I also live) having one of the best AV-centrals in the country it is a handicap and a serious set-back not being able to provide the public with this necessary service. It is also much more expensive not having a service central in your own community but having to use private firms very often outside the community borders in order to make repairs and maintenance on your hardware as well as on your software. We have started on a very small basis but as long as the city fathers (and sometime even mothers) have no policy whatsoever in this matter it is almost impossible to get the proper funds for a reasonable collaboration. Music

library

The library used to have a music library with listening facilities but the hardware was so badly handled (unqualified staff) and the room so dreary to sit in that we have changed it into a reading room. We did however keep one record player and one cassette recorder (recently stolen) in order to give music circles the possibilities of using some items of our 2,500 excellent record collection. The technical quality of these records is however not very good. In four of our branches we do have listening facilities, mostly aimed at preschool groups. We lend out some records, but they get damaged so very soon that they destroy good playing equipment after a time. That is why we now mostly buy cassettes for lending purposes. Talking books for blind people By far the largest amount of our AV-media budget is spent on talking books (cassettes). We also lend talking books from our county library and from the National Library for the Blind.

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Language courses Today all our libraries can provide patrons with language courses - mostly on cassettes - but we have records as well as tapes. The policy has been to buy courses for immigrants who need to learn Swedish but today we can also provide language courses in minority languages mainly through interurban lending facilities. Microfilm/fiche An ever growing crowd of hobby genealogists use our microfilm readers a great deal. The industrial coippanies in our communities are also frequent users of these machines especially the ones that borrow research reports in order to find information about alternative productions. The library board has up to now had no policy concerning AV-media in Landskrona public library. They have given priority to printed material so far but I hope that a policy discussion during the coming year will change this. They certainly cannot blame the lack of background reading since I entered the premises three years ago - but these matters take time to discuss. In future AV-media will definitely play a more important role in libraries serving the general public. In our country the video will play an important role in the years to come. In this world, so rapidly becoming dependent upon minicomputers and satellites, it must be of vital importance for the public library to get a fair chance to serve as "a mediator among the media" if we, the outsiders of technology, shall have a chance to understand and prevent ourselves from being manipulated by a technocratic upper class. THE EIGHT POINTS OF CULTURAL POLICY IN A LANDSKRONA SETTING Let us for a moment turn back to the goals of cultural policy summarized in the eight points and see how they imply on the cultural policy in our community. 1 ) Does the library help to protect freedom of speech and create the necessary conditions for this freedom to be exploited? Together with our museum and other institutions we arrange a larger variety of activities. Many of them are made for and by our immigrants. I have also pointed out to you the project which concerns itself with the importance of mastering a language. A media policy that allows all kinds of opinions to be expressed through a variety of media is very important indeed.

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2) D o we offer people opportunities for creative activity of their own and do we promote contacts between people? Well, here again collaboration with other institutions will be necessary. W e do not employ staff in the libraries to arrange creative activities - but we very often initiate these activities. We provide localities, media and sometimes material for such activities. Mainly we aim these activities towards pre-school children. Story hours for immigrant children, for instance. Story hours including other activities as well, are frequent. We have arranged story hours in Danish, Finnish, Greek, the Jugoslavian languages and Turkish. Our museum gives high priority to group activities in their programmes in order to activate people. The library very often helps the museum staff not only with media but also by providing staff for advisory purposes in the use of these media. 3) How do we combat the negative effects of commercialism in the cultural sector? Here again, we must mention the reading projects. But the important thing is that we manage to keep the library a very active and alive institution with high demands upon the media as well as upon the programmes we buy and arrange in our institutions and above all to get people interested in these media and using our library. We also have definite plans to develop library service in factories and other working places. A close collaboration with booksellers can sometimes improve the stock they offer to the public. If the public gets interested in quality media and asks for them bookstores and department stores quite naturally stock them. We have so far had several interesting experiments with selling books in the library - for instance in connection with authors' events, programmes and exhibitions. 4) How do we promote a decentralisation of activities and decision making? O f course by improving our branches. Keep them open more than what we do now and supplement the branches with a bookmobile. But as long as we do not have an efficient main library serving as a base for all this we will have difficulties fulfilling the intentions behind this point. 5) How do we consider the experiences and needs of disadvantaged groups? Outside our main library we ought to have a sign: "Handicapped people, don't bother". It is more or less impossible for a disabled person to get into the elevator and if they manage to get up to the second floor and into the library they

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will not be able to get any further, a flight of steps in front of the circulation desk puts an effective stop to this. We hope soon however to get some improvements at the main library with a larger elevator and ramps inside the lending department. With the increase of shelving that will be necessary it will become difficult to move around anyhow in the lending sections, especially if one is in a wheel-chair. The only radical solution to our problems is a new main library building. So far the library board has got it into the long term budget - but the city fathers have moved it outside the critical five-year period of the budget. It is intolerable that we can't give proper service to all members of our community. As things are we have to buy double equipment and media so that we can at least lend out some of our media for use at home. We also have to increase our so called "shut in" service. We really need to buy double our reference material but our media budget has not allowed this. We have a media budget for this year of 725,000 Swedish crowns. This is a reasonable amount but having had as little as 340,000 in 1977 and the years before you can imagine that the selection of media is not an easy task. The library board never interferes with our selection of media but the quality of the media is important to them. Our immigrants very often belong to culturally disadvantaged groups. The service to these groups is easier to handle. We have got a new branch library in the housing project where most of the immigrants live. This is by far the best equipped branch when it comes to AV-media as well as books'and other printed matter in their own languages. Together with our museum and other institutions we have managed to start a service to these groups that we hope will be fruitful in future. Those in care at institutions, we also provide with media. At the hospital and related institutions we were recently granted a part-time library position. Before that the hospital had no medical library, but the patients were provided with books twice a week from a book-trolley, and a clerk from the main library handled this service. They have also received better media resources and during the fall they will get better localities for the library at the hospital. 6) How can we make possible artistic and cultural renewal? We leave the main part of that to the museum which arranges frequent exhibitions also in our branches. We also manage to arrange our own exhibitions. By far the most we get, however comes from the National Institution for travelling exhibitions in Stockholm. 25

Our media policy also plays an important role in this connection. 7) How do we guarantee that the culture of earlier ages is preserved and brought to life? This is of course also one of the main functions of our museum. Our media policy as well as the exhibition activities we have are important in this connection. 8) We most certainly do promote and exchange experiences and ideas in the cultural sector across the national frontiers. You, ladies and gentlemen, and your visit to our town are the best examples of the fulfilment of the last point. POLICY = POLITICAL SAGACITY Will political sagacity ever become equivalent to policy in a public library setting? It is not very common that people die from cultural undernourishment and it is equally uncommon that local government politicians are culture vultures but you can at least believe in common sense? - Alice laughed. "There's no use trying", she said, "one can't believe impossible things". "I daresay you haven't had much practice", said the Queen, "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast..." - (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there)

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The public library in a changing society: The African experience by Ezekiel Eriock Kaungamno* The Unesco Public Library Manifesto, is, to my mind, an excellent philosophy about what a public library is and what it should do in a developed and developing country. Just what is the Unesco Public Library Manifesto? I will quote some of the key statements in the document to refresh our minds: " T h e public library is a practical demonstration of democracy's faith in universal education as a continuing and life long process, in the appreciation of the achievement of humanity in knowledge and culture". For it to be truly public it must fulfil some of the following conditions: "It should be maintained wholly from public funds, and no direct charge should be made to anyone for its services" " . . . the public library must be readily accessible, and its doors open for free and equal use by all members of the community regardless of race, colour, nationality, age, sex, religion, language, status or educational attainment." " . . . it should be established under the clear mandate of law, so framed to ensure nationwide provision of public library service". With regard to the resources and services to be rendered, the Manifesto states that: "Organized cooperation between libraries is essential so that total national resources should be fully used and be at the service of any reader". " T h e public library is concerned with the refreshment of man's spirit by the provision of books for relaxation and p l e a s u r e , . . . and with provision of up-to-date technical scientific and sociological information". • " T h e total collection should include material on all subjects to satisfy all tastes at differing educational and cultural backgrounds". "All languages used by a community should be represented." " T h e public library must offer to adults and children the opportunity to keep in touch with their times, to educate themselves continuously . . . " " . . .Books, periodicals, newspapers remain the most important resources of public libraries. But Science has created new forms of record and these * Director, Tanzania Library Service, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 27

will become an increasing part of the library's stock including print in reduced form for compact storage and transport, films, slides, gramophone records, audio and video t a p e . . . " "The public library building should be centrally situated, accessible to the physically handicapped, and open at times convenient to the user". "The building and its furnishings should be attractive informal and welcoming, and direct access by the readers to the shelves in essential". "Branch libraries and mobile libraries should be provided in rural and suburban areas". "Trained and competent staff in adequate numbers are vital to select and organize resources and assist u s e r s . . . " Regional seminars and conferences have been convened to discuss development of public libraries in Africa. The Unesco Seminar on Public Library Development in Africa held in Ibadan, in 1953 in Nigeria and another one in 1962 at the University of Nigeria (Enugu Campus) on the same theme (again sponsored by Unesco) laid down guidelines for library development on the continent. The 1962 Seminar's recommendations in particular are worth noting in detail as they generally reflect the public library situation in Africa to-day and what ought to be done to improve it: 1 (1) The role of the public development

library in educational,

economic

and

social

It was noted that in the newly developing nations the public library has a vital contribution to make in that through its network of service points, it can take books to a large number of people of various backgrounds. The participants noting that there were no effective public libraries made the following recommendations: (a) "Realizing the importance of the work of public libraries in the field of education in ensuring, amongst other things, that suitable reading materials are available at all levels - primary, secondary and higher and that new literates do not lapse into illiteracy through lack of reading materials, Governments should be asked to include the development of public libraries as an integral part of the general educational development plan of the country". (b) "That recognizing the value of public libraries as institutions contributing actively toward economic, social and cultural development, Governments should accept the terms of the Unesco Manifesto by providing libraries, without charge, for all members of the community"· (c) "The Seminar having noted that the extensive report of the Addis 28

Ababa Conference 2 included detailed plans for educational development in Africa but that it did not include any plans for libraries recommended the following: (i) Unesco should in future place the development of public libraries on the agendas of general educational conferences. (ii) that governments, when organizing national conferences or choosing delegates to international conferences on educational planning should make provision for competent representation of library interests. High - level librarians should be present and participate in the planning". (2) A national plan for a public library service T o make the public library really effective, it was advised that planning should be at a national level so as to provide an equal standard throughout the whole country. The Seminar was of the opinion that central control of a public library service was desirable at the initial stage of development. It was also advised that the national plan should include the following provisions: (a)

Legislation While it was realized that no single model Act would be suitable for all African countries it was recommended that legislation establishing a public library service on a national level should be enacted in all countries. It was deemed necessary to establish legally a national library board or other body responsible for the promotion of public libraries.

(b) Training of staff The Seminar realized the urgent need for sufficient and qualified library staff particularly librarians. It was therefore recommended: (i) " T h a t in view of the present shortage of qualified librarians in many African countries and of the means of training them at all levels, governments give serious consideration to the following: - the provision of scholarships for library training at existing library schools either in Africa or overseas, - the setting up of library schools in their own countries, or the pooling of their resources with other governments for the establisment of regional library schools". (ii) " T h a t considering the importance of the place of libraries in the general educational and economic development of the country and the need to attract staff of the highest quality, governments ensure that librarians are accorded guarantees of career possibilities and salaries commensurate with their qualifications and responsibilities". 29

(3) Books and related library materials The problems regarding the production, selection and acquisition of suitable publications for public libraries in Africa were also discussed. It was recommended: (a) "That considering the acute shortage of books and other related library materials suitable for public libraries in Africa, action should be taken by governments... and Unesco to support the many agencies (e.g. literature bureaux) working in the field, and to request publishers in Africa and overseas, to increase their activity in this direction." (b) That Unesco consider the production of graded lists of books suitable for African children in French, English and other languages. (4) Customs duty The Seminar reported that books and other library materials were subject to customs duties. Bearing in mind the importance of libraries in educational, scientific and cultural fields, it was recommended that governments should be requested to exempt books and other library materials, library supplies and specialized equipment from import duties and taxes. (5) Bookmobiles and branch libraries To reach the majority of people in rural areas the use of bookmobiles and branch libraries was found necessary. The Seminar noted that it was essential to conduct a population survey before deciding what areas should be served by branch libraries and which should be served by bookmobiles. The meeting recommended that the development of branch libraries should take place only when there was a good central library service on which to base it. (6) Finance The Seminar noted that the financial position of African countries was the limiting factor in the development of public libraries. The following standards were recommended: (a) "That whatever public library service were to be established in African countries in 1963 an initial expenditure of about $ 4,300 (US dollars) per 1/2 million inhabitants was the minimum sum required. (b) By 1970 the annual expenditure on public library services should have been about 1 per cent of the annual expenditure in the country on education and (c) By 1980 about 2 per cent of such expenditure 30

(d) Those African countries whose annual average per capital income is less than $ 100 should aim to spend on public library service (i) by 1970 about 2 per cent of the annual expenditure in the country on education and (ii) by 1980 about 4 per cent of such expenditure. THE WIND OF CHANGE Since these recommendations were made in 1962, there have been some improvements although not as many as one would wish. Many of the recommendations have not yet been implemented by the governments concerned. In this respect, therefore, the Unesco Public Library Manifesto has not been fully implemented. However it should be borne in mind that the history of library movement in Africa is comparatively short. 3 In 1953 when the Ibadan Seminar was organized, out of the twenty-nine librarians and educators who participated in the seminar only eight were Africans. Politically, most of the African population was under colonial rule. During 1962 the only welldeveloped public library services were those of Eastern Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. As far as training of librarians is concerned, there were library schools in Ghana and Nigeria only. Ghana (then Gold Coast) which passed the first legislation in developing Africa (1949) has influenced many African countries. With the passage of similar legislation in Eastern Nigeria (1955), Sierra Leone (1959), Tanzania (1963) Uganda (1964) and Kenya (1965) the public movement spread across the continent. Many other independent African countries have enacted legislation to establish national library services. Some progress has also been made in library education and manpower planning. The 1972 Unesco Statistical Year Book indicated that there were 1,207 full time librarians. The increase in the number of trained librarians is due partly to the increase in library schools. Since 1962 library schools have been established in Senegal, Uganda, Ethiopia and Zambia. Plans for additional library schools are under way in Tanzania and Kenya. The NATIS

Concept

Beginning around 1970 a new conceptual framework which has affected the public library has been developed in planning as indicated in the deliberations the following meetings: The Meeting of Experts on Planning of Documentation and Library Services in Africa - Kampala, Uganda 7-15 December 19704 31

This meeting, convened by Unesco, was concerned mainly with evolving principles for national planning of documentation and library services in African countries in relation to social, economic and educational plans. "Documentation" and "integrated planning" were given great emphasis. Two of the major recommendations made in thus respect were that: 1. (a) While it is recognized that patterns of organization of library and information services will of necessity differ from one country to another, early steps be taken in each country to create a single national body, backed by the necessary legislation, with responsibility for the planning and development of a fully integrated national library and information systems. (b) That such bodies should be responsible to one minister who would act as its spokesman in the body politic. Their membership should be fully representative of all agencies requiring the provision of library and information services and of all government ministries concerned, including planning and finance. 2. Every effort be made by Unesco to ensure that no rigid distinction between libraries and documentation centres are introduced into Africa since documentation services are an integral part of all library and information services. The International Conference on the Development of Documentation and Information Networks in East Africa - Nairobi, Kenya 24th July - 1st August 19735 Organized by the then East African Academy in cooperation with the German Foundation for International Development (DSE) and with the assistance of Unesco, the Conference discussed ways and means of stimulating a rapid development in documentation in the East Africa region. The main recommendations adopted by the Conference included the following: (a) Recognizing the importance of empirical information and data in the process of economic and social development in developing countries, the conference recommends that governments of developing countries should urgently formulate national documentation policies and integrate policies in the national development plans. (b) That each national government should create or cause the creation of an information unit in each Ministry, statutory body and other specialized institutions, to collect, evaluate, process and disseminate information in collaboration with a central agency in the same country. (c) That a national documentation centre be created in each country with key functions of 32

(i) Coordinating the work of all documentation centres providing information in specific subject areas and geographical regions. (ii) Collecting data and information on on-going and completed research as well as development projects and providing information in those areas. (d) that a government or government chartered body be created to guide, stimulate and coordinate all information services and to establish national information priorities.

Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives infrastructures - Paris, 23rd - 27th September 19746 The N A T I S (National Information System) concept was accepted at the Paris conference. During this meeting Unesco's member States resolved that libraries, documentation centres and archives, which are indispensable sources of information, ought to be planned in a coordinated manner to avoid duplication of resources and to maximize the use of all relevant information vital for the social and economic development o f a country. After the Paris conference, regional expert meetings were convened as followups of the implementation of the N A T I S concept. T h e deliberations of following two meetings are important:

Conference of African Librarians - Accra, Ghana 22nd - 26th September 19757 This conference which was organized by the Ghana Library Board and the Ghana Library Association, with assistance from Unesco had the followiing objectives: (a) to bring librarians in Black Africa together to participate in the celebration of Ghana Library Board's 25th Anniversary. (b) to review library developments within that period and (c) to discuss and draw up a blueprint for library developments and prospects of the future in Africa. The participants having noted that the concept of N A T I S had been accepted by Member States of Unesco recommended, among other things, the following: (a) For N A T I S to operate in practice, National Information Systems Commissions should be established in all African countries to plan its objectives. (b) The National Information Systems Commission should be composed of librarians, archivists, documentalists, information scientists, user agencies and all other bodies interested in the dissemination or information. The conference also endorsed the principles of the U N I S I S T (World Science Information System) programme which will enable African countries to benefit from scientific and technical information badly needed for development. 33

Meeting of Experts on Planning Documentation and Library Networks Africa, Brazzaville - People's Republic of Congo, 5th-l 7th July 1976s

in

This meeting which was organized by Unesco in cooperation with the Government of the People's Republic of Congo had the following objectives: (a) to examine recent efforts made by African Member states, to plan and develop their national information systems ( N A T I S ) (b) to make recommendations for the creation of networks of documentation and library services adapted to rapidly evolving needs of African users. The participants endorsed the recommendations and objectives put forward at the Kampala Meeting, the Intergovernmental Conference in Paris and the Accra Conference. The recommendations of all these conferences show what course of action the public library ought to take and the dilemma facing it. Apart from providing normal basic services, the public library has to render sophisticated services to cope with the 20th century global library and information trends. The level and kind of basic servies provided in Africa now are for lack of funds and manpower, probably similar to those which were offered by developed countries a century ago. A t the same time, some African countries expect their public libraries to provide sophisticated services similar to those given by, say, the Library of Congress, the British Library, or the Lenin State Library. This is a great dilemma which can be compromised by striking the right balance - a very difficult task indeed. The provision of library services to rural areas for example, should be fundamental in all public libraries as is the provision of documentation service to planners, decision makers and administrators. I will elaborate this point: Rural library services in Africa are vital mainly because: (a) Peasants, who constitute the majority of the population of most African countries live in rural areas. T o enable a country to develop, rural people must change their life style because they play a crucial role in development. (b) Agriculture is the backbone of the economics of African countries. It is therefore crucial that food production should increase at a faster rate than that of population if economic development is to take place. (c) The political stability of African countries depends in part on the satisfaction of the needs of peasants, otherwise disastrous revolutions are bound to occur. T o be effective, rural library services must be planned to complement adult education programmes, particularly functional literacy projects. Rural libraries should provide follow up reading materials so that neoliterates do not relapse into illiteracy. If such rural services are administered successfully they will

34

probably have the biggest political impact and, public libraries will, as a result, get more funds from Governments. The provision of documentation services to decision makers, planners and administrators is also necessary even though they form, comparatively speaking, a small percentage of the population in African countries. One of the reasons why libraries in general, and public libraries in particular, are not given the recognition they deserve, is because they do not provide decision makers, planners and administrators with information they require. No wonder these top-level people, do not appreciate the public library's role in development; hence the inadequate funds provided for libraries. It is vital that top management should receive quickly just that vital information which it needs to reach its decisions. The delivery of relevant and reliable information in good time is crucial for making the right dicision. If an administrator makes a decision without appropriate information, he guesses. He gambles with government funds at his disposal and the end result is a waste of the meagre resources. In order, therefore, for the public library of today to perform its traditional services as well as new ones (e.g. documentation) there is need to integrate library and documentation services in its structure. This integration must be clearly reflected in organization charts. Public libraries ought to provide documentation services in cooperation with other types of libraries. Documentation is not the task of special libraries or documentation centres only. The field of knowledge is so vast that all types of libraries can disseminate information in mutually agreed disciplines or subjects of specialization. The integration of library and documentation services is a necessary change that a public library ought to accept if it is going to play a significant role in development and if it is going to be recognized. By doing so it will also be implementing the suggestions put forward in the Unesco Manifesto.

References 1. Unesco, "Regional Seminar on the development or public libraries in Africa" Unesco Bulletin for Libraries supplement to Vol. XVII No. 2. March - April 1963. pp. 106— 118

2. Final Report of the Conference Africa 15-25 May, 1961.

of African States on the development

of Education

in

3. Isnard, F.L. "The development of libraries in Africa, six years after the Enugu Seminar". Unesco Bulletin for libraries vol. XXII No. 5 September - October 1968. pp. 241-246. 4. Unesco. Expert Meeting on National Planning of Documentation and Library services in Africa. Final Report. Kampala, Uganda 7-15 December, 1970. COM/MD/18.

35

5. German Foundation for International Development. Development of Documentation and Information Networks in East Africa. Nairobi. 24 July—1 August 1973. 6. Unesco. Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Library and Archives Infrastructure. Paris. 23-27 September. 1974. Final Report 1975. C O M / M D / 3 0 .

Documentation,

7. Ghana Library Board. "Future of Library systems in Africa" Conference on African Librarians. Accra, Ghana 22-26 September 1975. 8. Unesco. Meeting of Experts on Planning Documentation and Library Network in Africa (NATIS). Brazzaville, Peoples Republic of Congo 5-10 July 1976. Final Report CC-76/ CONF. 610/4.

36

Public libraries in a changing society by Barry Totterdell* I want in this paper to look at the purpose of the public library in the light of the diverse social and political conditions within which it may be required to operate, and in particular in the light of the rapid societal changes endemic in the modern world. Is there a single definable immutable purpose for the public library which can stand for all situations? It is true that librarians have constantly tried to distil the essence of the public library, and the Unesco Public Library Manifesto is a fine example of the sort of consensus that may emerge. The Manifesto proclaims " Unesco's belief in the public library as a living force for education, culture and information, and as an essential agent for the fostering of peace and understanding between people and between nations. " T h e public library is a practical demonstration of democracy's faith in universal education as a continuing and lifelong process, in the appreciation of the achievement of humanity in knowledge and culture. " T h e public library is the principal means whereby the record of man's thoughts and ideas, and the expression of this creative imagination, are made freely available to all. " T h e public library is concerned with the refreshment of man's spirit by the provision of books for relaxation and pleasure, with assistance to the student, and with provision of up-to-date technical, scientific and sociological information". The British Library Association has seen the public library service as one of the forces "capable of enriching the human personality and of preventing the degradation of the individual into a functional unit", and of helping people to become "balanced, integrated and satisfied individuals, useful and consciously valuable and responsible citizens". 1 Similar statements are frequently incorporated in national legislation or in official declarations of library purpose often found as preambles to standards of provision or service. The Danish Public Libraries Act, for example, defines the purpose of the libraries as " t o promote the spread of knowledge, education and culture". 2 In France, the Working Party which investigated public library services and reported, under the chairmanship of M. Etienne Dennery, in 1968, referred to the state's duty to "provide for every citizen access to works, the reading of which can be pleasant or useful in enriching his personality and preparing him in a better way for his role in society". 3 * Chief librarian, Brent Public Libraries, London, England 37

But how do such attempts at defining purpose match up to the needs of those responsible for planning and developing library services? The first question to be asked is " W h o s e should be the task of defining purpose?" This may well depend on the particular structure of finance and control of public library services, but at the very least raises fundamental questions about the role of librarians. Are they passive intermediaries between a body of knowledge and ideas and those who require access to this, active disseminators o f such knowledge and ideas, or - at opposite extremes - subversive or anarchistic protagonists of freedom of expression, regardless of consequences, or guardians of a set of rigidly defined and acceptable "truths"? One thing is clear: the user will generally have his own view of the library's purpose, will translate that view into action in the way he makes use of the service, and will be oblivious of serious and well-intentioned official attempts to define purpose such as those I have quoted. Secondly, how often do these statements of purpose reflect the real intentions of those responsible for library services? We must certainly be on our guard lest we find ourselves paying lip-service to a set of ideals while in reality imposing our own values and judgements on the services we administer. A third question is that of definition. I would claim that in most instances the grandiose statement of purpose is not so much an aim or goal to work towards, but a rationale or justification for public library services. There is, of course, much benefit in the statements for this purpose alone, and those o f us who believe in all that the public library movement stands for or can achieve have a responsibility to point out the benefits we believe will accrue to society from a well-developed public library service. In the United Kingdom, the Public Libraries Research Group - an independent body of practising librarians, researchers and library school lecturers published in 1971 as a discussion document, a statement on aims and objectives. The aim of the public library was expressed as being " t o contribute to sustaining the quality of life in all its aspects - educational, economic, industrial, scientific and cultural, and promote the concept of a democratic society, in which equal opportunity exists for all to develop into true citizens with whole and balanced personalities leading to an increase in the sum total of man's happiness and awareness of himself, his fellow men and his environment". 4 Since then the Group have moved away from the concept of an overall purpose, but recognise that service objectives will most usefully be set by each library authority. Instead, they have produced the following "value statement": " I t is beneficial to society for all, and any, of its members to have easy access to knowledge and ideas, such access contributes to the quality of life in all its aspects and is essential to a democratic society.

38

The public library exists to provide this access either directly, or through other resources and agencies. Because the benefits are general to society as much as specific to the individual it is legitimate for this service to be publicly financed. A publicly provided service also helps to ensure that minority interests will be protected. The public library will provide and promote the use of services that are relevant to the expressed and unexpressed needs of the community and of identifiable and specific groups within the community. The functions of the public library are to collect, store, organise and communicate information and ideas in whatever medium is most appropriate for their presentation. Public libraries with reference to local communities will develop their own order of priority for the services offered and the groups and individuals served." It is intended that this value statement should be linked with locally produced service objectives which would in turn be related to a set of performance measures. This leads me to another key problem in attempting to adopt and use overall statements of purpose. Does not the concept of objective setting carry with it the requirement to be able to measure progress in meeting such objectives? Let us examine some of the concepts already quoted and see how far it could be possible to measure success or otherwise in achieving such objectives. Can one easily recognise a true citizen with a whole and balanced personality or measure increases in the sum total of man's happiness? Can one count the "balanced, integrated and satisfied individuals" among one's clientèle (do we even want a society of balanced, integrated and satisfied individuals? But that's another question). Can we ever measure the public libraries' contribution to the "fostering of peace and understanding between people and nations"? It may be helpful to consider first the role of the public library service, which is clearly that of communication - whether of ideas, thoughts, knowledge, experience or information. Because the ideas or information to be communicated vary with time and place, as do the other agencies and media concerned with communication, the objectives of the library cannot be too closely defined, but will be to meet whatever needs are relevant to its role and are appropriate to the requirements of its particular community. Even this approach begs a number of questions, the most important of which is the definition of "community". Within the U K over the past few years there has been a growing interest in "community librarianship" and some attempts are being made to reorganise public library services on a "community orientated" basis. Behind this is a recognition that public library services are for all, not only for the better educated, more affluent "middle class" minority from whom the service has tended to draw its clientèle, but also for the less 39

literate, the disadvantaged, those who are perhaps less book-orientated but whose need for information and for life-enrichment may be greater. There is recognition also that if the library is to be responsive to community needs then its involvement with the community must be much greater. It is no longer sufficient to simply provide a service, stock it and staff it, and to say, in effect, "come and get it". The barriers to many are too great - physical, psychological, conceptual. To make the public library truly accessible it is necessary to make it an integral part of community life. But what do we mean by "community"? The dictionary definition is of people living in the same locality or with common race, religion or interests. Often, librarians see the most effective way of gaining entrée into communities being through involvement with organised groups or societies. This is perfectly understandable since, whatever the common ties which link individual members of any community, it is likely that differences between individuals are more significant than those ties, and it is incredibly difficult to attempt to relate a broadly based public service to the needs of large numbers of heterogeneous individuals. I would argue, however, that this is precisely what the public library should be doing, and this is the theme which I want to explore during the last part of this paper, and in particular the conflict between the needs of the individual and those of society. This has not always been regarded as a conflict, and, just as the library of an organisation is intended to serve the ends of that organisation, and of individual users only in so far as their stated demands coincide with those ends, so the purpose of the public library has often been seen in terms of society's needs, rather than those of its individual citizens. At various stages in its history the public library has been seen as a means of preserving order in society and of deflecting possible revolutionary foment, as a means of increasing industrial productivity through the education of the working class or as "bulwark of democracy" providing the common man with all the information he needed to make informed democratic decisions and thus to assist the successful working of self-government. Within the past year I have been faced with a very real dilemma in the planning of my own library service. The area for which I am responsible (one of 32 London boroughs) contains probably the largest proportion of population belonging to minority ethnic groups of any local authority in Britain. Out of a population of 250,000 there are, for example, some 40,000 immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, the overwhelming majority of whom have a mother tongue other than English, and many of whom are unable to read or write English. Clearly there is a great need for special provision of books and other material in Asian languages and to be effective this would need to be on a scale proportionate to expenditure on English language material for the indigenous population. Strong arguments were, however, made to me that to make special, separate provision would be to perpetuate cultural and language barriers and 40

thus to feed racial tension. For the sake of harmony within society we should be encouraging immigrant communities to become familiar with English language and culture and to do all we can to speed up the process of assimilation. I rejected these arguments because I felt that we had to place the real needs of individual people first, and I am pleased to say that my local authority has supported me. We now have three specialist librarians in post and have increased our expenditure on Asian language materials twentyfold. Public librarians are committed to the free and full availability of information to all citizens as a basic component of a democratic society, but armed with the right information, the individual may challenge the power and decisions of the authority which, through the library service, gave access to that information in the first place. Most public library authorities would agree that there were some categories of material which should be denied to users, whatever their personal need, because of supposed harm which might accrue to society at large if access were allowed. Should potential terrorists learn how to make explosives from books or articles? How far should books which challenge the established sexual or religious mores be place in people's hands at public expense? To what extent should readers be allowed access to ideas which may threaten the very fabric of society? Wherever censorship is imposed it is usually because the needs of the individual are seen to clash with those of society. I would personally be unhappy to see librarians imposing a greater degree of censorship than that imposed by the law of the land, and I would always campaign towards a position where the law allowed the minimum possible degree of censorship of the printed word. But the greatest conflict between the needs of the individual and of society probably comes about from economic factors. It is likely that practically every public library service in the world is suffering from some shortage of resources and thus decisions have to be made on the ordering of priorities. Such decisions must be made in the light of the often urgent and pressing needs of a particular society in particular economic and political conditions. Recreational reading as an escape and relaxation from the pressures and conflicts of life; the pursuit of leisure interests and the enrichment of these from books; music as a means of life-enhancement; self-actualization through reading as an intellectual process - these are examples of legitimate needs which the public library should attempt to satisfy. In the developing countries, however, basic eduction could be of such significance that the library's vital role in this could take precedence over all others. I want to plead, however, that nowhere, at any stage along the road, should the importance of response to the needs of individuals be overlooked. At the beginning of this paper I asked "Is there a single definable immutable purpose for the public library which can stand for all situations?" I believe there is, and that it is the improvement, enrichment and fulfilment of the lives, through satisfaction of a whole range of inter-related needs, of individual men, women 41

and children. Whatever changes may come about in society, and however rapid they may be, that purpose and those needs remain.

References 1. THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. The public library service: its post-war organization and development. London, 1943. 2. The Danish Public Libraries Act, 1964. Copenhagen, Bibliotekstilsynet. 1965 3. Bulletin de Bibliothèques de France, 3 (March 1968), pp. 105-134. 4. PUBLIC LIBRARY RESEARCH GROUP. Public library aims and objectives in Library Association Record, 73 (12) Dec. 1971.

42

The BUMS system in Sweden by Göran Rosman* We have gathered together to discuss the impact of automation on Swedish public libraries. Staffanstorp is one of the 20 municipalities in the country that have introduced an automatic data processing system. The system is called BUMS, which is an acronym for Bibliotekstjänsts Circulation and Media Control System and at the same time a Swedish expression meaning "right away, at once". When pronounced as an English word it has, of course, quite another meaning. It began to be developed ten years ago and was first put into use in a Swedish public library about five years ago. When it comes to the development of a national EDP system for libraries, special conditions exist in Sweden. First, Swedish public libraries function in a similar manner. They share common rules for cataloguing and classifying, and lending procedures are set up along similar lines. Secondly Sweden has Bibliotekstjänst, the Swedish Libraries Central Service Organization. Though a shareholding company, Bibliotekstjänst really plays the part of a consumers' cooperative organization. Bibliotkstjänst works mainly in areas of library activity where it is possible to bring about cost reductions or otherwise improve service. A comparison between the BUMS-system and library automation systems in other countries shows that the cataloguing and circulation segments are completely integrated in the BUMS-system. There is not one system for cataloguing and another for circulation control, both parts of the system make use of the same recorded item. I hope that you have all obtained a copy of " W H A T IS BUMS?" If you unfold the last page you will find a schematic description of BUMS. The fold-out was designed to make it easier for you to refer to the description while reading the brochure. You will notice that the diagram is divided into three parts. To the right is a description of the various products which member libraries obtain from the system and which they use in their daily activities. In order to generate these products the computer must receive information about when books are checked out and returned, when new titles are acquired, and other everyday occurrences at the library. The left-hand part of the description indicates what information must be recorded, while the centre part describes the computer and the bibliographic files with which it operates and from which it extracts information. * Bibliotekstjänst AB 43

The heart of the system is the bibliographic file, which is located in the computer. It contains about 480,000 records and is growing at a rate of about 50,000 titles per year. This makes the database larger than the database of the British Library's BLAISE system. Continuing the anatomical metaphor, one might say that if the bibliographic file is the heart of the system, the bar-coded label is the blood. It is the information on the label that forms the circulatory system. The holdings of every BUMS-library are equipped with bar-coded labels. What is most striking about the label is that by drawing a lightpen across its barcoded field one can record the number found above the pattern of bars. The lower part of the label contains abbreviated bibliographic information. The number above the bar-coded field is constructed in a special way. The first seven digits constitute an items bibliographic number. All of the books in the country written by a certain author and having a certain title and date of publication are assigned the same item number. These seven digits are also used to locate the item in the bibliographic file, where they are followed by a complete bibliographic description in the MARC II format. The next four digits are the copy number, which is unique for the copy in question. In other words, no two books in Sweden can have the same item and copy numbers. These eleven digits are found in the file of locations, followed by information about where in the country the item is located. This information is specially structured. It is divided into four levels - first, which municipality owns the book, then the library at which it is located, then the department (for example, adult or childrens) in which it can be found, and finally where it is shelved (in an open-shelf area, on a reference shelf, in storage, etc.) BUMS-libraries record all of this information with the help of a light pen before new acquisitions are made available to borrowers. All of the bibliographic items which libraries purchase through Bibliotekstjänst are delivered fully equipped with bar-coded labels. The final two digits of the BUMS-number are control numbers which make it possible for the lightpen to check that is has correctly read the previous eleven digits. Using these two files we can produce various types of catalogues. But in order for the circulation control to function another bit of information is required. We must know who has borrowed a certain item. For this reason borrower cards are equipped with a bar-code. Every borrower has an individual number and the name and address of every borrower is stored in the borrower file. This is so that we can with the help of the computer automatically prepare overdue notices. When an item is checked out, a lightpen is drawn across the bar-coded number on the borrower card, which is inserted in a special cardholder, and then across 44

the item number. Following these talks there will be a demonstration of various transactions. The borrower and item numbers are stored in the terminals memory. At the end of the working day all the various transactions are transferred via an ordinary telephone line to the central computer at Bibliotekstjänst for further processing. T h e entire procedure is fully automated. I should also say a few words about the terminal itself. It is a Swedish product developed by Bibliotekstjänst in cooperation with an electronics firm called VAC. The terminal operates according to a program stored in its memory. This means that by changing the program one can alter the functions of the terminal. That is to say, it is capable of further development. The terminal has two work stations, one at which books etc. are checked in and one for other transactions. It has a 48 K B core memory and is equipped with a complete keyboard and a small display unit which indicates the type of transaction and what has gone wrong in cases of error. By investing in a terminal of our own we have been able to cut hardware costs to one-fifth of what we were previously paying for foreign equipment. The terminal costs about 3 5 , 0 0 0 Swedish crowns, or roughly 9 , 0 0 0 U S dollars. While it is essential that circulation control be maintained as correctly and inexpensively as possible, gains in the form of information depend on the fact that one is working with a computerbased bibliographic file. From the bibliographic point of view all Swedish libraries are a part of the B U M S system, since Bibliotekstjänst's catalogue cards are computer produced. But it is only when libraries become full-fledged members of the system that they can enjoy the entire range of informational benefits that the system offers. Using a photosetting process we produce specialized lists of various kinds - for example, lists of all the books in Spanish and Finnish that are available in a particular municipality, lists that can be made available to borrowers speaking these languages. We produce lists of recent acquisitions, lists of book in local collections, and so on. We expect that within five years the traditional card catalogues of Sweden's largest public libraries will have been replaced by terminals that provide online access to the roughly half million records in Bibliotekstjänst's data-base. The holdings of a medium-sized Swedish library average between 50 and 80 thousand titles. You can understand, then, the effect that access to a half million records would have on reference work and interlibrary lending. A demonstration of search techniques will take place following these talks. Catalogues for member libraries are normally produced on microfilm and microfiche. There is an alphabetic and a systematic catalogue and they contain, in addition to the usual bibliographic descriptions, information concerning the number of copies owned by the municipality and where the copies are located. 45

The microfilm catalogue has a number of advantages compared with a card catalogue . . . The manner in which the catalogue is edited can be altered as the need arises, adjustments can be made to accommodate changes in the rules for cataloguing, and so on. It is not like the traditional card catalogue, which is a product of the changing editorial practice of the part fifteen years. I pointed out at the start of this talk that Bibliotekstjänst's aim is to assist liraries in their efforts to rationalize their activities. Have we achieved anything by installing a system such as this? In addition to making available greater amounts of bibliographic information, we estimate that we have reduced labour costs by 20 %, primarily in the areas of circulation, cataloguing, and acquisition.

46

exemplarnummer

012 91 15

Occ Palm Indoktrineringen i Sverige 1968

10124 1

0802

Oil 1

BUFP

The advantages of a microfilm catalogue over the traditional card catalogue: - a microfilm catalogue is dynamic - a microfilm catalogue can be reproduced inexpensively, making it possible to spread information to a wide variety of municipal institutions (for example, schools) - selected portions of a microfilm catalogue can be made available in printed form though the use of a Reader/Printer

47

DATA BASE

Types of catalog available today: Main catalog Updated catalog List of recent acquisitions

Searching and editing, depending oη type of catalog

Lists of book3 on special topics UK (list of foreign «requisitions by Swedish Public Libraries) Mini-catalog

Conversion, depending on medium

Catalog cards

fline Λ [printer/list i

48

The mutual influence of information, education and recreation in public library work by István Papp* A word of apology The problem indicated in the title is an evergreen subject in public librarianship. I hardly believe that most papers on library policy, on the social importance and role of libraries have not confronted this treble library enigma. That is why the relevant literature is rich and I doubt whether there is anything to add to what librarians and others have said about it. Is it at all reasonable to further gnaw at this already gnawed bone? I am convinced that the committee preparing this seminar was fully aware of this. What could have been the reason for including the subject in the programme? I see just one but very substantial reason, namely that besides aspects of library theory and policy the subject has very important practical bearings, too. Like it or not, among the ever-changing conditions all practising librarians must time and again answer the questions raised by that threefold function - and not in general but by their daily work and services. This is why the question is to be put once again and we have to formulate an answer. Answers will slightly or strongly differ according to the social environment, the economic-technical conditions, the library system, and for other reasons, and they will be of general or highly individual character depending on whether they relate to public librarianship as a whole or to individual libraries. Some aspects of library policy Unity and indivisibility The three functions of public libraries are not only integrated but indivisible, too. In individual libraries as well as in library systems all attempts have failed to make any of these functions exclusive or to deprive the public library of any of them. In the course of development some function may evidently dominate, functions may have different weight at different service points of the library system, but can never cease entirely, for it would affect the essence of public libraries, i.e. the public library would cease to be what it is. Let us mention here, by the way, that the three tasks of information, education and recreation can be related not only to public libraries but to either the whole of librarianship or to any library. Use of the special libraries' information services can bear also the elements of education, even recreation. The difference between the three functions in public libraries and, for example, in special libraries is that in the former each element bears equal importance. * Centre for Library Science and Methodology. Budapest, Hungary

49

Beware of biases! To establish and maintain the unity of the three functions is perhaps the most difficult task for library practice. The library is exposed to several impacts. Most of them are justified by the objective needs of social environment, and if the library adjusts its services accordingly, a conflict with its essence is highly improbable. Dangers are borne by those impacts which are caused by arbitrary, voluntarist ideas and aim at exaggeratedly preferring or cutting down some function. We must not believe that it is only the maintaining authorities which strive for this end. Librarians themselves often commit also this error. The latter is more dangerous because it is more difficult for the library's organism to prevent. I hardly think I am wrong in saying that to disturb the balance of the three functions is a kind of censorship, i.e. an attitude of the librarian which instead of aiding the user in orientation, information and selection, deprives him of the right of responsibility and the pleasure of decision. Even if we accept this theoretically formulated requirement and do our best for its practical application in the development of the collection and services of a library, what is more, we build out channels towards the national and international library systems, there are many constraints and temptations to prefer one function or another. Eventually the limited budget, poor domestic book market, our own snobbery, efforts to increase the circulation, or refusal to cooperate may harmfully influence the ideal profile of our library. I do not deny that it is a very delicate task to set priorities for the activities of libraries maintained from public funds, as regards either acquisition, the services or any other field. Even if we succeed in establishing a library policy which is in harmony with social needs, we still have not got rid of the contradictions inherent in the functions. Can we free education from boredom and manipulation? Recreation from valueless even subversive elements? Information from lies and partiality? How to convince public opinion? In the former paragraph I mentioned public funds which can be considered as a synonym for social control. Well, we have to justify the three functions before the public opinion, too. The educational role of public libraries seems never to have been brought into question. Information services have sooner or later been acknowledged. The most suspicious function has been recreation. Somewhat simplifying the problem: what right has one to entertain himself at my, at our expense? In addition, the social prestige of reading for recreation is rather doubtful in those phases of development when the amount of leisure time begins to increase in all strata of society, but old, hard-working generations that cannot or dare not avail themselves of the more advantageous conditions and the new ones which take pleasant life as a matter of course are still coexisting. 50

We are well aware that recreation is a life function as important as work and that pleasure is a natural right and need of man, and that in reality perhaps the boundary between recreation and other human activities is not so rigid, nevertheless, sometimes we find it hard to drive that home to the interested parties. Information, education-learning and recreation are interwoven in the individual. Any of them may be the driving force of intellectual activity, the other two also participate. Gathering information has an educational effect and at the same time causes intellectual satisfaction. Education can be understood as a series of information effects and the effect is intensified if the subject of education takes pleasure in education. In the process of recreation, too - in a wider sense - pieces of information are operative and the educational momentum is obvious. Similarly, we can state that a certain book or any other document carries each of the three functions, depending upon the user's aim. It is worth - among others - remembering this library commonplace, because it very seriously affects the library's work. It is always the user's interests that decide which function of a document comes to life for the moment. This feature of documents or in a wider sense of library stock entirely corresponds to the interwoven character and interaction of the needs of people for information, education and recreation. The threefold function of public libraries rests upon this basis. It is not our

monopoly

We must realize, however, that the information, educational and recreational functions are not a monopoly of the library but a number of other institutions and organizations have a fair share in these tasks. The difference between them is in the tools and methods applied. It depends then on our viewpoint and inclination whether - emphasizing the uniformity of aims - we consider the library as an organic part of a bigger unit and do not deem its specific features so important, or - starting from peculiarities - we lay stress upon the identity of the library within the information, educational and recreational infrastructure. I think we need both approaches if we want to avoid misleading biases. The black box of the sociology of reading is the human brain: what happens in there when it receives information mediated by books? What is the impact of books? This can hardly be followed up, directly at least. In any case, we have to accept that indispensable as libraries may be in the life of society and the individual, their influence is rather restricted. To be more precise: they have an intensifying effect but do not substitute for other, stronger social factors which basically determine the development of individual and collective conscience. Even that is possible - shall I say likely, even sure - that the institutions which share the library's information, educational and recreational function have an 51

influence upon society stronger than that of libraries. One thing, however, is certain - at least we librarians think so - that none of our partners can take over the library's role. The question we have to answer is: what is the difference if any, of the three functions as practised by the library or some other institution. We give the right answer, I think, if we do not stimulate the library to race desperately on a track where others are faster, but remaining in our field we have to cooperate with our partner-institutions, undertaking the tasks falling on us. What about the users? Individual needs and motives It is obvious that the library's objectives are determined by the collective and individual needs of society. Our starting point can be only that information, education and recreation are natural, vital needs of the human being. Reading, or, in a broader sense, document usage must therefore also be considered in this relation. It would be over-simplification to say that there are not other motives of reading than these three. Much more complicated and complex reasons prompting us to read can be identified within the framework of our personality. This problem has been investigated by several researchers, so I just mention as an illustration the survey done by our Centre among workers. The answers to the question 'Why do you read books?' - more than one reason could be indicated - gave the following picture: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 52

to understand better the world and its events because reading entertains me to meet happiness and happy people at least in books because as if in certain books my lot, my life had been written to entertain myself, thus to relax mandatory readings for my exams to gain experience for my daily troubles because it is my need as are eating or sleeping because I am interested in ages, regions and people to be able to better contribute to, to help in the improvement of society because I do not want my acquaintances to regard me lowbrow because I enjoy how beautifully writers express my feelings because most books reveal the world's injustices because I am interested in human behaviour and morals; evil and kindness because I am interested in whether others have also lived to see what I have and how they behaved in similar situations to escape from my worries

53.6 % 68.8 % 16.4 % 24.8 % 63.0% 11.6 % 31.4% 24.0 % 53.7% 32.4 % 25.9 % 39.4% 35,3% 53.6 % 22.4 % 10.7%

17. 18. 19. 20.

to be able to better do my daily work because they relate to my favourite pastimes to find answer to the question: how one can be happy because thus I get to places I have always longed for, but could not get to 21. to complement what I learnt at school 22. to enlarge my knowledge about people and their nature 23. to know more than others, thus to be successful

18.5 % 22.9% 18.8% 30.3 46.9 57.4 13.9

% % % %

The same, contracting cognate motives: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.

recreation ( 2 , 5 , 1) moral questions (13, 14, 22) activity ( I , 7, 10, 17, 21) knowledge (9) recognizing oneself (4, 12, 15) search for happiness (3, 16, 19, 20) prestige (11, 23) need (8) mandatory reading (6)

84 % 76.4% 67.8% 53.6% 51.5% 47.6 % 32 % 24 % 11.6 %

T h e function of reading in the way of living deserves special attention. Another investigation of ours - among the intelligentsia - involved also how reading fits into the circle o f leisure-time activities. The interviewed person had to select from among 2 0 activities the five he preferred, later on to choose two of these which were most dispensable, finally the most important one. Thus we got two lists: how many percentage of those interviewed and how intensively (threedegree scale) like the given activity.

watching television reading listening to radio extension training walk - excursion visit to cinema listening to serious music visit to theatre listening to light music gardening meeting friends learning languages

Those fond of the activity (in per cents of all interviewed) 76 75 39 26 25 25 24 22 21 20 19 16

Degree of fondness

1.91 2.20 1.65 2.00 1.68 1.43 1.79 1.70 1.56 1.80 1.58 1.80 53

pottering sports needlework visit to museums photography listening to lectures playing cards

15 13 13 11 11 9 9

1.82 1.90 1.65 1.60 1.60 1.54 1.42

It is not much of a scientific procedure to compare the results of researches carried out with different methods, therefore I present two graphs gained by interviewing a group of library users only as an indication and not as a real argument. One graph shows how much the persons questioned like a few leisure-time activities (five-degree scale), the other - in their opinion - how other people may like the same activities.

value

3,5

3

2.5

2

1

ι

3

h

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13 14

15

16

activity interviewed persons' statement about their own scale of values what is the general scale of values? - according to interviewed persons' opinion 1. excursion/sports/; 2. reading fiction; 3. reading newspapers; 4.watching television; 5. visit to theatre; 6. listening to radio; 7. reading special literature; 8. visit to museums; 9. walk; 10. pottering; 11. talk; 12. visit to cinema 13. concerts; 14. amateurism; 15. sports events; 16. playing cards;

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It would be daring to draw any general conclusion from the above data even concerning Hungary. They may, however, give an idea of the place of reading in the way of life, furthermore, the complexity and interwoven character of motives and aims of reading. Is there a difference between reading and library use? We cannot in any way put a sign of equality between reading (book use) on the one hand, and library use on the other, in the same way as none of us thinks that many books are equal to a library. The information, education and recreation potentials of books are multiplied in the library's system. I am afraid I may get into commonplaces again, nevertheless, I cannot but raise some relating questions without an attempt to answer. Why is it advantageous for people to gather information, to learn or to have fun by means of the library? Is it really advantageous? How shall we convince the users and potential users about this? Can or shall we persuade members of the community to spend more and more time with reading or in a library, when there are so many other attractive pastimes? Using books and libraries is only a means and not the end. If they can achieve their aim in another way, too, how can we convince people of the specific values of library use? We must not think using a library to be a simple and obvious thing considering either the motives for crossing its threshold or the necessary technical skills for its use. It is enough to remember how people still did not make the decisive step to enter our libraries. For difficulties of orientation in the library itself let me cite again the findings of our investigation. The question was as follows: one generally knows one's way well enough in one's own flat, workplace, birthplace; what do you think it means to find your way in a library? Ten per cent of those interviewed admitted they do not find their way; most of them can orient themselves only in the library areas and have only a vague notion of the arrangement of holdings; finally not more than five per cent mention use of catalogues and bibliographies. We carried out the investigation in two county libraries whose level was above the average. One of them offers eleven, the other fourteen kinds of catalogues to the users. To the question 'In your opinion what kinds of catalogues are there in the county library?' 35 per cent could not specify any; 15 per cent could name one and 50 per cent more than one. These symptoms indicate that there are actually discrepancies among the three functions even in the circle of library users. This problem draws our attention to the education of users. Without being too pessimistic, I dare say, more generations are needed for a considerable increase of the level of reading culture and library use. This depends namely not only on 55

%

012345-

56

is at a loss vague notion o f the display ist familiar with can manage without help use with self-confidence use o f bilbliographies and reference tools

the librarian, not even chiefly on the level of library service but on very serious social factors. Conditioned and developing

attitudes

It is not hard to observe that library use (and within this: the realization of the library's threefold function in the individuals) is strongly influenced, even determined by the development stage of the social division of labour, the standard of living, the way of life, the cultural traditions, the educational system, the average educational level, housing conditions, technical equipment of households, and similar factors. Investigations analysing the interrelated weights of these factors would be of real interest. It is a further problem how the individual's personality, spiritual and mental qualities, status in the division of labour, educational level, i.e. the whole socio-economic background can manifest itself among these more or less objective factors and how they can determine the individual's behaviour in information, education and recreation. After all this we can begin studying the perception and impact of readings (in other words: information items), to study readers' attitudes, taste and habits. No matter how much the individual's information, educational and recreational needs are determined by different factors, according to observations and experiments it is possible to stimulate their development. Naturally, the years of childhood and youth give the best chances for this. If we manage to arouse interest as a common denominator, a skill for practice of all these three functions can be easily developed. No doubt, playing is an elementary need of children, but from fulfilling this need we can expect the birth of information, educational and recreational habits. Every children's librarian can prove that. It depends on a lot of things whether the habits instilled in childhood live on in adult age, still the stimulation of children by the librarian is the best investment for the library to perform its role in the information, educational and recreational infrastructure of society. Within the library Once again: libraries facing

challenges

If we deduce the three functions of public libraries from social and human needs, we should also examine, what demands the fulfilment of this task makes on different aspects of functioning and existence of the library, and what kind of influence it has over them. No doubt, the most important condition for developing the habit of library use is the library's existence itself. It is not indifferent at all, how much the stock, service, staff and building of the library appeal to its environment. The question we have to reply to is how to build up and organize a library or a library system that is able simultaneously to meet the information, educational 57

and recreational demands of a large number of people, nevertheless differentiated to individuals. What is more, these demands are interwoven and come up with different intensity and on different levels. This is the real problem of public library research, development, administration and functioning. It is easy to speak generally about the threefold sphere of activity and the interaction of function. It is hard, however, to implement them in details and in the daily routine when it is unavoidable to determine priorities, to choose the alternatives, and to make decisions. I have not the slightest intention of improvising makeshift answers to the many questions aroused by library practice. This seminar can aid librarians, but it cannot take their job over. Without aiming at completeness, I should like to put some subjects in issue, which, I dare say, deserve our attention. Partners and problems of partnership The national library system, especially the structure and development of special librarianship strongly influences the information function of public libraries. There can be no question that public libraries have to be the mediators between the information services of special libraries and the wider circles of the public. The main problem is what kind of information activities the public library itself shall undertake. T o be satisfied with the traditional general reference service or to undertake more in a few fields? T o keep in view the 'general user', the man-in-the-street when developing services or also the specialist? If so, what circle of specialists: the practitioners or the research workers? Presumably, with the spreading of automation it will become increasingly easier to answer these questions, for at least the leading libraries of the public library systems can be directly connected to large national and international information services. Assuming that ideal situation, the public library's information work cannot entirely depend on other sources; information in some fields is impossible without own resources. This is why we must not yield - with due respect to interlibrary cooperation - to the temptation that information organizations and special libraries should take over the responsibility for providing all information services. It is questionable, too, whether library services to education are entirely the task of school libraries, provided that they exist at all at the necessary level. Even in the case of a perfect system of school libraries the public library cannot limit itself to participation in extra-school education. The division of responsibilities and tasks depends upon the concrete situation. A s concerns entertainment and recreational functions, we have to consider first of all partners outside the library world. Let this general statement be sufficient, because the problem is well-known. Still, I suggest discussing two subjects: (1) how far do certain features of book production (character and number of works 58

published, number of copies, book prices) influence recreation by books, more precisely by books obtained from libraries? (2) may or must the library go beyond traditional services, especially in the recreation field? Systems versus libraries When speaking about public libraries we actually think of a wide range of services provided by their interrelated systems. Consequently, we must think in the system's framework when it comes to the realization of the three functions. At the different service points of the system some function may come into prominence but on the whole, the system must be balanced. This can be set as a rule after analysing well-operating library services. If it is so, over-ambitious librarians of smaller libraries must be talked out of developing certain reference tools or of efforts for self-sufficiency, always assuming, of course, their close connection with the centre and other members of the system, presuming the existence of channels for mediating documents and information. The interaction of information, education and recreation determines the planning, development and operation of library networks, too. Thus it is natural that in the central units of library systems the information function, at smaller service points the function of recreation comes into prominence. However, the standpoint overemphasizing this tendency, even striving to exclude services coming from function or considering them strongly disputable. The library is always entered by an integrated person (no matter how old he is) with all his demands, but in each case another gives the impetus. This must not be forgotten by either the too aristocratic librarians of central libraries or those working at small libraries, who are inclined to be indulgent as regards standards. Organizing and displaying library

materials

The interwoven character of functions involves difficulties perhaps not so much in establishing an acquisition policy than in the practice, even more in the organization of the stock. How should the stock be laid out and displayed for the benefit of users? What kinds of department should be established? But each problem cannot be solved by acquiring duplicates. We must accept that any system is far from perfect if it aims at corresponding to the variety and complexity of needs. In any case, we must make efforts to meet the somewhat contradictory requirement according to which the stock of a public library must be handled as an organic, though articulated, unit, or the other way round: the stock - though regarded as a whole - must be presented to the user in a well-arranged pattern. The imperfections of realization must be counterbalanced by guidance and encouragement, especially in large libraries where people feel easily helpless, lost and defenceless.

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Organization, staffing, building At last we must have a look at the impact of this mutual influence upon the organization, staff and building of the library. The bigger the library, the more problems involved. The all-round librarian, the single-membered staff and the all-purpose area is at the one end of the row and libraries working with some hundreds of well-organized and specialized staff, disposing of 20, 30, 40 thousand square metres of area are at the other. I believe that in the organization of large libraries it is not sufficient to believe that in each element of library work each function is more or less self-contained but it seems to me that organizational units corresponding to each function have to be set up and the management has the task of establishing smooth cooperation between them. Should an organizational unit serve all the three functions, e.g. the processing department, then it should meet the requirements without any bias. As the library grows in size, so must the specialization of staff advance. I mean not only the differentiation inside the profession but the employment of specialists in harmony with the three functions. No matter how interwoven the three tasks are and play an integrated role in library work and services, it is difficult to imagine that one and the same person can fulfil all the tasks with equal enthusiasm and on an equal level. I am convinced that to develop the threefold function specialists other than librarians are also required in the library. Besides book-keepers and technicians we need pedagogues, adult educators, computer and public relations experts and the representatives of some other professions. From the viewpoint of library building the question arises whether it is possible to attach definite areas to each of the functions and how far it is desirable to separate these areas from each other. I am perhaps not mistaken when I see in bigger buildings the more or less consequent, sometimes simultaneous reflection of two principles. One of them is - let us name it so - the separationist, the other the integrationist approach. What does the separationist say? The clearly distinguished areas correspond to the clearly distinguished needs. The various reader groups and needs should not disturb each other during use, consequently, the reference library should be separated from the lending library, the adult library from the children's, the lecture rooms, conference rooms, the refreshment room should be situated outside the control area, the newspaper reading room has to be reached directly from the street, and so on. What does the integrationist say? It is difficult, sometimes impossible to identify the motive of library use and during his stay in the library the user avails himself of services corresponding to various functions. Why not to try to make it easier that demand and service meet? What is more: why not stimulate the user to use services of which he has not originally thought? Why not try to present in an integrated way the informational, educational and recreational functions even 60

in space? Let me illustrate the model of libraries consisting of integrated areas by the scheme developed for the Chicago City Library. (Lowell, A. Martin: Library response to urban change. Chicago, 1969. p. 72)

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The Public library as part of the educational and literacy program for adults by Jane Hale Morgan* In examining the public library educational and literacy programs for adults, this paper agrees with Henry C. Campbell's statement that while "Some basic differences in goals and management methods exist between... library systems. .. The difference in the results achieved in terms of reading and information supply for readers is not, however, all that great." 1 In addition it subscribes to a statement by W. Boyd Rayward that " . . .libraries whatever their size and the composition and extent of their communities, are similar in what they try to do and in many of the problems with which they must come to grips, though they may vary from place to place in number, complexity and magnitude." 2 With these assumptions, after limited references to its history, the urban public library in the U.S. is used as a microcosm to examine the profession's approach to these activities. "There is no one substitute for the public library. It serves all the people from the time they first look at a picture book until the senior citizen reads his last book - and they are living and reading at a more advanced age today than when public libraries were first established." 3 That public library which began to proliferate in the United States during the latter half of the 19th century was very clearly aligned with the public schools and the educational process. Its primary goal was education. It provided a means of encouraging the acculturation process, the assimilation of working class immigrants to the middle class style of life and assistance with the language problems of the foreign-born. Most of the new citizens came from cultures that respected books and learning and were eager to learn the language and customs of their adopted country. They were served by the timeless function of the library - repository of the records of civilization, institution of social mobility for the ambitious, center of information and refuge of the scholar and the browser. Public libraries were in themselves an educational system in a limited sense, functioning as adjuncts to the public schools as adult education and general cultural centers, helping the process of Americanization. After libraries had fulfilled their role of service to a new nation and its primarily European wave of immigrants, the narrowly educational objectives broadened to include the provision of informational and recreational services for an increasingly wide range of users. But new waves of immigrants, largely to urban libraries, still required of public libraries their unique kind of educatio-

* Director, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Michigan, USA

62

nal function. Cities attracted underprivileged Blacks, Hispanics and rural refugees, many of whom recognized that their only escape from poverty was through education via this free institution. This second wave also required that the library be the place where the motivated learned middle class and urban values. The challenge of the public library today is to serve everyone at a level sufficient to justify public expenditures. As part of the educational and literacy program for adults the library must be geared to the needs of the active users as well as those who want to read but are scornful or fearful of the library. It is subject to pressures to create services and programs which will attract non-users in addition to meeting the needs of an established clientele. For users our charge is to provide materials to enrich the lives of individuals, serve as an independent community learning center and collaborate with formal educational institutions and programs. The library is equipped to respond to user needs containing, as it does, a freely accessible collection of a wide range of materials entirely at the disposal of individuals whatever their purpose, age, ethnic, religious or socioeconomic background. Important services based upon its collections are also available for widely varying user groups. The provision of requested materials is the traditional and best known service of the library. There is general acceptance of and little question of this role. From a neutral, voluntarily used source any individual is at liberty to pursue whatever educational course meets his needs, whether they be cultural enrichment, practical information to solve a problem or overcome an obstacle, or development of leisure time hobbies. To extend Mortimer Adler's comments on reading a book to using library materials, one educational aim "may be the acquiring of information or, beyond that, instruction in some field of organized knowledge [another] to improve our minds, not merely with respect to insight and understanding. Let me describe this... use of books as the process whereby the reading of books (i.e., use of library materials) that are over our head enables us to lift our minds up from the state of understanding less to the state of understanding more." 4 The materials provided accommodate the needs of all adult users utilizing the varied formats in which information is available. No longer restricted to the printed word, films, film strips, slides, video tapes, records, cassettes and data bases are widely used by today's library for the dissemination of information which contributes to the individual educational process. For patrons with handicaps the library provides traditional materials in suitable formats such as recorded, large print and Braille books, as well as special equipment to assist communication with the deaf and hard of hearing. For his cultural education the patron can supplement all the foregoing with sheet music, scores, choral arrangements as well as framed art works to develop his aesthetic appreciation. 63

Using library material he can repair a roof, fix his Ford, cultivate a garden, brush up his mathematics, prepare for a civil service exam. A parent can keep abreast of the newest child-rearing techniques, learn to identify the symptoms of common childhood diseases, become knowledgeable about nutrition, acquire skills to help with homework and motivate good study habits. As man's life span extends beyond the Biblical threescore and ten, libraries must provide materials which prepare him for retirement living. They must afford individuals ample opportunities to examine and understand the full scope of problems related to aging and retirement and provide the detailed and accurate information required to develop logical, long-term plans for dealing with a changed life style. Using one definition of education "the act or process o f . . . acquiring general knowledge", 5 most library materials qualify as educational. As important as materials are the programs and services libraries offer as well as the staff which helps to improve and increase use o f the collections. Great Books discussion programs provide individuals with the opportunity to share their responses and reactions to a wide range o f ideas. Library meetings which bring citizens together not only add to their knowledge of relevant, practical or merely current high interest topics but may also have the fringe benefit of reducing loneliness and/ or the pleasure of sharing an experience such as a book review, a travelog or an excursion in music. Special bookmobiles visit nursing homes and extended-care facilities, and specially equipped vehicles transport elderly patrons to the library. Individuals are served by visits to the homebound so that no one who wants to use the library for education or recreation need be left unserved. Not the least of library services available to the individual is information and referral which is, in fact, an extension of more traditional reference services into a capacity for educating the public to the avenues which lead to the solution of lifesize problems. Recognizing the need for assistance and guidance to respond to the complexities of today's existence, information and referral services help to isolate an individual solution from the maze of social, legal and governmental structure which often defeats particularly the less sophisticated seeker. " T h e y remain within the fold of traditional library science. They can become as sophisticated as need be, also employing technological devices, but on any level, they are essentially a rejuvenation of an old- fashioned, peopleorientated public library service, now formalized with modern techniques and adapted to today's needs." 6 1 & R responds not only to problem solving but to linking people who need with providers of specific service; an aspiring cook to a gourmet cooking school, a would-be tailor to an advanced sewing class, a potential life guard to a water safety instruction course. A New York conference on the adult independent learner, involving representatives from public libraries and State and Federal education agencies, concluded that the adult learner who chooses to remain independent o f a formal educational program is the special responsibility of the public library.

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Believing that public libraries can and should use present resources of staff, time and money to fulfil their commitment to this new learning population, conference participants recommended that libraries begin to "assess resources human and material - to use them more effectively; develop methods to measure and evaluate library services and policies so they can be improved and expanded, as appropriate; explore ways to share special skills of staff in larger libraries and system with smaller ones in remote areas; open or expand channels of communication with other community and State education agencies/institutions; establish a training program to develop staff skills in understanding the adult learner; and publicize new and expanded services to potential adult learners in the community and the State." 7 The library as an independent community learning center or the provider of service to individuals involved in learning programs outside the aegis of a degree granting institution requires service beyond the provision of materials and often the assumption of a role not universally agreed upon as appropriate for the librarian. Functioning as an adviser and, in a sense, providing the traditional reading guidance revered by the profession, librarians participate in such an educational program by ascertaining the learner's purpose, his background in the subject, his biases as to format and his goal. Using this patron information and his knowledge of books, bibliographies and reference tools, appropriate materials may be selected by a staff member. Initially the librarian may be the one to use the catalogue and special indexes and to suggest interlibrary loan. Part of the educational process, however, is to equip the patron to better help himself. The fine line in this activity is the point at which the reader's/learner's adviser, helping individual adults learn whatever they want to learn, assumes a teaching or educational counseling role which library training has probably not provided. An application of information and referral functions to the independent learner would require the establishment and maintenance of a resource file of current information on courses available, academic counselors, access to learning machines and other teaching devices. It would provide an avenue to the wide range of instructional materials designed to assist adults who choose to study independently of academic institution programs or as part of them. Use of the I & R technique might well put an individual in touch with a program such as REACH, "Renewed Expectation for Adults in Continuing Higher (Education)." REACH, a University of Michigan-Dearborn program, was designed to help address the problems of blue collar workers with limited free time and family obligations to learn at their own pace. Through the REACH program, full credit courses are prepared by the University's Office of Individualized Learning to help students get started in their studies without ever standing in a long registration line. All the courses are recorded on audio-cassette tapes to enable students to study when and wherever they choose. Referral to REACH 65

and its counterparts are very closely related to the library's collaboration with formal educational institutions and programs. Public libraries since their inception have cooperated with formal learning programs. With public schools they have provided sites and materials for Adult Basic Education (achievement at the 8th grade level) and General Educational Development (high school equivalency by examination) programs, encouraged visits of ABE and GED students to help familiarize them with basic reference tools, materials available for loan, use of the card catalogue, simple research techniques and the wide range of services available at and through public libraries. Community colleges and life-long learning programs have made heavy use of public library services and facilities. CLEP (College Level Examination Program), in which students may receive a total of twenty-four semester hours of credit for college courses by taking examinations as they are ready for them, depends upon a counseling component. This, too, gives rise to the question as to the role of the librarian. Should the counseling be provided by an external professional, or should the training of librarians be modified and broadened to include this extra dimension? Small educational institutions fortunate enough to be located in close proximity to large public libraries have the advantage of information resources they could never afford. In some cases the very accreditation of some of those institutions has depended upon the availability of public library collections. All students enrolled in formal educational institutions and programs are also members of the "public" and therefore have the right to the unrestricted use of public libraries. Adult education programs in libraries enable the institution to operate across a wide selection of community interests providing a materials source for information and general community planning. But what about the non-readers? Literacy has been and will be a natural concern of public libraries, for here the library cannot only be a partner in providing a much needed service but in also developing future users. The evidence is overwhelming that many adults can neither read nor easily use many of the written materials needed to function in today's society. Before the library can help in the acculturation and education of low-income groups who suffer economic deprivation, it must help them overcome their functional illiteracy. It must help those who need an extra boost to achieve opportunity, if not success. Literacy programs are, of course, educational. As such, the charge to provide materials, serve the independent learner and collaborate with educational institutions still applies but it must be met in special ways. Selection and acquisition policies must be modified so that the non-traditional materials not usually acquired by libraries will be available. Programming should include study groups, discussion programs, reading aloud and whatever activities develop and utilize reading skills. Librarians should assist in the recruitment of participants in these programs and promote and publicize them. The library 66

should serve as an information and referral source for resource persons, tutors, speakers and specialists who can assist the learners. The beginning reader has the same right to reading guidance as a more sophisticated independent learner, although the library staff is probably not as well equipped to help him. The same cooperation that makes space and equipment available for other instructional programs must serve literacy projects: R-2-R (Right to Read), a federally sponsored reading program to increase functional literacy and ensure everyone of the opportunity to possess and use needed reading competencies; Laubach Literacy and Literacy Volunteers of America, two organizations committed to training volunteers to tutor adults and teenagers, produce materials for students and assist in the organization of literacy programs; Project READ, another federally funded program using tutors to combat illiteracy. A major problem of public libraries today is their ineffectiveness in helping adults who do not read. To eliminate the barrier between the largely middle class librarians and the patrons they should serve, respect for and greater understanding of the culture and basic way of life of these non-readers must be achieved. Library staffs must be sensitized to the needs of adults who cannot read well but would like to learn. They must bring people and books together in a way that will be meaningful in an atmosphere that invites rather than rejects. Granted the vested interest in the need for more readers and acceptance of some responsibility for contributing to the development of reading skills, how shall the public library proceed? The answers to this question range from a modest suggestion that libraries work with adult educational agencies that could teach reading, to a more aggressive proposal that libraries need to offer specialized service to provide an adequate educational experience for many who cannot fit into the regular library usage framework, to the highly controversial posture that libraries teach adults to read through full-blown literacy programs. The concern that librarians are acting outside their profession by teaching elicits the same problems as those raised in the area of service to the independent learner. Consideration of the role of the public library in educational and literacy programs for adults is less an enumeration and appraisal of what it is than an evocation of questions to determine what it shall be. What are the boundaries for public library service? Is the public library's mission sharply defined or does it need clarification and expansion? In light of diminishing resources can an expansion be justified? Might expansion of mission cause it to overlap other disciplines rather than to complement them? Public libraries will arrive not at a common response to these questions. In seeking their answers, however, they will do well to be mindful of Ralph W. Conat's observation that "Urban institutions that fail to tackle new problems 67

are likely to miss exciting new opportunities. Likewise, institutions that fail to re-evaluate traditional objectives are in danger of becoming weighted down with outmoded programs that sap vitality, discourage able recruits, and repel public and private supporters." 8 In Western, industrialized nations public libraries have evolved as middle-class institutions. This statement does not constitute a charge of conspiracy or an accusation of any kind. Given the perception of the public library through its formative stages, the emergence of such an institution was probably inevitable. In order to add the dimensions which address the whole community, however, established libraries must suffer the pains of change. Developing nations are in the advantageous position of profiting from this earlier experience and are free to design systems which provide information for the total population as well as educational and literacy programs appropriate to the wide range of needs.

References 1. Campbell, Henry C. Public Libraries in the Urban Metropolitan Setting. Clive Bingley, Ltd., London, 1974, p. 14. 2. Rayward, W. Boyd. "Introduction: The Public Library - a Perspective and some Questions, The Library Quarterly, Vol 48, October 1978, p. 384. 3. Symposium on Library Functions in the Changing Metropolis. Public Library and the City. MIP Press, Cambridge, 1965, p. 169. 4. Adler, Mortimer J. "Books, Television, and Learning," The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, Vol. 36, No. 2, Spring 1979, p. 191. 5. Random House, Inc. Random House Dictionary of the English Usage. New York, 1967. 6. Jones, Clara S. Reflections on Library Service to the Disadvantaged, 92nd ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, June 1973, p. 7. 7. New York State Library. The Bookmark, January-February 1974, p. 70. 8. Symposium on Library Functions in the Changing Metropolis. Public Library and the City. MIP Press, Cambridge, 1965, p. 9.

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-The Public library as part of the educational programmes for children By Margaret Dunkle* Background information Australia is a large dry continent with a relatively small population, which is heavily concentrated in the cities and the fertile valleys of the coastal plains. Beyond this narrow strip the land becomes increasingly arid and inhospitable, ending at last in the vast red deserts of the Centre. The coast was settled as a number of separate British colonies which did not become politically united until 1906. Since the Second World War the government has encouraged non-British immigration, and the most recent estimates indicate that of the present population of 14 million almost one-fifth were actually born overseas; two thirds of these came from non-English speaking countries, continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Library development State Libraries were established in the capital cities in the nineteenth century, and also a scattering of subscription-financed lending libraries, often called Mechanics' Institutes. However, modern public library service had to wait until the middle of this century, when separate library acts were passed by the six individual State Governments, the first by New South Wales in 1939 and the last by South Australia in 1955. These library acts followed the British pattern, and placed the responsibility for library provision on local government, with the encouragement of some form of State subsidy. The actual pattern that evolved varied from State to State: in South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia the State Government assistance is largely in terms of money and each service is responsible for providing its own materials. In these States the subsidy is in the form of matched grants to the municipalities. In either case, each municipality is free to determine its own level of contribution to a library service; there is no legal minimum, and no legislation forcing a municipality to provide a library. Neither is there any uniformity in the State contribution. The Federal Government maintains the National Library, in Canberra, and the public lending libraries in the Australian Capital Territory. It does not make any contributions to the States for library development. Libraries today The Federal Government established a Committee of Inquiry into Public Libraries in March 1975 and its Report was published in the following year. The Committee of Inquiry found that most local government authorities spend less than 2 % of their annual revenue on library services. The actual amount * Children's Library Officer, Public Libraries Division, Library Council of Victoria, Australia

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spent on municipal libraries in that year totalled just under A $ 40,000,000. State subsidies accounted for between 16 % and 81 % of this figure, depending upon the State: in Victoria the total municipal library expenditure was A $11,446,000, of which 45.6% came from the State. This represented an average per capita expenditure of $ 1.44 by municipalities and $ 1.72 by the State, or a per capita total of $ 3.16. The current (1978/79) total expenditure is nearly A $ 25 million for 62 library systems serving a population of 3,782,300. The State government proportion of this expenditure is estimated at over 50 %. This dramatic increase is the result of the raising of the State matched grant to $ 2 for every $ 1 provided by local government. It has had the effect of greatly improving every aspect of library provision in Victoria. The State contribution to municipal libraries is administered through a branch of the State library authority; in the case of Victoria, this is the Public Libraries Division of the Library Council of Victoria, which not only administers subsidies and special grants but also provides an advisory service to the libraries themselves. Its staff includes technical and field officers and one children's library officer, whose duties include the maintenance of the demonstration children's library and a media and storytelling caravan. Public libraries in

Victoria

There are 33 municipal and regional library systems in the Melbourne metropolitan area (a 'regional library' is a formally organized alliance of two or more municipal services), and 28 in rural Victoria. Both city and country services vary widely in population, physical area, and finance, and thus in the level of service they are able to maintain. One municipal city library serves a population of only 16,500, while a regional library on the other side of the city has a population of 210,000. The smaller library must maintain its services on a budget of less than $ 80,000, while the region operates on $ 1.62 million. The largest rural service covers an area of over 13,000 square miles, yet has a population of only 110,000. The actual per capita expenditure of a library (including State subsidy) varies from $ 2,90 to $ 13,55, with all but three of the country services falling below the $ 5 mark. As of September 1977, the ratio of staff numbers to population served varied between 1:1,225 and 1:6,284, with the actual staff numbers being anything between 1.5 and 81. Four of the smallest rural services still have no professionally qualified staff, and in seven rural and two small metropolitan services the only qualified member of staff is the chief librarian. In some of the larger city services, however, there may be several qualified staff allocated to each service point. The generally accepted pattern is for the first named position, after the chief librarian, to be that of the children's librarian. The children's

library

Virtually every public library in Australia today has a children's section, although the standard of provision may vary enormously, ranging from a single 70

bay of books in a tiny part-time deposit station to whole rooms in a modern urban cultural complex. The old fashioned, dreary, sub-standard children's library is rapidly vanishing. Most of the new libraries that have been built in the past ten or fifteen years are designed on an open plan module, one large carpeted room sub-divided into user areas by book-shelves and furniture, with a central loan desk. Approximately one third of the materials budget is spent on young people's media, ranging from pre-school picture books to the teenage collection. Until very recently there were very few qualified children's librarians in public libraries, but in Victoria, at least, all but the smallest metropolitan services now have at least one children's librarian, as do the larger country regional services. School libraries In all States except Tasmania, school libraries are administered by the education department and have no formal link with the public library system (the one exception being the experimental joint-use libraries, which will be discussed later). Apart from a few notable pioneers, good school libraries are a very recent development. The Commonwealth Government first made assistance available to the States for the establishment of school libraries in 1968, and it is only since then that libraries have begun to be seen as a necessary part of a school establishment. The libraries are staffed by teachers who have an additional qualification in school librarianschip. Today school libraries (called "Media Centres") are standard provision in most areas. In Victoria, every primary school with a population of one hundred students has, at least in theory, a media centre and a trained teacher-librarian. Smaller rural schools may share a librarian or they may be served from a fleet of mobile vans operating on a cluster system from a central site. The larger primary and secondary schools may have specialist staff who work with teachers in the areas of literacy remediation and migrant language materials. Children's services : the present scene With the arrival of qualified children's staff in public libraries, the whole concept of library service entered a period of dramatic change. Although the Australian staff and finance structure may appear impoverished by many overseas standards, it is still an incredible advance over the previous era, and we are still experimenting to discover just what our horizons really are. Ten years ago, children's services were thought of entirely in terms of book loans; "extension services" were limited to the rigidly structured class visit, with the rare film show during the school holidays, in those few libraries having access to a theatrette or hall; the more daring libraries were scheduling an occasional picture book programme, and one pioneering librarian was actually using a few Weston Woods filmstrips on Saturday mornings. Today it is accepted as a fact of life that every library will mount some sort of holiday programme, and these are often impressive in their ambition and 71

scope. Storytelling and picture book sessions and craft programmes are standard, and music, drama, and outings of various sorts are not uncommon. The emphasis is on creativity and cultural enrichment, in the widest sense, and there seems to be no limit to what a keen and dedicated staff is willing to attempt. Most libraries schedule school class visits during term time as a matter of course, averaging up to three or four per day, and many of these include storytelling sessions. The traditional relationship between school and public libraries in Australia has been dictated by the overriding physical factors with which both were striving to cope: a small population in an enormous physical setting, with no background of earlier resources to draw upon, little money and less trained staff, a population which paid lip-service to education and culture but which in fact had little concept or experience of either. Teachers and librarians themselves tended to be drawn into these professions through a desire for personal security rather than from any overwhelming social conviction (this situation still holds, to a lesser extent, today). Until very recently libraries were considered a dispensable luxury in both State and private schools, and teaching was done from class sets of textbooks, augmented by whatever could be gleaned from the meagre stocks of the public library. The public libraries, in turn, aware of the schools' needs, bought with one eye on the teaching curricula, in spite of their own tight budgets, with the result that one found rows of multiple copies of little pamphlets on Captain Cook, the early explorers, and a host of other dreary but worthy topics from the school syllabus. Boxes of these were often actually deposited in the schools as a permanent loan. All this has changed in the past ten years. The advent of the school library has meant that most public libraries are now freed from the necessity to provide the bulk of the material for school assignments, although of course they continue to fill requests from the many children who for one reason or another use the public library instead of, or in addition to, the school collection. The full implication of this change in school library provision is only gradually being realized by public libraries. It has come at a time of great change within the public libraries themselves, when a semblance of adequate staffing has for the first time been possible. Until the mid-1960's, the typical children's section of a public library would have consisted of a room or area lined with books, spine out densely packed on dark wooden shelves in Dewey order. There would have been linoleum on the floor and a few tables and chairs, and perhaps some pictures above the shelves. Warnings about talking and overdue charges would be prominently displayed. Class visits, in long crocodiles, were the main activity, and these were probably conducted by the class teacher, the library staff taking little if any interest or responsibility. The combined result of better funding for public libraries, more and better 72

qualified staff, the release from providing a school library service, has literally revolutionized children's services in the public library. Today's public library is probably housed in a new, attractive building situated in or near a busy shopping centre (there have been forty five new libraries built in Victoria during the past six years). It will be an open plan, single floor design. The young people's area will be light and airy, with carpet, cushions, and probably loan collections of posters and cassettes. There will be puzzles, games and toys for use in the library and perhaps for loan; music may be playing, or there may be a video programme in a comer, or earphones tuned to a sound loop or a listening post. Best of all, and most revolutionary, there will be a children's librarian on the floor, not barricaded behind a desk stamping out books, but talking to children, advising about books, answering requests, conducting programmes and activities. The most truly revolutionary change is in the way the library sees itself in its relation to education. This has two aspects: 1 ) in relation to formal educational institutions (schools and school libraries); 2) its relation to the informal learning of children. School relationships: Class visits are still an important part of most library programmes, but with a difference. The children's librarian is there, working with the class teacher, discussing the needs of individual children. The children will be encouraged to explore the collection widely, for books for pleasure as well as for assignments. The visit will probably conclude with a storytelling session, or a picture book - telling, or perhaps a story on cassette and filmstrip or on slides. The librarian also visits the schools, talking to children in classrooms or in the library, introducing books and explaining what the public library can offer children and their parents. The children's librarian is a member of the local school librarians' group, attends their meetings and knows them as people. Reading lists are often prepared for schools, and afterschool and holiday programmes publicized. The early fear that improved school libraries would mean a loss of borrowers has actually been realized, but in a totally unexpected way; it seems to have been selective, in terms of the library service. Where the public library was simply trying to provide a school library, the service has proved redundant; this has principally happened in those libraries with unqualified staff, where the children's service was seen as consisting mainly of class visits, led by the teacher, with the library staff merely stamping out books. In those libraries where the child was seen as an individual, where creative programmes were offered and on experienced and enthusiastic librarian was working with the children, the library is as busy, or busier, than before. Certainly loan figures have dropped, but mainly in the area of curriculum-oriented non fiction. The children who come to the library now do so because they want to, attracted either by the activities the library staff now have more time to organize, or by a real enjoyment of books. Where a good children's librarian has been lucky enough to have good school librarians 73

to relate to, loans in many cases have actually increased because the young people have come to understand the value of using both libraries. Informal learning: Certainly the public library is an educational institution; but "education" in its widest sense, a resource centre for the individual seeking tools with which to enhance any aspects of life. This applies to young people just as much as to adults. The public library is unique, because it is the only institution in which there is no such thing as a "minority", simply because each person is seen as an individual, not blended into a group. The Down's Syndrome child has as much right to individual help in finding enjoyable books as the school's best cricketer, the shy third grader looking through the easy readers is just as important as the two year old exploring the picture books, or the teenager hunting for sex information. The problem that libraries face, particularly with children's services, is not to my mind one of competition with schools. The school provides one kind of education, the library offers many others. The real problem is one of active or passive experience. The one prerequisite to library use is that the user is prepared to think, to become actively engaged in some sort of mental involvement. The children who opted out of this really difficult activity for the easier pleasure of being a spectator; the children who do not want to struggle with a book because watching television is so much easier are those for whom I am really deeply concerned, as a librarian and as a human being. Increasingly, the public library is seeing itself as within the social context of the community it serves. It tries to relate to that community, its life style and interests, its background and educational levels; rather than trying to impose the library image on the community from without and above. This means for example that libraries in migrant areas will employ staff who speak the relevant migrant languages; their books and other media will be multilingual and the English language material will encompass a wide range of reading abilities and interests, and will be rich in material on the homelands and cultures of the people it serves. The library staff will work with other community social services, the youth worker if there is one, the preschool and day care centres, the community social worker, the leaders of the ethnic communities themselves. Holiday and after-school programmes will have the dual purposes of reinforcing pride in and enjoyment of the homeland culture, enhancing the children's capability in and enjoyment of their adopted environment. The prerequisites for all this, of course, are 1) staff: trained, intelligent, dedicated, outgoing, strong and healthy! 2) money for the books and materials to implement the programmes. 3) buildings that are accessible, inviting, friendly and indestructible. I would like to describe a few of the innovative programmes for children that are currently under way in Victorian libraries, under the general title of Education for living.

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Libraries: Education for living 1. Preschool children: Sunshine Library and the Municipal Day Care Centres (including Toy lending library) 2. Migrant children: Brunswick Library (including implementation of Piaget and Montessori principles of learning) 3. Migrant children: Carringbush Library (including Community) Arts Programme; Computer-Tutor; Bush house; Infoserve) 4. Aboriginal children: Swan Hill (including schools liaison, mobile service, parent education) 5. Physically and/or mentally handicapped children: Camberwell-Waverley Regional Library (including use of Jolly Jumbuck at special schools) 6. Freeing the schools: Templestowe Technical School Community Joint Use Library 7. Each child is an individual: Dandenong Valley Regional Library (including library clubs, puppetry, storytelling, etc.)

References Committee of Inquiry into Public Libraries. Public libraries in Australia : Report. Canberra, Aust. Government Publishing Service, 1976. Annual Statistical Bulletin of Public Libraries in Victoria, no. 4, 1976-77. Melb., Library Council of Victoria, 1978. Library Council of Victoria, Public Libraries Division. An introduction to public library service in Victoria. Melbourne, P.L.D., 1978. Ramsden, Michael J. Performance measurement of some Melbourne public libraries : a report to the Library Council of Victoria. Melbourne, Library Council of Victoria, 1978. Hazell, Anne. Children's libraries in Australia, 1975. In the Australian vol. 24 no. 11 December 1975 p. 465-9. Dunkle, Margaret. Audio-visual p. 486-7.

Library

Journal,

materials in Victorian children's libraries,

ibid,

Fenwick, Sara I. School and children's libraries in Australia : a report to the Children's Libraries Section of the Library Association of Australia. Melbourne, F.W. Cheshire, 1966. Cohen, David. Primary school libraries : a report to the nation. Melbourne, Australian Library Promotion Council, 1972.

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Appendix to the Public Library as part of the educational programes for children children's services in public libraries: a philosophy

Children are no longer, as in the past, looked upon as merely miniature adults. Rather, childhood is seen as the period of growth from infancy to maturity. If maturity is defined as complete development, then childhood becomes a growth or progression toward that completeness. This development of course is not simply physical: it includes emotional, intellectual, spiritual growth as well. All of these processes are going on all the time in any child but they do not happen in a smooth sequence. A child grows by fits and starts, not only physically but in other ways as well. The individual children in any school class will vary tremendously in interests, social awareness, emotional development just as they will in size or reading competence. Physical growth requires an adequate diet; the raw materials from which the body is built. Similarly intellectual and emotional growth need experience to build with. The baby in an institution who has not been picked up, talked to, played with will appear mentally retarded; the child who has not been given love will have great difficulty in giving love himself. A child learns, and grows, through experience, but this experience can be of two kinds. There is the direct, live experience, and there is also the experience lived in the imagination. For example: a child falls down and is hurt. He comes in crying and is caught up, loved, reassured. The experience enters permanently into his being, it is there to be pulled out again at any time he needs reassurance or love, to replace or reinforce the immediate reality. It can also be reinforced by a literary reality: a child who reads, or is read to, about being hurt and comforted can enter into that experience by proxy: in his imagination he becomes the child he reads about who is loved and comforted, and that too becomes another layer of experience to draw upon for future growth. It is possible for the child whose real experience has been inadequate to make up deficiencies through imagination. Which brings us, I hope, to a concept of the special nature of children's library services, and the difference between the school and public library. The primary concern of the school library is the school curriculum. The public library no longer operates under this constraint. There is often confusion in the minds of educators and the public (and often librarians as well) because all books for young people are seen simply as an adjunct to education. They are, in fact, an adjunct to growth. In particular, the imaginative part of the collection - the poetry, fiction, picture books - should be seen as an invaluable resource for the 76

child in his search for the experience with which to build his own growing maturity. The child who does not encounter this resource until he goes to school is likely never to see books as anything but an adjunct to the education system, which is to miss the true value of what books can provide. These children read books or parts of them - when they have to, to get through, and out of, school - and after that they leave books behind them (Municipal councillors often belong to this category, which is why it is so difficult to talk to them about the value of imaginative literature). The children's area of a public library could be looked upon as a nutrition centre, where children - and those who care for them - can come to find the raw materials that will stimulate the growth of the child's mind, imagination, heart. The children themselves always know what they are hungry for provided they know what the library has to offer. If they think of it as merely an adjunct to "education" or if it is outside the pattern of their lives then of course the door is closed. This is why the service to children should be the most labour intensive part of the entire library system. Money spent on employing children's librarians to work outside the library, to visit schools and read stories, to talk to parent groups, to visit parks and playgrounds and housing estates and tell stories to the children, to be actually on the floor in the library ready to talk to children when they come - this is money that will return a high profit: to the library, eventually in terms of adult borrowers, and - who knows? - perhaps to society as a whole, in a more truly "mature" population.

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The Public library as part of the national information system by Hedwig Anuar* My paper on the role of the public library in the national information system (NATIS) will be confined to the public library in the developing countries of Asia, with some brief examples from Africa and Latin America. The objective of NATIS is " t o encompass all services involved in the provision of information for all sectors of the community and for all categories of users". 1 Such services include those provided by national, academic; special and school libraries, documentation centres and archives as well as public libraries, apart from non-library services such as those provided by government departments, societies, professional and trade associations, trade unions, the mass media and the publishing and printing industry. For a variety of historical, cultural and other reasons, there was no planned development of library services in the developing countries, since the concept of library planning and of co-ordinated national library service is one that has gained acceptance only within comparatively recent years. Thus, older libraries in developing countries, generally modelled on either the Anglo-American or the European (French/Spanish/ Portuguese) model, display the same multiplicity of library authorities and overlapping and duplicating of services, resulting in waste of human and material resources. In some instances, however, the blurring of distinctions between the different types of libraries, national, academic, special, school and public, has been a positive benefit since it has liberalized access to limited resources. National libraries in developing countries are mainly reference and research libraries. Most of them collect the national literature, compile the national bibliography, provide reference and information services, particularly in the fields of the humanities and the social sciences, while some also undertake exchanges and interlibrary loans at national and international level. While their primary clientele consists of scholars and research workers, some of them also serve the general public and even function as public libraries, for example, many of the national libraries in Latin America, which also coordinate public library services, the National Central Library of South Korea and the National Library of Singapore. The National Library of the Philippines has an Extension Division which serves provincial, municipal, barrio and deposit station libraries in cooperation with local government authorities while the National Library of Malaysia provides direct public library service for the Federal Capital Territory of Kuala Lumpur as well as advice and assistance for public library development at state level. * Director, National Library, Singapore, Singapore

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Academic libraries, some of which are older and more established than national libraries (for example, in Malaysia and the Philippines), generally confine their services to their academic communities of students, teaching staff and graduates. The enrolment ratio for university level education in the Asian region, excluding Japan, per 100,000 population, as given in Table I, shows that this level of education is confined to a very small minority of less than one per cent of the population, with only the Philippines and Japan exceeding this percentage. In Nepal, the Tribhuvan University serves as both a university and a public library, while the University Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia is a rare example of a university library directly extending its services to senior secondary school students as well as providing an industrial and scientific technical information service to the industrial and business community in Penang and North Malaysia. As much as 20.4 per cent of the University of Singapore's 12,534 registered borrowers in 1976/77 consisted of non-university members. Non-university users also have access to the University of Zambia Library (1) on payment of a fee which entitles them to borrow materials if they live within 45 kms. of the campus (2) on issue of free tickets to members of the public for reference use only and (3) through interlibrary loans. Most special libraries are attached to government departments or governmentsupported research institutions, particularly in the fields of medicine, agriculture, law, economics and finance, while special libraries attached to associations, private institutions or firms are less common. Their services are generally confined to their own staff and researchers or members, though some may be open to the public for reference, for example, law libraries may be used for reference by legal practitioners, statistics and trade libraries by businessmen and medical libraries by doctors in private practice. School libraries are the least developed of all types of libraries, as they tend to have lower priority with educational planners than teacher-training facilities, school buildings, science laboratories and equipment, and textbooks. When they are provided, their main function is to support the curriculum and very seldom to serve the wider informal and informational needs of the child. Their services are also confined to the students and staff of their own schools. There are regrettably few instances of school libraries combining the functions of school and public libraries in areas where this would be appropriate. Documentation centres in Asia are found in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, and again tend to serve an elite group of researchers and scientists, while archives institutions primarily serve governments and scholars. Thus the ordinary man, woman or child who is not a university graduate or undergraduate, not a civil servant and not a member of a professional group would find it difficult to turn to any of these institutions as a supplier of information because he has no access to them nor indeed would be aware of 79

their very existence. One would therefore expect the public library to be the appropriate institution to fill the vacuum and to meet the informational needs of the majority of the public whose needs are not met by the other institutions making up the national information system. However, this expectation rests on the assumption that the public library is generally the only institution to which all users have equal access, but while theoretically available to all the public it is intended to serve, there are formidable barriers to access to its services, including high rates of illiteracy, poverty and rural population in many of these countries, as seen in Tables II to IV. In addition, there are geographical barriers such as vast distances and poorly developed communication systems; cultural barriers such as multilingual and multiracial populations and limited development of indigenous publishing and the book industry; and social barriers caused by external and civil wars, revolutions and the general absence of political stability and peace. The illiterate and the semi-literate may not step into the public library because it does not have the kind of material they need or can use; the poor are unable to afford the time, the transport or the money required for a subscription or deposit to join the library, as many "public" libraries depend on members' fees as well as small municipal or local government grants rather than being financed at national or state level: the rural may be isolated by rivers, mountains, jungles and too far away from the nearest small town library. Yet it is the illiterate, the semi-literate, the poor and the rural population who form the majority in most of the developing countries and are entirely unserved or minimally served by public libraries. Some developing countries now have well developed public library systems, but it is generally found that these tend to serve the minority who are the better educated, the more well off and the more urban amongst the population, who at the same time, by virtue of their superior education or membership of the ruling, professional or middle class, have easier access to national, academic and special libraries as well. Thus one might say, as with material wealth, that "the information rich will become richer and the information poor will become poorer." 2 In order to arrest and reverse this inequitable and unsatisfactory pattern of library development, it is necessary for libraries to pay much more attention to the informational needs of the illiterate and semi-literate, the rural and the urban poor, the institutionalized, the handicapped and minority ethnic groups whose collective and individual needs are often unexpressed, unidentified and unsatisfied. In developed countries, the informational needs of these disadvantaged groups have been identified by authorities such as Childers 3 as including the following: health - general health, nutrition, family planning, abortion, venereal disease, drug abuse, alcoholism, mental health, sickle cell anaemia; home and family; consumer affairs; housing; employment; welfare programmes; law; the political process; transport; education; and recreation. One might compare these with the informational needs of the average citizen which 80

Dervin 4 has listed in 19 major categories as follows: neighbourhood; consumer; housing; housekeeping and household maintenance; employment; education and schooling; health; transportation; recreation and culture; financial matters or assistance; public assistance and social security; discrimination and race relations; child care and family relationships; family planning and birth control; legal; crime and safety; immigration, migration and mobility; veterans (ex-servicemen) and military; public affairs, political and miscellaneous. It will be noted from these two lists that the disadvantaged and the average citizens in developed countries share the same problems. In many respects, the informational needs of those in developed countries and those in developing countries are also not dissimilar. The main differences lie in (1) their difference of priorities and emphases, since the disadvantaged in developing countries are concerned most with the basic needs of food, shelter, jobs and health, and (2) their difference of scale, since service to disadvantaged groups in developed countries would be service to minorities, whereas service to the disadvantaged in many developing countries would represent service to the majority of the population. What information sources are available to meet these needs? "The most used sources of information on most topics for most people... are peer-kin network contacts (friends, family, and relatives). People meet, talk, and ask advice from people essentially like themselves." 5 In the village or rural situation, apart from family and friends, those serving as information sources would include the village headman, the religious leader, the village teacher, the agricultural extension worker, the health visitor or nurse, the postman, the pedlar and the small shopkeeper. People such as agricultural, health and education workers would be able not only to offer information but also advice on such matters as how to obtain and use new varieties of seeds or fertilizers or tools; how to repair one's leaking roof or provide a simple means of sanitation; how to prepare cheap yet nutritious meals for one's children; how to rear chickens, plant fruit trees, start a cottage industry, or deal with farm accounts. Libraries - and librarians - attempting to meet these informational needs would first of all have to identify and then work closely with these officials. Ideally, they would all be part of the same team working together in a multipurpose agency or polycentre, particularly in areas serving the illiterate and the semi-literate. Such non-reading adults could be reached through film shows, music, dance, radio, talks and discussion groups, arts and crafts sessions, and tape-recording sessions of local music and folklore, essential to the preservation of the oral heritage. Parents and relatives could be invited to these through their children. The provision of suitable non-print materials such as pictures, photographs, posters, slides, films, filmstrips, tapes and records would therefore be even more important than that of print materials. Suitable and varied reading material would also have to be provided for literacy classes and for new literates. Apart from this provision, libraries have a role to 81

play in the functional literacy programme 6 by active participation in literacy projects through guided reading, discussion and assistance in the organising and implementation of specific projects related to the acquisition of reading skills. However, there are limitations to the use of vocational reading material, for "to translate a written text into practice is a highly complex process requiring not only thorough reading knowledge but the ability to surbordinate practical action, with its corresponding varieties of use and custom, to the instruction laid down in the text. The inability to master this complex procedure is what restricts or even destroys the effectiveness of advisory booklets. This is commonly demonstrated by the lack of interest shown in publications on agriculture, popular medical guides, mechanical handbooks, etc." 7 It would appear that it would be more effective to use such reading materials after the new skill or technique has been demonstrated and practised to reinforce what has been learned, and not before, when the printed word may in fact serve as a barrier to understanding. In rural areas, the link between information needs and information sources is simpler and more direct than in urban areas, where the variety of information sources is greater and more complex. In developed countries, these include both governmental and non-governmental specialised information or advice centres, including those offering advice on housing, taxation, education, money, consumerism, legal aid, employment, and marriage guidance counsellors and citizens' advisory bureaux. In developing countries there may not be quite the same number of sources, but the number of government departments and government regulations is bewildering enough for the average citizen of limited education. " A ready illustration of such difficulty is the proliferation of petition-writers outside various government offices or law courts helping people to fill up their application forms for welfare claims, passports, identity cards or various other documents.. ," 8 The public library in urban areas would need either to provide the required information itself (for example, the Citizens' Advisory Bureau of the Delhi Public Library deals with problems of housing, legal aid taxation and other such matters) or obtain the information from another library or agency or refer the enquirer to the appropriate agency for the information, help or service he needs. "The 'referral' element is especially important because many problems of the most urgent kind cannot be solved by consulting documents, but require consultation with knowledgeable persons. Often the most urgent problems are not those that call for information at all, but rather for substantive assistance. In such a case, the information needed is 'who will help'?" 9 Thus, the librarian's file of information sources should not only include all types of libraries but also ministries and departments, public and private institutions, societies, trade unions, radio and television stations, newspaper and book publishing offices and individuals. Before leaving this question of information needs, I would like to mention two more groups whose needs the public library in developing countries must pay 82

special attention to, i.e. women and children. In all developing countries, the literacy rate for women is lower than that for men, but women are the mothers of a nation's children, and the education of women is an investment in the nation's future. In East Java, for example, it was found that "wherever village women's clubs grew in strength, villages came to life. There was more economic advancement, fertility and infant mortality rates fell... There also was a lot of minieconomic development around the village homes: better fish ponds, better fruit trees, better gardens, more poultry, more handicrafts such as weaving cloth and mats or making earthenware... In Lemerjud village, the women's club met twice a week to discuss among other things 'diet, good family relations, housekeeping, gardening, health, finances, culture and peace of mind'." 1 0 The supply of suitable books by the public library to such clubs or groups would be a positive contribution to community development. Public library services to children are covered in a separate paper at this Seminar, so I only wish to mention here that children's library services in developing countries, as with adult services, have developed mainly in urban and metropolitan centres, such as Säo Paulo (Brazil), Medellin (Colombia), Lagos, Accra, Delhi, Bangalore, Hong Kong and Singapore. Family poverty means that both rural and urban children may work to supplement the family income, may drop out from school after five or six years of primary education and may lapse into illiteracy through lack of suitable reading material in their mother tongue. " L o w literacy, high production costs due to multiple colour and low print runs, low purchasing power, and disorganized and often linguistically divided markets, combine to make publishing chilren's books in developing countries an uneconomic activity." 1 1 This can be seen from the small number of children's titles published in any one year, as given in Table V. The low output of children's books is part of the general picture of low publishing output in the developing countries, as illustrated from table VI:

83

In order to meet information needs, a major task of the public library is to encourage and assist publishers and writers to produce the books that are needed, including books for new literates, books for children and books in local and national languages. This can best be done through cooperation of all sectors of the book industry, including libraries, in a national book development council. Such councils or equivalent bodies such as the National Book Institute of Brazil have been set up in a number of countries, including the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Ghana, and can do much to promote authorship, publishing, literacy, reading and library development. In the light of all these factors, a reassessment of the role of the public library in the national information system should emphasize the promotion of literacy as a key concern. Kibirige has proposed six major aspects of library-literacy programmes in developing countries that need urgent attention: 1 "Librarians must ensure that they are adequately represented on national planning committees for literacy. 2 Library planners must make a re-appraisal of national library systems to account for the latest trends in literacy programmes... For instance, research into literature requirements of pre-literates, new literates and advanced literates needs to be carried out. This could be shared among national, academic, special libraries and schools of library studies. 3 Libraries should play their part in meeting the problem of scarcity of readers' materials. 4 Libraries should collaborate with other experts to harness mass media to literacy programmes. 5 Librarians must use their expertise to establish comprehensive collections of relevant material on literacy programmes. 6 A lot of librarians need to change their attitude towards service . . . We ought to be prepared to work where we are most needed and in some cases, this may mean places where there are fewer amenities than towns." 12 A librarian heads the Jamaican national agency for the promotion of literacy, while the Tanzania Library Services Board Act 1975 specifies that one of its functions is "to initiate, sponsor, participate, finance and assist in campaigns for the eradication of illiteracy." 13 The functions of the National Library Service of Papua New Guinea, estabhlished in 1975, also include the promotion of literacy, the encouragement of reading, and the dissemination of information and ideas. 14 The provision of information, second key concern for public existing information sources in archives sources, are funded by 84

including advisory and referral services, is a libraries. Although many, if not most, of the developing countries, particularly library and governments, they are not usually available to

the general public or to the public library by such means as interlibrary loans, interlibrary use of reference facilities, sharing of bibliographic data and services, centralized acquisition, processing and cataloguing, or pooling of trained and scarce manpower. Tradition, existing legislation, vested interests, interdepartmental and personal rivalries are some of the factors which account for this lack of resource-sharing. A major obstacle here is the view that the public library is "very much the poor relation of the information world" 1 5 and that it would not be able to reciprocate services extended to it by other libraries. T h e third major area of concern would be the promotion of the reading habit, best started amongst children and their mothers. While there is also a tendency to concentrate on vocational materials for new literates, " m a n does not live by bread alone." T h e public library would need to supply recreational reading material, including fiction, sports and recreation, preferably in the form of magazines, paperbacks and newspapers, as well' as religion, poetry, biography and history, to sustain and promote the habit of reading and to develop skills in intelligent and critical reading. The recognition of these key concerns as national concerns should make it easier to coordinate and rationalise the resources and services of libraries and other information-supplying agencies in both the public and private sectors. In this respect, newer library systems have the advantage of being established and organised on as broad a basis as possible. In the Tanzania Library Services Board Act 1975, for example, the public library includes " a n y library to which a member of the public has or is permitted to have access, whether on payment of any fee, or by virtue of his being a member of any community, club, association, or institution or otherwise.'" 6 In Latin America, six types of public library, maintained by public or private funds and open to the public, have been identified: 1 " T h e general public library, open to children, adolescents and adults in search of all types of materials and information 2 the specialized public library, open to specialists, including libraries supported by private associations or binational or multinational institutes 3 university public library, dependent upon a university or higher education institution and which also assumes the responsibility of a general or special public library 4 the school public library, which operates as an annex to a high school and offers services to the general public with direct access from the street 5 the children's or juvenile public library, organised to serve this group 6 popular library, similar to the general public library." 1 7

85

As mentioned in the earlier part of this paper, some national libraries have combined the functions of a national library and a public library, while in many more countries the national library may be responsible for or provides advisory and financial assistance for public development. A high-level national policy-making agency on which all information-supplying agencies are represented is a prerequisite to the drawing up of a national information policy from which would follow the detailed planning and negotiated agreement on the sharing of information resources, the organisational structures and the financial, manpower and technological bases needed for such sharing to be effective. Only then will it be possible to unite libraries and librarians in working towards the goal of making the public library a vital component of the national information system.

86

References 1 Unesco. Design and planning of national information systems (NATIS): a paper for government planners. Paris, Unesco, 1976. p. 12. 2 Reid, Barrett. Community information and the library. Australian library journal 26(2): 30-36; Mr '77. 3 Childers, Thomas. The information-poor in America. Metuchen, N. J., Scarecrow Press, 1975. 4 Dervin, Brenda. The everyday information needs of the average citizen: a taxonomy for analysis. In Information for the community. Manfred Kochen and Joseph C. Donohue, editors. Chicago, American Library Association, 1976. p. 19-38. 5 Ibid 6 Albertus, Ursula. The role of libraries in the functional literacy programme; library services for new literates. Unesco bulletin 24(4): 201-204, 210; Jl-Ag '70. 7 Ibid 8 Anuar, Hedwig. Keynote address. In Joint Conference on The Need to Know Developing Public Library Services for the Community, Kuala Lumpur, 1977. Proceedings . . . Kuala Lumpur, Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia, 1977. p. 13. 9 Donohue, Joseph C. Information politics: annual meeting. San American Society for

Community information services: a proposed definition. In proceedings of the ASIS Annual Meeting 1976. Vol. 13: 39th Francisco, California, October 4-9, 1976. Washington, D.C., Information Science, 1977. p. 727.

10 Critchfield, Richard. Javanese women head for progress. (Christian Science Monitor News Service). Straits Times. 9 Je '79 : 6 11 IYC/Ideas forum 5, supplement 13, 1979. 12 Kibirige, H. M. Libraries and illiteracy in developing countries: a critical assessment. Libri 27(1) : 54-67; Mr '11. 13 Kaungamno, Ezekiel E. The functions and activities of NATIS Library Service within the NATIS concept. Unesco bulletin 29(5):· 242-248; S. - 0 '75. 14 Baker, Leigh R. An end - and a beginning? The National Library Service at Papua New Guinea. Australian academic and research libraries 10(1): 45-49; Mr '79. 15 Moss, Helen. A national information system? New library world 78(929): 212-213; Ν'77. 16 Kaungamno, Ezekiel, E., op. cit. 17 Freudenthal, Juan R. Contemporary libraries in Latin America. In Encyclopedia of library and information science. V. 24. New York, M. Dekker, 1978. p. 422-455.

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Table I:

Asia: Enrolment ratio for third level of education

Country

Year

Afghanistan Bangladesh Burma India Indonesia Japan Khmer Republic Korea, South Korea, North Laos Malaysia: Sabah Sarawak Peninsular Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Thailand Vietnam

1972 1973 1972 1970 1971 1972 1972 1972 -

Total enrolment

9,817 450,000 51,811 3,112,404 241,800 1,866,029 10,577 228,967 -

1970 -

1972 1971 1969 1970 1969 1970 1973 1970 1972 1972

No. of students per 100.000 population 55 -

178 580 193 1,761 165' 678 -

509

17

583 21,184 8,733 17,025 259,565 757,613 18,010 16,112 125,551 2 86,522

54 225 699 151

-

-

-

2,056 822 129 324 440

Source: Unesco Regional Office for Education in Asia. Annual Statistical Supplement. Bangkok, 1975. 1 1968 2 Excluding Ramkamhaeng University - Not available

88

Table II A:

Africa: Literacy rate

Country South Africa * Somalia * Lesotho Libya Zambia Senegal * Ghana Tunisia * Namibia Uganda Angola Congo Zimbabwe Algeria Egypt Nigeria Rwanda Morocco Ivory Coast * Sierra Leone Sudan Botswana Malawi * Gambia * Mozambique Zaire * Chad Kenya Cameroon Togo * Guinea-Bissau * Liberia * Ethiopia * Benin

Literacy % of population 89.0 60 58.8 (adult) 52.4 47.7 45.6 35 32.2 31 (Blacks) 31.0 30.0 28.8 28.6 26.4 26.3 25.0 23.0 22.2 20.0 20 20.0 18.4 16.5 15 (Eng.) 20 (Arabic) 15 15.0 14 14.0 12.0 10.5 10 8.9 5

Over Age

15 6 10 15 16 15 14 15 15

9 15 15

15 15 -

89

Country + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Burundi Central African Empire Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Gabon Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Sao Tome & Principe Swaziland Tanzania Upper Volta

Sources: Britannica Book of the Year 1977, p. 297 * Europa Yearbook 1978 + not available Table IIB:

Asia: Literacy rate Literacy ι of population

Over age

Japan Korea, South Taiwan Hong Kong China

99.9 88.5 83.4 80.9 40.0

15 13 15 10

Southeast Asia Philippines Thailand Vietnam, S Singapore Burma Brunei Malaysia Indonesia Khmer Republic Laos

83.4 82.3 80.0 72.2 68.3 64.0 60.8 58.1 36.1 34.3

10 10

East Asia

90

(10 years of age and over)

8 15 10 10 15 5

South Asia Sri Lanka India Bangladesh Pakistan Nepal Afghanistan

10 15 15 15 15 15

78.1 33.3 22.7 16.3 12.5 8.0

ource: Britannica book of the year 1977, p. 259 * Report on the census of population, 1970, Singapore able II C:

Latin America & Caribbean: Literacy

Barbados Argentina Uruguay Jamaica Chile Puerto Rico Guyana Trinidad & Tobago Costa Rica Venezuela Panama Brazil Paraguay Colombia Cuba Mexico Peru Ecuador Dominican Republic Honduras Nicaragua El Salvador Bolivia Guatemala Haiti French Guiana Suriname

rate

Literacy % of population

Over age

97 92.6 90.5 89 88.2 87.1 85.0 85 (1970 Census) 84.7 83.4 81.3 79.8 79.7 78.5 77.9 (1953 Census) 76.2 71.6 67.5 67.3 60 57.6 49.0 39.8 36.7 23.3 (1971 Census) not available not available

not available 15 15 not available 15 not available not available 15 15 not available 15 15 15 15 15 9 15 not available 15 10 15 not available 15 15 15 not available not available

Source: Britannica book of the year, 1977 p. 297 * Europa Yearbook, 1978 + Unesco Statistical Yearbook, 1977

Table III A:

Asia: Per capita income

East Asia Japan Korea, South Korea, North Taiwan Hong Kong China

Per capita income (US $) (1976) 5,090 700 1,050 2,230 370

Southeast Asia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Singapore Burma Brunei Malaysia Indonesia Khmer Republic Laos

420 380 160 2,580 120 6,620 830 90

South Asia Sri Lanka India Bangladesh Pakistan Nepal Afghanistan Source: 1978 World Bank atlas - figures not available

92

190 140 90 180 110 180

Table III Β:

Latin America & Caribbean: Per capita income Per capita income (US $) (1976)

Venezuela French Guiana Argentina Suriname Uruguay Brazil Panama Costa Rica Mexico Chile Peru Dominican Republic Nicaragua Ecuador Guatemala Colombia Paraguay Guyana El Salvador Bolivia Honduras Puerto Rico Trinidad & Tobago Barbados Jamaica Cuba Haiti

2,540 1,820 1,580 1,360 1,370 1,300 1,170 1,130 1,060 1,050 840 790 770 700 700 650 650 570 530 510 500 2,310 2,190 1,620 1,150 820 220

Source: 1978 World Bank atlas

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Table IV A:

Asia: Percentage of urban population Percentage of urban population

East Asia Japan Korea, South Korea, North Taiwan Hong Kong China Southeast Asia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Singapore Burma Brunei Malaysia Indonesia Khmer Republic Laos South Asia Sri Lanka India Bangladesh Pakistan Nepal Afghanistan Source: UN Demographic Yearbook, 1976 - figures not available

94

75.9 48.5

31.8 13.2 100 63.6 26.9 18.2 14.7 22.4 20.6 8.8 26.8 4.0

Table IV Β:

Latin America & Caribbean: Percentage of urban population Percentage of urban population

Argentina Uruguay Chile Guyana Costa Rica Venezuela Brazil Paraguay Colombia Mexico Peru Ecuador Dominican Republic Honduras Nicaragua El Salvador Bolivia Guatemala French Guiana Suriname Cuba Panama Puerto Rico Jamaica Barbados Trinidad & Tobago Haiti

75.1 40.0 40.6 74.7 60.4 37.4 64.3 63.6 55.3 41.4 46.8 31.1 48.6 38.8 36.4 66.5 60.3 50.0 58.1 37.1 3.7 49.7 23.1

Source: UN Demographic Yearbook, 1976 - figures not available

95

Table V A:

African & Middle East: Production of children's books

Country

Year

No. of titles

Egypt Ghana Israel1 Ivory Coast Jordan 2 Kenya Libya Malawi Mali Mauritania Nigeria Senegal Sudan Syria Tanzania Tunisia

1974 1976 1975 1976 1976 1976 1975 1974 1975 1976 1975 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976

28 4 113 28 47 11 10 7 2 13 72 6 3 6 15 18

No. of copiei

Source: Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1977 1 Data refer to the fiscal year 1974/75 ending 31 March 2 Data refer to the East bank only.

96

1070 1237 832 32 45 6 6 22 521 60 16 19 250

Table V Β:

Asia: Production of children's books

Country

Year

No. of titles

No. of copies (000)

Bangladesh Brunei Burma Hong Kong India Indonesia Japan Korea, South Malaysia Maldives Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam

1974 1975 1974 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976 1976 1975

2 5 95 48 448 188 1892 1158 193 5 42 29 15 54

5 34 753 139

2207 664 25 158 2349

Source: Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1977

Table V C:

Latin America: Production of children's books

Country

Year

No. of titles

No. of copies (000)

Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Cuba Guyana Mexico Panama Peru Uruguay

1974 1975 1976 1975 1976 1976 1976 1975 1976 1975

5 381 3 16 54 1 15 2 3 7

13 4111 45 40 4725 3 1

Source: Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1977

97

Table VI:

Book production in developing countries. 1976 Percentage distribution of population

Africa (excluding Arab States)

13

North America

Percentage distribution of book production

No. of titles per million inhabitants

%

1.9%

27 382 92

7.5 %

15.4%

Latin America

10.5%

5.2 %

Asia (excluding Arab States)

43,8 %

16.4%

70

15.0%

45.6 %

565

Oceania

0.7 %

0.8 %

227

USSR

8.1 %

14.2%

326

Arab States

4.5 %

1.0%

40

Europe

Developed countries

35.6 %

83.1 %

434

Developing countries

64.4 %

16.9%

49

Source: Unesco Statistical

98

Yearbook

1977

Public libraries in Denmark their users and non-users by P.H Kühl* As an introduction I am not going to tell you very much about the organization of the Danish Public Libraries. You probably know more of that yourselves. The public libraries are not a new-born phenomenon. We had the first Act on libraries in 1920. Since then the law has been revised several times and the present law dates from 1964. The purpose of public libraries is to further enlightment, education and cultural activities by providing books and other material to the disposition of people, freely. They are obligatory municipal institutions for adults as well as children. While the main obligation of the libraries is still concerned with books, there are an increasing number of other activities during recent decades. Among the books you will find a much broader disperstion of quality than earlier and you will find papers with daily news, periodicals and comics. Besides they often lend music in the shape of records and tapes. Arrangements concerning concerts, theatre, film, meetings and exhibilitions are taking place in the library as a cultural centre. It is generally agreed upon that the conditions of active political influence are knowledge, insight and cultural education spread in the population as broadly as possible. Public libraries have an important function in trying to fulfil some of these aims. Research in leisure-time activities in Denmark show that during the last ten years there has been a remarkable growth in the use of libraries and the reading of books. In 1964 25 % of the adult Danish population used the public library. In 1975 the corresponding percentage was 37. The numbers concerning reading a book actually were 28% in 1964, and 46% in 1975. These are numbers concerning adult people, but we know that children during school-age are still more involved in reading. That is why an investigation of the total Danish population was undertaken in order to obtain an extensive - but not intensive - picture of the amount of reading and the correlation with important social criteria. As far as we know it is seldom that children are involved in such investigations, but we tried to get information about children's library use and book-reading. Pre-school children were interviewed with the help of their parents while the school children gave their own answers. From 16 years they belong to the adult group. Our interviewers visited a representative sample of Danish households and talked not only to users but also to non-users of the libraries. To get some supplementary information we talked to people during their visits to the libraries. We asked adults as well as children why they were there, what they * Institute of Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark

99

wanted and if they had their wishes fulfilled, if they were satisfied with the service of the personnel and the the technical devices. Generally we wanted to get a picture of the whole atmosphere. The non-users told us why they didn't go to the libraries. We are very well aware of the fact, that a lot of the information we gathered may be trivial to people well acquainted with the library world. We hope, however, that facts gathered by independent researchers will be of some importance and difficult to ignore. At the same time we are aware of the other fact, that there are several topics which it was not possible to include in the investigation. Libraries and the Population Libraries are popular public institutions. 48 % of all adult persons use one or several libraries. 98 % of older school children, 12-15 years of age, and 95 % of younger school children, 7-11 years of age, used libraries while the figure for the pre-school children, 6 years of age or younger, amounts to 37 %. The average of these figures show that half the total population are more or less regular library-users. Among the adults, more women (51 %) than men (44 %) use libraries while there is no difference between girls and boys. The activity of using a library - like many other activities - declines with age from the extremely high activity among the school children to 31 % among people of 70 years or more. Library-use is higher in urban areas than in rural districts and highest in the suburban communities around Copenhagen. Here two-thirds of the population are active users, while the corresponding fraction in the agricultural districts is two-fifths. The Adult Users Nine out of ten adult Danes know where the nearest library is situated, and half of them use it, mostly to borrow books, principally fiction. To a more modest extent the library functions as an information centre and as a place for meetings, concerts and similar arrangements. Not all groups in society are equally interested in libraries. As the central function - although in a decreasing degree - is the book, reading capacity is an essential condition for library use, consequently there is a strong correlation with the amount of school education. A growing knowledge of the linguistic symbol world is obtained by increasing school education. Nevertheless onethird of the actual library-users have gone to school for only seven years. There is a connection between basic school education and actual occupation, the consequence of which is that self-employed persons in towns and salaried employees are the most active library-users. 100

It has been stated that the borrowing of books does not compete with buying books or records as people who borrow at the same time are the most eager buyers - and in spite of the fact that the same people are the most eager borrowers from friends and family. Not all persons visit the library equally often, but one in four go there at least once a month. Generally the transportation time is about a quarter of an hour, using the transportation available. T h e opening hours differ, but only 3 % of visitors are dissatisfied with the opening time of their own library. One out of five adult persons use other libraries than the nearest and mostly other public libraries. Only 1 % exclusively use more specific professional libraries. As a general rule two to three books are taken home at the time, sometimes four or five - in that case some of them are not read. One in every ten of the users are dissatisfied with the books available and the dissatisfaction is greatest in the group of active users: women and people with relatively high school education. Borrowing of records and tapes is possible in the surburbs of the capital and in the bigger towns. T h e activity is highly correlated with age and school education, falling with age and growing with education. Use of catalogues and counselling the librarian is equally correlated with age and education. Those who ask for services are all content and generally the users have a positive attitude to the library. School children Speaking specifically about the older school children - 12-15 years of age they are almost all of them active users of libraries, partly the public partly the school library, often both. Girls as well as boys go there to borrow books, to read and to meet each other. To a more modest extent they participate in film, theatre and similar programmes. They don't always read all the books they borrow, but at the same time they often read books which are borrowed or owned by parents and friends. A similar exchange takes place with records. As mentioned children's contacts with the library and their reading-activities are influenced by the school education and library connections of their parents. These children most often are well acquainted with the opening times and satisfied with the practical arrangement of the library. They are not always satisfied with the books and records available. One in six of these older school children do not visit the public library, mostly because they are satisfied with the school library or simply have to use it because of the distance they live from the public library. 101

The youngsters go to the library from several times a week to once a month. They mostly take books home, especially the girls. At the same time they are eager to have music - if possible - and in this respect the boys are the most active. Besides that the strongest motivation is social activity, to meet each other. Also the younger school children - 7-11 years of ager - have a close relationship with libraries. Only a few percent stay away. The children have their school libraries and three out of very four library where most of them borrow books. Half of them, however, do not read all the books. The borrowing of records is less simply because they are only available in the urbanized communities. As a consequence children often buy records themselves, but at the same time it is remarkable that the buying of books and records is more usual among people who borrow books and records from the library than among non-users. This age group often take part in the social events of the library by going to film and theatre programmes. Pre-school children Concerning the pre-school children it is remarkable that most of the parents (3/4) buy books for the children while one in three borrows books from the library and one in ten from friends. To a great extent the same parents borrow as well as buy children's books. The interest in supplying pre-school children with books of different kinds is growing with the school-education of the parents and with age, as parents older than 25 years more often borrow books forthe children. A vast majority of the parents read to their children and in that respect the school-education does not influence the activity, neither the extent of working of the mothers. Ν on-users As mentioned almost every school child uses the library, mostly the public library or at least the school library. Among the adults one out of every two stay away from libraries. This fact is partly due to the libraries, partly due to social-structural conditions or individual characteristics. Concerning the libraries the crucial points are: opening times, the material available, the standard of personnel, and the distance to the library. Further the use of the library is dependant on the level of education, occupation, urbanization, age, health, attitudes and free time available. Some of these variables may possibly be influenced and changed according to the political ideal, that most people should have the chance to use this cultural facility. Out of the 50 % of the population which are non-users of the library, half have never used it and the other half have used it earlier. This applies to women as 102

well as men. Again age is an important factor as almost every young non-user has been there earlier, while a lot of people more than 40 years old never have. About non-users aged 60 or 70 years or more 40 % have formerly been users. The most essential background for non-users seems to be a short school education which has prevented the people in getting acquainted with the symbols of language. This is very clear about those who have never used libraries, as 85 % of them have had only seven years of schooling. It means furthermore that there are relatively many non-users among old-age pensioners and people in manual occupations. When you ask people personally, why they don't use the library one-third answer that it has no interest and one-third that they have not sufficient time. This may cover lack of interest, but it may mean lack of sufficient surplus energy in their leisure. Practical obstacles concerning the supply of books, opening times or distance to the library play little part in people's own motivation for the non-use of libraries. One quarter of the non-users satisfy their reading needs through buying their own books. Lack of interest is mostly found among the very young and the oldest persons. The latter have a relatively low reading activity, independent of the library. This group often say that weak health is an obstacle to their using the public library. Among people who have stopped using the library men have often lost interest, while women more often have had lack of time specially in the age of 30-60 years when they were housewives often combined with an occupation. Young people less than 20 years old have often lost interest in the library as they left school while for people aged 60 or more distance plays a growing part. The consequence of a short school education means lack of interest and with growing education people often buy their own books. Observations in the libraries The main part of this investigation has included a representative sample of the total Danish population while the second phase is concerned with library users actually in the library. We talked to them about why they came and their degree of satisfaction. We have discussed their criticisms and wishes as well as their general attitude to the library, the practical devices and the staff. No weight has been put on the quantitative frequency of answers, as the intention has been to try to get some personal elaborations of the viewpoints, which will not be read out of the statistics. We were prepared to meet a series of reactions and answers which were not specifically interesting, as people were unprepared and hardly ever had made up their minds about these problems. On the other hand we hoped to get an impression of the attitudes of users directly. Of course 103

we met the methodological difficulty that the interviewers were different and not able to the same extent to make people speak freely and personally. Contrary to the statistical interview which is taken with a highly structured questionnaire, in the case of library conversations the interviewers only had a list of topics and general questions which covered a number of important aspects. The interviewer tried to provoke the respondents to explain their views and attitudes as much as possible. We talked to adults as well as children and in some cases with groups of children. In the answers we met different viewpoints and attitudes towards the purpose and function of libraries. Some people maintained that the libraries should stick to books alone, while others were very satisfied with the growing possibility of borrowing music and art. Many people are rather ambivalent towards catalogues and such technical devices as visual display terminals. Some are anxious to use them and some believe that they are not for the ordinary user. Many people answer that they ask the librarian for help if they can't find what they want. But others seem to be a little scared to use the help of the librarian. They find that he or she seems busy, so they prefer to take other books than originally intended. Some people even find that they ought to serve themelves, and they regard it as a defeat to ask for help. Generally people express gratitude towards the level of service on the libraries, specifically mentioning the books and the possibilities they include. We asked them if they accepted the system of fines, when books are not returned after a certain period, and the great majority accept the system, even the children. They find it reasonable that you should give back books which you have borrowed freely, because other people might want them. Most of the users express much confusion about the decision-making concerning books to be bought for the library. Often they have some vague ideas of a committee working in a distant place and making the necessary decisions. Mostly they trust the decisions of the librarians, but some would like some more influence directly from the users. They feel however a certain lack of competence and sufficient amount of time for that work. It is a general attitude among the users that it would be highly deplorable if there were no library. People would be less enlightened and would be more incompetent citizens. Many people would not be able to buy the books they could read, and consequently they would read less without libraries. The political aspect is that the libraries make contribution towards diminishing the inequalities of society. Attitudes towards children's use of the library are rather different. Some people stress the necessity of the children being early acquainted with the library and with reading, while others find that they read too little and make too much noise, disturbing serious users of the library. 104

We discussed the problems with the children themselves and some of them expressed a wish for specific sections for children and for youngsters, partly because children of different age levels mutually attack each other for making too much noise. Concerning the motivation for going to the library some indicate literary reasons, they want to find a "good book". Many of the children indicate nonliterary reasons, they want to play the games available there, to listen to music and sometimes to read without borrowing books, wanting to see comics and sometimes papers. The big children very often got here to see each other. For many of the children the library no doubt is a pleasant place to stay, partly because they have no more pleasant place to go.

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User research as an instrument to measure the policy of the public library by R.A.C. Bruyns* According to Totterdell and Bird, effectiveness of the public library can, on one side, be defined as the degree in which the public library satisfies the needs for information of the whole society, and, on the other as the degree in which the public library propagandizes itself in this society as an institution which is able to satisfy these needs of information. Totterdell and Bird mean by need for information each need that can be linked to the role the public library has to play in the transfer of "culture". This implies the transfer of knowledge, arts, morals, manners, customs and all the other attainments and habits which are necessary for human beings to function as hundred percent members of society. The extent to which the library, by means of its activities, realizes its aims cannot be fixed very simply. The following problems can be mentioned. First the transfer of information happens to occur in several ways. Secondly the information is not only locked up in written materials. Thirdly it also is not only a transfer that restricts itself to lending activities. Transfer of information occurs also by confronting the public with the materials itself, for example in expositions. Besides the transfer of information does not only take place within the building in which the library is lodged, but also outside. The way in which the transfer of information takes place and the amount of information being transferred give a lot of problems for "measuring". Measuring will become much more difficult if one also wants to determine who is using (directly or indirectly) the public library and in which way. In this respect it is insufficient to take into account only the members. People (non-members), who are using the public library in another way or who are approached by the library by means of other activities than the lending-desk, have been contracted out. Determining who is a member and the frequency in which members - for the reading of books - are using the library is just one criterion for measuring the effectiveness of the public library. However it is not enough to conclude if the library has been effective in realizing all its aims. Although the amount of members (expressed in a percentage of the population) and the number of lendings (average per member) - both are data which can be researched very easily in general - are important indicators.

* Lecturer in Management, Library School, Amsterdam, Netherlands 106

One cannot expect that the number of people, using the library not by means of a membership card, will be a very large group and/or clearly will belong to other categories of the population, than library-members. This expectation is also not very realistic if we consider that the financial means of the library for approaching the public by other ways than by means of the traditional way has been very limited. It is possible to determine by research the extent in which the public is using the library-facilities, who is using the library and in what way (for what reasons). In the following paragraphs we will try to show that user-research could be an important instrument for the public library in testing its policy. This does not mean that research is the only effective instrument. Research is only one of the instruments with which can be determined periodically whether the library realizes its planned aims. "Enquiry of actual and potential consumers is one way of starting to consider whether the public library service has got its priorities right", says Bryan Luckham. In a publication of a very big userresearch with the users of the public library in Baltimore during the period 1961-1972, Lowell Martin gives an extensive justification of user-research. He is posing, inter alia, the following: "The public library is a service institution, designed to serve the people, but it functions for the most part with only partial or indirect information about its public. This limitation applies in part to knowledge about those who use the institution - who they are, their motives in using the library, their success or failure in doing so - and applies in particular to readers and potential readers who do not use the institution. Further the library lacks measures of use, valid indices to show how well it is performing. In fact the public library administrator can seldom answer even the elemental and direct question of how many of the people who reside or work in the community use his institution." One of the explanations for this lack of knowledge about user and use is, in the opinion of Martin, the existing tradition of the librarian to be more oriented to materials (collection) than to the public: "librarians traditionally, and library administrators with them, have been more oriented to the collection and to how the collection must be organised and less to use and users." Knowledge of use and users, present and potential, can be the beginning of wisdom in public library administration, indicating what is really being accomplished, signalling need for change, and pointing out opportunities for development. User information can identify where and for what the libraryreader is occurring and where it is not, and give some indication of why not. "Essentially," says Martin at the end of his pleading for more user-research, "information about the user can help deal· with the question: just what is the 107

role of the public library today, should its functions be developed." In Advances in librarianship, edited by Voigt and Harris (New York, 1977), Zweizig and Dervin have written an excellent article about user-research. Besides an analysis of 16 American user-researches they go very thoroughly into the following matters: the necessity of research, the conditions necessary for a useful research for library policy, and the direction in which user-research has to develop itself, in other words: the defined problems as basis for future research. Zweizig and Dervin start their article with the assumption that "few would contest the observation that many forces for change are impinging on the public library today; in a period of increasing need for information for daily coping, competitive information agencies are developing to manage information and meet information needs". If, besides that, it appears, that only 5 % of the adult population think of the public library as a place to obtain everyday information (according to analysed researches) one could say that something is totally wrong regarding the aims of the public library. "In the competition for public money, it is not enough for public librarians to be serving 20 % of the adult population as frequent users. User-oriented programme-planning is required to provide more responsive, accountable services." However, programme-planning demands knowledge and understanding in the needs of the several categories of the population belonging to the working-area of the public library. For this reason it is noticeable that, especially during the last ten years, the interest of the library and the librarian concerning the needs of the public for all kinds of information is increasing. This growing interest is proven by the number of articles in library journals about the users of the public library. According to Zweizig and Dervin, there seem to be at least three perspectives in that literature on public library use, users and uses. We quote: " One of these, by for the major body, consist of non-empirical reports and commentary in which normative principles of service are outlined, and descriptions of a variety of programs are provided. This body of literature is primarily "directive" in nature. Professionals transmit to each other and to aspiring professionals a set of values regarding public librarianship. A second perspective is, in contrast, empirical and is the perspective upon which public libraries conventionally rest their cases for financial support from public monies". This perspective focusses on circulation statistics. The basic question asked is: "How many of our materials are being circulated?" Although such studies of cirulation were once found in the journal literature, circulation statistics have always been routinely collected, collated, and published in such documents as annual reports, newsletters, directories, and state library agency reports. Both these classes of literature tell us virtually nothing about who uses the library and how much. 108

The "normative" perspective provides insight but no systematic evidence that could be useful in the arena of accountability. The"circulation statistics" perspective, which long accepted as the statistic of accountability for public librarianship, is coming increasingly into question. As a statistic, circulation tells us little about how many people use the library or what the characteristics of the people are. Nor does it help the librarian plan innovative programmes. Thus, circulation as a measure of effectiveness is clearly not meeting the accountability needs. It is in the gap between the normative perspective and the circulation perspective that we see a growing emphasis on empirically determining how much individual citizens use the library, what proportion of the public uses the library, and in determining the characteristics and needs of these users." In this regard Zweizig and Dervin are pleading for more fundamental and systematical research. The theory to assess, which has to be the base of such a research, must have such a structure that one has a guarantee that library-policy could be measured indeed. In other words, the questions (topics) to be asked, have to be essential for policy-making. Only under this condition the results of the investigation could be an indication for the extent in which the library has realised its intended effects. Besides this condition there are of course demands that can be made upon methods and techniques of research. Anyway user-research should not be restricted to the assessment of the number of users only: "the number of users is a measure of library-activity, but it is questionable whether it is a measure of library effectiveness" (Zweizig and Dervin). Kob, Fischer and Helden who have done a lot of library-research in the Federal Republic of West Germany are saying the same. In their opinion user-research can be only useful if the research can give answers to the following qustions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Who is using the public library? For what reasons are people using or not-using the library (motives)? Which factors are burdening the use of the library? In what way is the public library-user to be distinguished from the general public? 5. Is it possible to say anything about non-users from research done by libraryusers, regarding their motives and the way of using the library?

Besides questions of who is using the library and in what frequency, it is also important to know for what reasons one is using the library. What does the person find useful that a library might be able to provide?

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According to Zweizig and Dervin one could see a development in the question being asked in future research. In the past the most important question was: how many times are people using the library (frequency)? The most essential question of the present research is: who is using the library (what categories of the population)? The question that has to be emphasised in the research of the near future must be the following: in what ways can the public library be used (facilities)?

List of consulted and incorporated materials Bibliotekstilsynet; beretrung 1973/74, 1974/75, 1975/76, 1976/77. Kabenhavn 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977. Bruyns, R.A.C De doelstelling van de openbare bibliotheek: -voorlopig eindverslag. Den Haag, Ν.B.L.C., 1975. Colson, F. Leesgedrag en lektuurvoorziening. Leuven, Katholieke Universiteit, 1972. 2 delen. De gebruiker van de openbare bibliotheek en zijn oordeel over de dienstverlening; een verslag van een steekproefonderzoek bij tien openbare bibliotheken in Nederland; samengesteld onder redactie van de werkgroep bibliotheekonderzoek door R.A.C. Bruyns. Den Haag, N.B.L.C., 1978, Bibliotheekonderzoek 2 B. Doelstelling van het openbaar bibliotheekwerk, Bestek 1978, N.B.L.C., 1978, biz. 13-15. Gorp, N. van, en H.B.M. Luykx. Lezers en bibliotheken; een sociologisch onderzoek uitgevoerd in opdracht van de PBC Haarlem. Haarlem, PBC voor Noord-Holland, 1970. Jansen, M.J. Boeken kiezen voor anderen; rapport over een sociaalpsychologisch onderzoek naar het leesgedrag en de boekenkeuze van volwassenen. 's-Gravenhage, Uitgeversfonds der bibliotheekverenigingen, 1959. Kinderen en boeken - 1963; een onderzoek naar koop-, lees- en studiegewoonten. 'sGravenhage, Nederlandse stichting voor statistiek, 1963. 2 delen. Kob, J., B. Fischer, P. Helfen. Profil der Benutzer öffentlicher Bibliotheken. Berlin, Deutscher Bibliotheksverband, 1973. Kolbe, C. en H. Sieberkrieb. Modell einer Bibliothekssoziografie. Berlin, Deutscher Bibliotheksverband, Arbeitsstelle fur das Bibliothekswesen, 1974. Leesgedrag en bibliotheeklidmaatschap 12-20 jarigen; een onderzoek van bureau Lagendijk, Apeldoorn, 1976. Lezen en de openbare bibliotheek in Nederland. Apeldoom, bureau Lagendijk, 1977. Lezen en de openbare bibliotheek in Nederland; resultaten van een enquête onder Nederlanders van 18 jaar en ouder. Den Haag, N.B.L.C., 1978. Bibliotheekonderzoek 3. Lezen van boeken; feiten en achtergronden. Amsterdam, Nederlands centrum voor marketing analyses, 1968. 110

Luckham, Β. The Library in society; a study of the public library in an urban setting. London, The Library Association, 1971, biz. 3. Martin, L.A. Library response to urban change; a study of the Chicago public library. Chicago, American Library Association, 1969, biz. 1. Martin, L.A. Adults and the Pratt Library; a question of the quality of life. Baltimore, Maryland, Enoch Pratt Free Library, 1974. Mensen en boeken - 1961; een onderzoek naar koop-, lees- en studiegewoonten. 's-Gravenhage, Nederlandse stichting voor statistiek, 1961. Middel, B. Is de bibliotheek ook voor U?; de eerste stappen naar een bibliotheeksociologie. Intermedian, 14juli 1978, biz. 11-27. Nederlander, De, en zijn boek; een onderzoek naar de achtergronden van het kopen, leven en lezen in Nederland in 1974. Amsterdam, Interview, 1975. Onderzoek naar het gebruik en de dienstverlening van de openbare bibliotheek; evaluatie van het experimentele onderzoek te Alphen aan de Rijn en Stadskanaal; samengesteld onder redactie van de werkgroep bibliotheekonderzoek door R.A.C. Bruyns. Den Haag, N.B.L.C., 1975. Bibliotheekonderzoek 2. Onderzoek bibliotheekgebruik. Amsterdam, Stichting Speurwerk betreffende het boek, 1977. 5 delen en een samenvatting. Rees, M.B. and W. Paisley. Social and psychological predictors of adult information seeking and media use. Adult Education Journal, 19, biz. 11-29. Steinberg, H. Zur Benutzerforschung öffentlicher Bibliotheken; Materialen aus Amerika: Jan Hajda. Berlin, Deutscher Bibliotheksverband, 1973, blz. 30-37. Totterdell, B. and J. Bird. The effective library; Report of the Hillingdon project on public library effectiveness. London. The Library Association, 1976, blz. 15. Weterings, T.H.P. Leven en lezen in Uitgeest; een onderzoek naar leesgewoonten, vrije tijdsbesteding en bibliotheekgebruik in Uitgeest. (doctoraalscriptie). Sociologisch Instituut, Universiteit van Amsterdam, januari 1978, blz. 69. Zweizig, D. en B. Dervin. Public library use, users and uses: advances in knowledge of the characteristics and needs of the adult clientele of american public libraries. In: Advances in librarianship; ed. by M.J. Voigt and M.H. Harris. New York, Academic Press, 1977, vol. 7, blz. 232-255.

Ill

Appendix In the period 1975-1977 the Dutch Public Relation Centre (NBLC) has carried out two "big" surveys in the field of public library use. The results of these surveys have been analysed and compared with similar surveys both in the past as well outside the Netherlands, mainly United Kingdom, U.S.A., Belgium and West Germany. In the following pages is a summary of the results of this analysis and comparison. I. Who is using the public library? 1. The use of the public library, considering age. (a) - It appears that the younger generation (especially those younger than 18 years old) are more often member than the older generation: 2 / 3 of the Dutch population between 14 and 18 are members of the public library. - With people of 40 years and older the membership decreases notably and/or is less constant. In this respect the category of 50 years and older bear the palm: of these only 10 to 15 % appear to be members. - Compared with the past one could state that the present day list of members of the Dutch library has undergone an obvious renewal. (b) This renewal also appears to have occurred "abroad". There is no essential difference with situations "elsewhere" as far as the overrepresentation of younger people (under 30-35 years old) and the underrepresentation of the older people (older than 40 years old) is concerned. Only in the United Kingdom the situation appears to be different, at least considering some results of research. In the U.K. the various age groups (over 20 years old) appear to make use of the library in an equally large measure (at least proportionally). Explanation The fact that members of the younger generation (younger than 18 years old) use the library more often nowadays than formerly can, in our opinion, be explained by the fact that there is a growing co-operation between public libraries and schools. Besides this, freedom of subscription for the younger members (as far as the Dutch situation is concerned) has had its influence. The educationarea nowadays stimulates younger people much more often than in former days to make use of the public library for reasons of study. The important growth of the library work for the youth and the start of library work in schools (including school-library services) will, no 112

doubt, have contributed indirectly to this stimulating effect by the teaching institutions. In our opinion there could be various reasons for the fact that the older generation (from about 40 years old and then to an increasing extent) make comparatively, as well in former days as at present less use of the library (both in the Netherlands as elsewhere). It could be that by having more hobbies and/or taking part in all sorts of activities in their spare time, people read less and therefore make less use of the public library than those under 40. Certainly it is also of great importance that older people need to use the library much less than the younger, for the purpose of studying. Perhaps the following supposition could also be of influence on the membership of libraries: that people - as they grow older and consequently obtain larger incomes - will buy books more often than that they will borrow them. 2. The use of the public library, considering sex. In the Netherlands women in all age groups make more use of the library and/ or are more often members than men. The proportion between male and female members of libraries is, as far as youth is concerned, approximately 2:3 and with regard to the "older" (over 18 years old) approximately 3:4. This situation does not always appear to be identical "abroad". The United States and West Germany show the same situation as the Netherlands, even in the same proportions. The United Kingdom and Belgium however indicate just the reverse. Explanation The simplest explanation for the fact that women (in the Netherlands, West Germany and the United States) are more often members of the public library than men, could be that women during daytime - even nowadays? - have more time to spend on visiting libraries than men. Of course men read as well, but many married men will probably do this by means of the membership of their wives. Also in families where the children are members, married women will often come to the library with their young children. Yet it is not all as simple as that. In the first place because this explanation will not do in Britain and Belgium and yet one really cannot say of both countries that they differ from other "Western" countries in their socio-economic climate. In the second place it appears that with younger people, not yet being employed, the scale is turned very clearly with regard to the female sex. A 113

more justified reason for the greater use of the library by the female is that girls and women attach a greater value to reading or have a stronger reading tradition by way of education, than boys and men. A readingvalue that obviously does not count - for Britain and Belgium - at least not as far as reading through the library is concerned. Unless this is the case in both countries and greater use of the library by men at that place is more connected with a joining of membership to the position of "head" of the family. A further research will have to settle whether the earlier mentioned suppositions will indeed be justified as hypotheses. 3. The use of the public library, considering civil status. There are very few researches, both in the Netherlands or abroad, that have used the factor civil status as one of the variables to be explored. The reason for this could be that one starts from the supposition that this factor, next to variables like "age" and "sex" being of more influence, does not make any difference, or that asking for the civil status of people is still too much a matter of privacy. Both arguments probably catch on. From researches that have used the factor civil status it has proved to be more than clear that unmarried people are more often members of the public library than married people or people who have been married. This also appears clearly from researches being analysed by Zweizig and Dervin. People who have been married appear to make slightly less use of the public library than married people. Explanation The factor civil status does not appear to be directly of influence on the extent of the use of libraries. One could suppose that the extent in which one disposes of spare time which is less with married people (certainly with people with children) than with unmarried people, results in less use of the public library. Because of the strong correlation between unmarried and people from the age of 15-25 years old one cannot point out very clearly how far more spare time and/or stimulation by means of some studying-situation has a positive influence on the membership of unmarried people. 4. The use of the public library, considering residence, occupation.

religion

and

(a) In the present day Dutch situation the degree of urbanization of the place of work hardly has any influence on the use (whether by means of an own membership or not) of public libraries. However, there are differences considering regions.

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In the researches being made abroad which we have analysed nobody has considered how far geography, environment and/or the extent of urbanization play parts in library membership. Yet it has been proved from the analysis of American researches that as people live further away from libraries, the number of memberships decrease. (b) The membership of the library, related to religious conviction, appears to have a distinct effect upon the population over 18 years old - to that effect that the Roman Catholics are less members than non-religious and Protestants. Among young people (12-20 years old) religious conviction appears not to cause any difference in the extent to which one makes use of the library or not. From the above one would conclude that a lesser use of libraries in the south (of the Netherlands) - by people of 18 years and older cannot be imputed to the management of the libraries concerned. One can ascribe this lesser use to the influence the Catholic Church has had in the past. In the past the use of the public library was far from being stimulated by the Catholic Church and as a result of this older population in the south is still less "library minded". (c) It appears that more students are members than non-students. This is the case as well in the Netherlands as "elsewhere". Those who are not studying nor have any paid-employment appear (both in the Netherlands as, for instance, in Britain) to be a member less often. This is in accordance with a research by Hajda in the United States. As an explanation for this lower rate of membership by nonemployed/non-studying people Hajda does not mention the lesser amount of spare time (which can be even more! ). However, he does mention the living conditions of this category. In his eyes this situation, just like the situation of women that have been married can be characterized as a situation in which one takes an isolated/less integrated position in society than employed and/or studying people do. A more isolated position and/or not being stimulated by means of profession or study decreases the use of libraries. 5. The use of the public library, considering education, income, profession. Education and the social class that goes with it appears to determine the use of the public library in a large measure. Very often people with a higher level of education or social class are members of the library. Thinking of the strong differences between various categories of education one could easily speak of a disproportion. This occurs not only in the Netherlands but also abroad. The situation in the Netherlands is almost identical to the situation in Western Germany and the United States. 115

Britain and Denmark (although to a slight lesser degree) deviate in a favourable way with respect to the rest. In Britain 15 to 20 % of the working class (or the group with the lowest education) appears to be in membership. In Denmark about 12 to 15 % is in membership and in the Netherlands, Western Germany and the United States approximately 6 to 7 % are members. Belgium, at least as far as the Dutch speaking part is concerned, shows a very sad image: not even 1/2% of the unskilled working class is in membership. Can one say that, when comparing the Netherlands of today with the past, that there has been a favourable development in this respect? In other words, can one conclude from the researches that, in contrast with the past, labourers (or people with a low degree of education) comparatively have become members of the library more often over the years? Unfortunately the answer is in the negative. The percentage of the working class in membership of libraries has not increased but has been remained the same. On the other hand more people with a high level of education have become members. Even more than in the past the category of people with a high level of education (middle or high class) is dominating. The Dutch libraries have attracted more and more people over the years from the higher classes, but they obviously have in no way become more attractire to the lower classes. The working class has, compared with the past, not become more "library-minded". This could be seen as a failing management of libraries. The management of the last decade has led to a rise of the number of members (from 10 to 20 % of the population) but the rise is mostly because of the bigger flow of readers coming from into the higher categories of education. Obviously the management has attracted this group of the population but not that part of the population (more than 50%) that needs the library most because of the lack of other "cultural facilities". In short, the public library appears more and more to have become a library for the elite. Characterization

of the

library-user.

People of all sections of society are users or members of libraries. It is not only the highly educated or the person that belongs to the social elite that makes use of the library. We can make this conclusion in view of the results of researches we have analysed. Proportionately the groups of higher income and/or categories of higher education make much more use of the library. As far as the relation between the use of the library and certain demographic characteristics of the individual user is concerned, it appears that the level of education is the most important influential variable. 116

All researches show that as the level of education increases the chance gets bigger that the library is being used. It is education that, in these days is mainly determining the social status and, to a slightly less degree, the level of income. This situation being given, Bryan Luckham asks why people with a low level of education (belonging for instance, to the lower classes: unskilled manual workers) become members of the library and why, on the other hand, have certain people with a high level of intelligence, a high income and a very high level of education not yet become members? With regard to the first part of this question it appears from the research Luckham made at Chester and Eccles that the greater part of the "unskilled manual workers" that are members of the public library have either had a higher (not finished) education or are taking classes. In this situation too the stimulus appears to come from education. Besides, one could mention the reading habit as an intervening factor. As one reads more, one will sooner and to a higher extent make use of the library. Education and reading are very closely connected. This appeared strongly from a research made by "Stichting Speurwerk" in 1968 in the Netherlands: "Reading and the appreciation for reading have been developed mostly by people with a better education, coming from the better situated groups of the population, by people that, concerning mental attitude, are more receptive to new habits". According to another study it appeared that approximately 90 % of the non-users mentioned that they either did not read or did not have time to read. As far as the second part of Luckham's question is concerned: it appeared from his research that this group consisted of many of the following: - women with young children; - people that had just settled down at a place; - men with a working situation far away from their living situation; - ex-users of libraries who were critical about the collection; - and of course people not thinking of reading as being a form of spending their leisure time. Moreover, it appeared from a research to the "Profil der Benutzer öffentlicher Bibliotheken" made by Kob, Fischer and Helfen, that as far as the higher classes were concerned, also people that can realise their reading needs by means of another type of library (scientific library) and people that belong to the highest group of income but have a rather low level of education are less often members of the public library. Age, sex, civil status are all factors that have their influence on the use of libraries. The age factor appears to be the most important. Contrary to 117

the variable of education one cannot speak of a linear relationship between age and the use of libraries. Education, size of family and social environment explain more. If people still are taking part in some kind of education (as a pupil or student) they are generally members. If this is not so any longer, the membership decreases clearly. As appears from researches, being analysed by Zweizig and Dervin, age is related to the use of libraries in a negative way if people with a low level of education are concerned, and positively with regard to people with a high level of education. Young people that have been users of libraries at the time of their studies will not withdraw their membership so soon if they take part in some kind of education for a rather long time. The fact that it appears from quite a few researches that women make more use of the library than men, does not much relate to the sex factor, as more to taking part in a working situation or not. As the library is mostly open during daytime, it is not surprising that people having time to visit the library during these hours (pupils, students, housewives) make more use than people that can only make use of the library in the eveninghours or on Saturdays (full-time employees). As far as the relation between the use of libraries and non-demographic characteristics is concerned the following could be stated as appears from Zweizig and Dervin: Except for the already mentioned positive relation between reading-habit and the use of libraries, there is a positive relation between the use of libraries and the possession of books. From this one could conclude that if libraries and bookshops promote the reading habit this will be for the benefit for both lending and buying books. Between the use of libraries and the extent in which people use other media there is only a (positive) relation with the reading of newspapers and magazines. The extent in which people listen to the radio and/or watch television has no influence on the use of the library. Finally Zweizig and Dervin come to the conclusion that one can speak of a positive relation between the use of libraries and the frequency of social contacts. The users of libraries comparatively appear both formally (clubs) as informally (acquaintances etc.) to have more contact with other people than people who are not library-users. If one had to characterize a library user, in our opinion Rees and Paisly do it best:

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"The composite portrait is a well-educated, young user with a positive attitude towards new media, a higher number of organizational memberships and relatively high measures of achievement-motivation" or as Zweizig says it: "The high library-user is more open-minded, younger, more educated, having higher socio-economic status, being able to name more potential sources of information, using more professional sources of information, having more togetherness and more community-involvement, reading more books, having more books, in his home, reading more magazines." II. Why and for what purpose do or don't people use the public library? 1. Frequency of use. On the whole it can be said that in 1975 Dutch readers visited the library very frequently: 85 % visited the library 2 to 3 times a month. It has been possible to compare this with other countries as the United Kingdom and (Flemish) Belgium. Between Britain and the Netherlands there is no difference: in both countries approximately 85 % of the members of libraries visit the library more than 2 or 3 times a month. Belgium has a much lower percentage, namely approximately 50 %. Also the rate of membership is much lower. The fact that the greater part of the library members make use of the library so frequently is in our opinion a result of the fact that in most libraries the fixed time for borrowing books is 3 weeks. It is also a rule that at every visit one can only take so and so many books. From this one can conclude that an immense part of members are in the possession of library-books continually. In all analysed researches it appeared that the sex factor, contrary to the influence on membership, plays no part at all in the measure of libraryuse: men and women visit (if they are members) the library just as frequently. This is opposed to the usual supposition, that women visit the library more often than men. This is an expectation based on the fact that housewives have more opportunity to visit libraries during daytime than their husbands. In fact it is not so surprising that sex does not differentiate, as members of libraries are concerned. Moreover, by the word "use" also reading library books on its own can be meant. To do that it is not necessary to visit the library oneself. Age and frequency of use do not correlate. Yet it appears that people between 20-25 to 35-40 years of age visit the library less frequently than people younger than 20-25 or older than 35-40 years old. Both the British as the Flemish research confirm the results of the Dutch research in this view. One could probably explain the less frequent "use" of 119

libraries by people in the age of 20-25 to 35-40 years by the fact that these people generally speaking are engaged in career-making, in other words: they have less spare time. If people have already become members of the library the factor of education also appears not to play a part. Yet readers with a very high level of education visit the library a little less frequently than the others. This is shown both by the Dutch and the British studies and especially by the Flemish research. One could probably explain this by all the other possibilities highly educated people have to satisfy their needs of information. 2. Reasons for not using the library. As far as reasons for not using libraries are concerned, there are not so many differences between the past and to-day, between the Netherlands and elsewhere. From the few researches, concentrated on the non-users it appears that two factors play important parts in not using the library. In the first place there is the fact that reading is not at all popular with the larger part of people that do not use libraries or have no time for it. In the second place there is the fact that the library is looked upon as being an institute that is meant for other environments rather than the environment oneself belongs to. Also this second factor has indirectly to do with not being interested in reading books. The fact that the non-user looks upon the library as an institution where he can only come to read or to borrow books and where moreover he can only borrow books (of a certain standard) is characteristic of what a majority of the population imagines libraries to be. The most important reason for people who did make use of the library in the past but no longer do so now, is that this category of non-users no longer is satisfied with the library facilities. Especially the collection has very often been mentioned as a reason for withdrawing one's membership. It appeared that both the amount as well as the level of the collection did not satisfy. 3. Reasons for using the library. Only very few Dutch and foreign researches have examined whether library-users visit the library for other reasons than for borrowing books only. From researches that have been anxious to examine this it appears that most library-users indeed visit the public library to borrow books. In the Netherlands about 90 % use the library in order to borrow books. In Britain this number is less, namely about 80 %. The public library in Britain on the contrary, at least according to both British researches, is more than in the Netherlands looked upon as also being an institution one uses for studies (to consult books of reference). One could probably explain this by the fact that the public library in the United Kingdom 120

even to a higher extent than in the Netherlands (and also in other WestEuropean countries) emphasies the reference and information function. If we base our case on the national NBLC-research, it appears that there is little difference between Britain and the Netherlands as far as the percentage of users that also visited the library to ask for information is concerned: about 20 % of Dutch library users glance through newspapers and magazines in the library, in Britain less people do this: approximately 11 %. 4. The use of catalogues and staff services. About 30 % of Dutch users of the public library never make use of the catalogues while about 60 % consult the catalogue very little or just very occasionally. Only 10 % of the users consult the catalogue intensively or frequently. There is a certain connection between age and the use of catalogues: as far as older people are concerned the use of catalogues decreases considerably. There also is a connection between the level of the received education and the extent of the use of the catalogue. As the level of education is higher, there is a greater use of the catalogue. Strikingly high is the number of users with primary education and/or primary professional education that never consult catalogues (48 %). When being interviewed most users of libraries who never made use of the catalogue justified this by saying they simply did not need it. About 30% of the "never" users said either they had never heard about a catalogue or they did not know how to use it. The extent in which the reading-public makes use of the staff (for the sake of advice or information) is very low. 56.5 % of the reading public never or hardly ever makes use of the staff, 36 % do so occasionally, whilst 7.5 % of the readers frequently use the staffs services. Age and level of education appear not to be of any influence in this respect. As far as the use of the catalogue is concerned the Dutch situation does not appear to be different from the West German situation. The research being held at some libraries in the areas of Cologne and Hamburg shows that 56.6 % never or hardly ever use the catalogue. In the Netherlands this is 55 %. In the German research the percentage of users that stated to call in the staff never or very seldom was even higher than in the Dutch research: West Germany = 71.2 % against 56.5 % in the Netherlands. 5. Preference of book-genre. The preference for certain genres of the Dutch library-user in the year 1975 is about the same as it was at the end of the 1950s. Regional and 121

family novels and historical novels still appeal to most readers, while psychological novels, war novels and detective fiction also appear to be in demand, especially with the category 18-40 years of age. Literary novels are also popular mostly with people between 18-40 years of age. From the fact that, in this respect, nothing has changed, one could conclude that the relation between preference for certain genres and level of education, that has been put forward by recent researches, has also been present in the past. In other words as the level of education rises, the reading of regional novels, doctors' novels, wild-west stories and romantic books decreases. Only with the younger people there is a clear difference in the preferences for certain genres between the past and nowadays. This interest has decreased notably nowadays, at least as far as the realization of this interest by way of borrowing library books is concerned. As far as the interest people have for certain genres outside the Netherlands is concerned, one can only make a comparison with Britain and Belgium. The interest in psychological novels, regional novels and detective fiction is almost the same as in the Netherlands. The preference of the library-user for the reading of romantic books appears to be less in the Netherlands than in Britain and Belgium. One should be very cautious in accepting such a supposition as it is not always clear what is meant by "romantic books". Thinking of the foregoing one can conclude that the present Dutch situation is not really different, neither with regard to 10-20 years ago, nor with regard to foreign countries.

The image of the public 1. The actual

library.

situation.

In most researches, we have analysed, there has hardly been any direct research into the image which the public has of the library. In nearly all researches the emphasis has been put on using or not using the library and/or being a member or not. None of these measurable quantities can serve as a direct indication for the place the library is destined for in society by the public. A few researches have asked whether the public judge the library and its services favourably or unfavourably. From these one can conclude what kind of attitude the public has towards the library. Also the extent in which the population makes use of the library could possibly serve as an indication for the appreciation people have for the library. This could imply that people who do not, or hardly use the library, which is 122

the majority of the population, have a less favourable opinion at the library. However it is not true that people who make use of the library are the only people that have a opinion and that people that do not use the library are indifferent. Even a just image of what activities the library realises does not have to be related only or mostly to the group that uses the library. Bryan Luckham says the following in this respect: "The likelihood that a person will have a clear impression of the library service will depend in part on his knowledge of it. On the other hand it is well known that people can also hold or express strong opinions on matters of which they have little experience." Using the library does not always mean that one is well-informed on the services of the public library, it appears from a recent sociological research of Weterings. It appeared that the percentage that did not exactly know the activities of the library was alarmingly high with both users and non-users. On one side it appears from quite a few researches that the public and especially the non-users are not sufficiently informed about all the activities of the library, on the other hand the library enjoys a good reputation on the whole. Both in the Netherlands as elsewhere, the library has a good reputation even with non-users. From research among the Dutch population of 18 and older it appeared that 38 % think the role of the public library should increase; 6 0 % said it should stay as it was and no-one thought the role should become smaller. Yet this does not mean that one could expect a non-user to become a member of the library in the future. Acceptance of the role of the library and even a favourable judgment on the place does not mean that non-users, as probably is the case with users, are really interested in the services of the library. This appeared very clearly from the "Hillingdon" research made by Totterdell and Bird. As about 100% of the members are very interested in the public library, only 37 % of the non-members are interested in libraries. When nonusers in the Dutch research were being asked whether they would make use of the public library in the future, only 8 % of the non-users answered positively. Not being enough informed with the facilities of the library, in other words with what the library also could do to satisfy the needs of information of the non-users, has been mentioned in Dutch researches as being a cause of this little interest or little need to visit libraries. The greater part of the non-users say that the fact that they do not use the library has got nothing to do with the library itself, but that it is because of personal circumstances. "Neither the environment of living, nor the quality of the public reading 123

provision has a strong influence on the reading habit of the population." Even raising a subscription which has been criticized heavily in the library-world appears hardly to be of influence with the public. The number of people that think that library-use should be completely and in principle free of charge is very low. In the Netherlands 91 % of the population think that grown people should pay for the use of libraries, while in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium 83 % of the population think that one should pay for the membership. Of course these percentages are not completely reliable, because people who do not use the library think that other people who do use the library should also pay for it. 2. Recommendations of management with regard to the image of the public library It is probably clear, not only from the preceding paragraph, but also from the results of other researches that the public library has got to pay attention to its public relations. The fact that many non-users think that the public library is not for them, but that it is more an institution for the higher classes (people that have a good education) implies that the library will have a difficult task to destroy this image. Also the fact that a great part of the population thinks of the library as a building in which they can borrow books (and only of a special kind) implies that the library world up to now has not succeeded in making clear to the public all the things the public library has to offer. Librarians will have to take much greater initiative, and instead of awaiting the arrival of the public to the library, will have to go out to the public themselves and give information on the spot. As far as the realisation of this is concerned it is necessary that the library whether by means of research or not, keeps informed of the needs of information and the expectations of the public in the working area with regard to the realisation of these needs: " t h e public library will have to sell itself, go out and promote its services rather than await the arrival of those with initiative, interest and drive". Colson also mentions - with reference to the fact that the greater part of the population (in Belgium the largest part) and especially the working class, does not make or hardly makes use of the library - that if libraries want to reach these groups they will have to go out to the people more often. The library must be put closer to the public, not only regarding building-facilities, but also as far as the capacity of the work is concerned.

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If the library does not do this, it will remain a lifeless institution that not only misses its aim but that also in the long run means going back to the formation of elite-groups. Such an active attitude has gradually become common property in the public library world, at least on paper. In practice in most libraries nothing or hardly anything comes out of this "active" attitude. On the one hand this can be explained by the shortage of money and because people do not dare to give priorities. On the other hand this is a result of the mentality of the librarian, who has not realized that a completely new attitude has been expected of him. "Librarians will have to make their choice. To formulate nice aims is one thing, but to dare to give priorities and to accept the consequences is something completely different". In other words, the librarian will among others have to translate the results of researches into action. With regard to the role of the librarian Bryan Luckham states that it consists of three elements that are continually competing with each other: custodian, intercessor and organizer. According to Luckham one can discover a development over the years in emphasizing the organizational aspect. The function of custodian is the most traditional, but also the most limited conception with regard to the role of the librarian. In the past this aspect of the job was strongly emphasized. The job was looked upon as building up and maintaining a collection and classifying all books and materials that needed for that part of the reading public that asked for them. Today the librarian has got more the role of an intercessor. This librarian looks upon himself as someone who is clearly directed towards the needs of the public and who tries to distinguish between the published material from an abundance of publications, while he tries to identify himself with those people that have to make use of this material. He also sees his task in encouraging people to use the available information through, for instance, exhibitions, study-guides etc. The librarian of the future will have to carry out an even more dynamic role. According to Luckham, the librarian will, more than has been the case up till now, have to go into the "field" himself, to make contacts outside the library, to unfold activities in the working area and to bring people together. In the future the library have to become a positive social power that one cannot possibly eliminate.

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The organisation of library service in a multinational state by E.R. Sukiasian* One of the complex problems of librarianship in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America is the organisation of library service within the framework of a multinational state. The USSR is known to have accumulated rich experience in the work of libraries in these conditions, and to have gained tangible results. Presenting this paper to our colleagues who are attending the pre-session seminar of IFLA we sincerely hope that the experience gained by our country will prove not only interesting but also useful to any state interested in the development of librarianship and in the growth of culture and education of its people. The solution of the national question in the USSR For the first time in history the working class, collective farm peasantry and working intelligensia of our country have built a developed socialist society. Radical changes have taken place not only in the economic but also in the social sphere, including the sphere of national relations. Our country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, is the world's first state where the national question - one of the most complex and difficult questions of social progress has been settled once and for all. The formation of a new historical type of nation - the socialist type - has been an indicator of radical changes of the socio-economic, political and spiritual image of the people liberated by the October Socialist Revolution. Economic links between people on a nationwide scale, national and state cohesion of territories, socio-class structure, nationwide spread of the literary norm of the native language, realization of the national unity of the people - all these features are characteristic today of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Georgian, Uzbek and all the other socialist nations of the USSR. Along with nations of the new socialist type, socialist nationalities have also come into being. Many nations have been saved from physical extinction and have experienced economic, cultural and national renaissance. The Party, the Government, the developed nations of the country, and, above all, the Russian people, have rendered and continue to render great assistance to the nations and nationalities in their economic and social development.

* Lenin State Library, Moscow, USSR 126

The USSR is a multinational state Over 100 large and small nations closely linked by the community of their historical destinies and different in language, culture and peculiarities of everyday life united voluntarily into a historically unprecedented, close and lasting socialist internationalist union which is a stage on the way to the communist unity of equal nations. The outstanding achievements of socialism and the fundamentally internationalist nature of the Soviet multinational state have found concentrated expression in the Constitution of the USSR: "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state of the whole people expressing the will and interests of the workers, peasants and intelligentsia, the working people of all the nations and nationalities of the country". The internationalist nature of the Soviet state is profoundly described in the special section of the Constitution dealing with the national state structure of the USSR. Article 70 of the Constitution reads: "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is an integral, federal, multinational state formed on the principle of socialist federalism as a result of the free selfdetermination of nations and the voluntary association of equal Soviet Socialist Republics". Our country does everything to create material and spiritual conditions for the flourishing of each nation and nationality, and to grant equal rights to all nations of the USSR. In the USSR Supreme Soviet there are deputies of 61 nationalities, including representatives of the 15 Union Republics, 40 Autonomous Republics, 16 Autonomous Regions and 20 Autonomous Areas. Generations of internationalists and patriots are selfless fighters for social progress of our society. "The atmosphere of genuine collectivism and comradeship, cohesion and the friendship of all big and small nations in the country, which gain in strength from day to day, and the moral health which makes us strong and steadfast these are the radiant facets of our way of life, these are the great achievements of socialism that have become the very lifeblood of our reality", said Comrade L.I. Brezhnev at the 25 th the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Congress. Radical changes in the field of culture Preserving and developing the best national cultural traditions, each nation and nationality of our country makes creative use of the achievements of other nations and nationalities. These processes are greatly facilitated by the growth of international communication in the national economy, the increasing use of two or three languages with the evergrowing role of the Russian language, the growth of mixed marriages and other factors. Socialism has brought factual equality to many nations and nationalities, and has provided necessary conditions for their spiritual and cultural development. 127

Here mention should first of all be made of the eradication of illiteracy and establishment of the written language, as most nations of our country, including those which had had long writing traditions, had not been taught practical reading and writing. Socialism set this task before the entire population of the country: all the people had to be taught reading, writing and understanding of what was written, as socialism is built on the basis of the achievements of science and culture of all mankind. As a result of the implementation of the principles of equality of all nationalities and languages, scientifically grounded written languages for 48 nations and nationalities were created within a short period of time. The written languages created prerequisites for the eradication of illiteracy among the grown up population and for teaching reading and writing to the rising generations. Way back in 1939 the Caucasus and Central Asia could boast of complete literacy of the population; dozens of educational establishments for training national personnel had opened. The quantity of the population, said the great Russian writer A.M. Gorky, does not influence the quality of talent. Soviet power has rendered assistance to small nations of our country in the development of art and culture. The Soviet Union has furnished an unprecedented example of creating national belleslettres and book publishing in languages of numerous nations. This has become possible in our country, as Soviet power has allocated large sums for the organisation of printing shops, publishing houses and newspapers and journals in more than 60 languages of the nations of the USSR, including the smallest ones (Khanty, Mansy, Evenki, Nentsy and others). Today books and brochures are published in our country in 91 languages of the nations of the USSR, journals and periodicals - in 46 languages, newspapers - in 56 languages. Widespread in the country is radio and television broadcasting in national languages; national kinds of art, the theatre and the cinema are also developing successfully. The Russian language is the language of international communication Accelerated development and mutual enrichment of national cultures, nations and nationalities of the USSR is greatly influenced by cultures of large nations, above all, of the Russian nation. Russian culture and the Russian language offer unlimited possibilities for the mastery of knowledge by all the peoples of our country. The Russian language has been voluntarily accepted as a means of international communication; it has become the language of science and scientific work. The national-Russian bilingualism which has been shaped on the basis of cooperation has become a tested practice of the life of peoples of our country. " T o know Russian means to open one's eyes to the world", said Abai Kunanbayev, an outstanding Kazakh enlightener. 128

Thanks to the Russian language the working people of our country are given access to spiritual values accumulated by world culture. Since the first years of Soviet power the USSR has been publishing literature in translation on a large scale. Over these years books from 136 foreign countries have been published in translation in the languages of the peoples of the USSR and, above all, in the Russian language. During the 30 post-war years (1946-1976) alone a total of 48,000 titles of books and brochures have been published in translation from foreign languages. Books by foreign authors are accessible to the broad readership; they are published in the USSR in large numbers. Works by foreign authors have been published in our country in 77 languages of the peoples of the USSR. Books by over 200 writers have been published in the USSR in circulations exceeding one million copies. These include Jack London (38 million copies), Charles Dickens (26 million), Victor Hugo (27 million), Balzac (26 million) and many others. American literature is represented by works of 370 writers (175 million copies), French - by works of 552 writers (298 million), English - by works of 340 writers (211 million), Swedish - by works of 70 authors (13 million). Works by writers and poets of countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are widely represented in translation. Thus, one of the volumes of the "Library of World Literature", a unique edition awarded the State Prize of the USSR is devoted to the poetry of the peoples of Africa and acquaints readers of our country with works of poets of 32 states of this continent. The volume has been published in 303,000 copies. The list of such examples is far from complete. International links and international communication in the USSR For us, Soviet people, questions of international links and international communication are assuming special importance also because there are practically no national outlying areas in our country. The needs of the national economy and the necessity of rational distribution of the population in different years necessitated migration of large masses of people from one area of the country to another. In the hard years of the Great Patriotic War (19411945) about 25 million Soviet people were compelled to leave the front-line areas for the republics of Central Asia, as well as for Siberia and the Far East. Many people have linked their destiny with these places which became their homes in those difficult days of the war. In peace time migration of the population is linked, above all, with the construction of major projects of the national economy. The small Georgian town of Rustavi became the home for Soviet people of more than 30 nationalities in post-war years. Today, the Nurekskaya hydro-power station in the Tajik SSR is being built by representatives of 40 nationalities. All the peoples of the country have sent their best sons and daughters to take part in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway. The new Tashkent revived after the 1966 heavy earthquake by architects and builders from all republics of our country has become the symbol of friendship of peoples of our country. 129

The language and national peculiarities of our country have been dealt with at such length only because all these phenomena are closely connected with problems of library service. Distinguishing features of the Soviet library system Free library service is a major gain of socialism. Article 46 of the USSR Constitution reads: "Citizens of the USSR have the right to enjoy cultural benefits. This right is ensured by broad access to the cultural treasures of their own land of the world that are preserved in state and other public collections; by the development and fair distribution of cultural and educational institutions throughout the country; by developing television and radio broadcasting and the publishing of books, newspapers and periodicals, and by extending the free library service; and by expanding cultural exchanges with other countries". In the USSR libraries belong to state and public organisations at whose expense their book stocks are built up and the staff are paid. The State provides the library network with premises and equipment, and trains librarians on a centralized basis. Due to free access and fair organisation of the library network, library service of the country's entire population is being successfully effected. Special attention is paid to the development of culture in the countryside of the country's national areas. Today, each Union Republic has its own library system, the conditions for the settlement of the population and its national and public service peculiarities influencing the distribution of the library network and determining the choice of the most reasonable forms of library service. Methods of library work cannot be uniform in conditions existing, for instance, in the Far North, the Baltic Republics of the USSR or the mountainous areas of the Central Asian republics. In each case the library system is built up with due account of local conditions. In conditions of centralization the reader can make use of the total book collection of the centralized library system, and, if need be, the book he has requested will be supplied from the regional or republican library. In any climatic zone, irrespective of the time of the year and distance, the librarian will attend to his reader and will meet his production and cultural interests. The work of Soviet libraries, including special libraries and, to a considerable extent, public ones, is linked with the tasks being tackled by the working people of a settlement, village, town or district. Librarians visit shops, brigades, farms, classes, lecture halls and scientific establishments. Public libraries, especially in rural areas, draw up unified plans for disseminating advanced experience coordinating them with enterprises, collective and state farms. Progress made in the development of librarianship and culture A few words should be said of the amount of work done to ensure that the development of libraries and the level of library service in the national areas of 130

our country are equal to appropriate indicators of the areas which historically had been more developed. About 75 % of the grown-up population of pre-revolutionary Russia were illiterate; the percentage of illiteracy in many national outlying areas amounted to 96. Needless to say, on the vast territory of our country there were practically no libraries, as in those years neither national publishing houses nor potential readers were in existence. As is well known, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin attached tremendous importance to librarianship because it was, inter alia, a most important instrument of the cultural revolution. Over 60 years have passed since the Great October Revolution proclaimed the principles of freedom, fraternity and equality of all nations. Many of the national republics of our country have not yet marked their 60th anniversary. But we can state that great progress has been made in libraries' development, their rational distribution throughout the country, and the building up of their book stocks. Here is an example. Before the revolution the Turkmen SSR had only two public libraries with the book stock amounting to 60,000 volumes. Today, the Republic has 3,000 libraries, including 1,252 public libraries, over 1,500 rural libraries, and the number of books kept at public libraries is about 12 million. In the small Estonian SSR, whose population is only 1.5 million, there are 700 public libraries whose book stock amounts to 11.7 million copies. In 1977 Estonia put out 2,187 books and booklets, 114 titles of journals and periodicals, and 42 newspapers. As literacy developed and reading habits and the general cultural level of the Soviet people were formed, the common trend was collecting private collections. The number of newspapers and journals people subscribed for had grown considerably. In these conditions libraries encountered new difficulties in building up their book stocks. The following fact was cited in the press: the inhabitants of a small village in Svanetia which can be reached only on horseback or by helicopter subscribe to more newspapers and journals than the village library does. In the small Latvian village of Snepele the village library has 6,890 volumes, whereas the villagers have a total of46,844 books, i.e. more than six times. 53 % of the village inhabitants collect their own book collections, and 6 % of them have over one thousand books each. It is obvious that it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet readers' requests. Acquisition and organisation of book stocks A correct acquisition policy is of tremendous importance in ensuring the work of each library. In our country acquisition is centralized to a considerable extent. Book supply agencies ("library collector") are aware of the peculiarities ofthe libraries supplied with books and choose new literature for them, priority attention being paid to the building up in each library a comprehensive stock of national literature giving an all-round description of achievements of science, 131

culture, art and social practice of each nation. Libraries receive books not only in the national language of their republic but also in the languages known by their readers. Of course, each Soviet library receives books in Russian. The presence in the book stock of literature in many national languages and in foreign European languages (English, French, German, Spanish and others) creates certain difficulties in its organisation. However, Soviet librarians have learned to overcome them. In the public libraries of our country book stocks have the classified arrangement, all readers having free access to them. The librarian has only to decide in what language the shelf guide-cards should be written. Generally, they are written in two languages, one of them being Russian - the language of international communication. Incidentally, there is no need to do that, as inhabitants of many national areas of our country have a good command of two or three languages, and problems involving access to book stocks do not arise.

Organisation of catalogues The make-up and content of book stocks of public libraries are thoroughly revealed in the system of catalogues and card files of each library. In accordance with the established practice of describing each publication in the source language rows of the alphabetical catalogue are organized in the national language of the republic, in Russian, in other languages of the peoples of the USSR and in foreign languages. The tradition of our country is the creation of a single systematic catalogue in which items of printed matter are organised according to their content, irrespective of the language of the publication. Such a solution turns a systematic catalogue into an instrument for disseminating knowledge about the books' subject-matters. The reader obtains knowledge and makes use of he information contained not only in one of the national parts of the library's books stock, but also in the collection as a whole. One and the same classification scheme is used in all public libraries of our country. Its distinguishing feature is internationalism: within the framework of this classification system all nations and nationalities are granted equal rights and opportunities. At the same time, in some cases the country's one and the same classification tables do not reveal the content of the rich stock of the national literature. In these cases libraries themselves expand, detail and improve classification schemes in sections dealing with the national literature, art, history and culture. Generally such work is done by republican libraries. Classification tables in national languages are issued practically in all the union republics and include specific national sections of one and the same classification. It should be mentioned that our country was the first to have developed the theory and methodology of such classification work. The dissertation "The 132

national aspect of social life and its reflection in the library-bibliographic classification" for a master degree has been submitted. Research work. Library personnel The efficiency of the libraries' work is largely determined by the level of the scientific and methodological work and doing the research of the national peculiarities of republic's libraries. Before the October Revolution most national republics of our country had no scientific institutions in the field of librarianship. Now each republican library is a big scientific-methodological and research centre. Dissertations, monographs and manuals are prepared there. Thus, in Uzbekistan where before the revolution there were no cultural establishments and the literacy amounted 1.5-2 %, several dissertations in librarianship and bibliography have been submitted, collections of scientific works are published, and interesting research is conducted. " T h e history of librarianship in the USSR" by K.I. Abramov and "General library science" by O.S. Chubaryan have been translated into Uzbek; an original manual entitled " T h e history of librarianship in the Uzbek SSR" is being prepared. Efficiency depends on the qualification of library personnel. Pre-revolutionary Russia had no educational establishments which trained professional librarians. Today the country has 28 higher schools and 130 secondary specialized educational establishments which train librarians. Most of these educational establishments are located in the national republics. State women's pedagogical institutes having library departments are functioning in Kazakhstan and Kirghizia now. In several republics there are two educational establishments training national staff of librarians and bibliographers. Building of library premises The Communist Party and the Soviet Government are paying special attention to the development of the material and technical basis of libraries in the national areas of our country. During the 1971-1975 period 10,000 Soviet libraries received new premises. Over these years, in the Uzbek SSR four regional libraries and 30 district and city libraries moved to new buildings; four city libraries received new premises on ground floors of new buildings; hundreds of rural libraries received new premises. Architects together with librarians worked out standard designs for libraries located in different climatic zones and differing by their stock and designation of book stocks. In rural areas libraries are located not only in special buildings sharing them with rural Soviet organisations, in rural Houses of Culture. Of course, for major libraries, such as republican ones, individual designs are prepared taking into account distinguishing features of national architecture, traditions of culture and everyday life of the peoples inhabiting a given 133

republic. During the 1971-1975 period two republican libraries - the Kazakh library in Alma-Ata and the Turkmen library in Ashkhabad - received new buildings erected with due account of the latest achievements of architecture and construction, with highly mechanized technological processes of library work and provided with special equipment. Our country's libraries have now turned into a real instrument of all-round rapprochement and internationalism of Soviet people. The socially unique experience of solving not only the national question but also a complex of problems of the cultural revolution in national conditions within the framework of a multinational state is, in our opinion, of international significance.

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Library service to ethnic and linguistic minorities by Jes Petersen* Through all ages the fact that the population of nearly all countries has comprised ethnic and linguistic minorities has caused numerous problems. Actually these problems have been growing during the last decades because of the many refugees of our time and also because of the vast migration by people seeking work in other countries, people who in Europe have been named guest workers, foreign workmen or immigrants. As regards the latter I have chosen to apply the term immigrant in the present paper notwithstanding that in my own country - Denmark - the immigrants themselves frequently and preferably say guest workers. Although in principle the goals are similar as regards library service to permanently residing ethnic and linguistic minorities within a nation and to immigrants there are a good many differences. I hope you will permit me to concentrate on matters concerned with library service to the immigrants which is the field in which I have gained some experience. I am sure I can do so with a clear conscience as I trust Mr. Sukiassian will tell us thoroughly about matters regarding the former. In this context I have also derived profit from G.P. Fonotov's interesting article "The role of libraries in the mutual enrichment of the national cultures of the people of the Soviet Union", Unesco Bull. Libr., Vol. XXXII, No. 1. 1978. Another delimitation: When I speak of immigrants I refer to people belonging to language groups which are remote from the languages of the Western European countries, for example people whose mother tongue is Arabic, languages spoken in Yugoslavia, languages spoken in Pakistan, Greece and Turkey. As regards the cultural needs and the need of library service I leave for example people from other Scandinavian countries, from United Kingdom, France and Germany out of account since the libraries are well supplied with books and other materials in these languages and there hardly exist any problems when speaking of choice, acquisition, cataloguing, lending of materials in these languages. Number of immigrants There are great differences as regards the number of immigrants in the Western European countries.

* Library Inspector, State Inspection of Public Libraries, Copenhagen, Denmark

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A few examples: In Denmark there is a comparatively small number of immigrants, about 38.000 people from the Arab countries, Yugoslavia, Pakistan and Turkey. In Sweden there are more than 400.000 immigrants which corresponds to 5.1 % of the entire population. It has been estimated that in the year 2000 50 % of all children in Sweden will somehow have a foreign background (in Western Europe as a whole the same will be true of one third of all people under 24 years of age). In the Federal Republic of Germany the figure is about four millions out of which one million are children, mostly people from Turkey, Yugoslavia and Italy. In several districts 4 0 % of all children are born within immigrant families. It has been estimated that about 800.000 children within compulsory school-age do not go to school or leave school too early, which may result in social problems of till now undreamt of dimensions. Danish newspapers have called these problems a delayed action bomb. Political

problems

Generally speaking the fact that many of our countries to a much higher degree than has till now been the case have become societies comprising several ethnic and linguistic minorities has brought along a lot of political, economic, social and psychological problems. Many of these problems are due to a poor reciprocal knowledge of patterns of culture between the immigrants and what might be called the resident population. I think that one should not underrate the possible psychological and political consequences stemming from the sad fact that many common Danes, Swedes, Germans etc plainly speaking do not like the foreigners, maybe only because of a strong nationalistic tradition, a strong inner feeling of solidity and an isolationist and even suspicious attitude towards everything and everybody of foreign origin. This may seem odd and unjust when it is recalled that many of the immigrants arrived at a time when industry was booming and have contributed considerably to the present state of welfare in many European countries. But we are now witnessing a growing unemployment in our countries, and people seem to have forgotten that we asked the foreign workers to help us when this was not the case. These sad but well known facts mean that the immigrants very often meet with a heavy psychological pressure which may lead to underestimation of themselves within their own ranks. It is frightening that is has been proved that children of immigrants grow up sharing the view of some of the children of their host country that in comparison with these they are inferior people themselves. I mention this sad aspect because it must be taken into consideration that we 136

librarians with great firmness adduce our arguments and claims to our politicians as regards an adequate library service to the immigrants because unfortunately politicians are often not abreast with the waves of public feelings. As a matter of fact many politicians have chosen to shirk the debate at least as regards the cultural needs of the immigrants and their children, and the characteristic feature of the debate surrounding the situation of the immigrants in the Western European countries has been that it was mainly concerned with their social and working conditions and paid very little attention to their cultural situation despite the fact that these two concepts are intimately related. Asa general rule it can be said that the public and the authorities up to now are only slowly coming to appreciate the problems of a cultural and mental environmental nature which arise when human beings are forced into contact with foreign cultures and systems of society. This may seem vastly surprising as there are so many reasons speaking in favour of a policy aiming at providing not only adequate social and working conditions but at the same time and hand in hand with these a cultural climate which make it possible for the immigrants to thrive and feel life tolerable. In fact equal attention should be paid to both these sides of existence. Initiatives

Admittedly some of the library authorities of our countries have come to understand the cultural aspects of the problems and in this context public libraries have an important part to play to make life tolerable for the immigrants and to place the immigrants on an equal footing with the citizens of the host countries. As examples of initiatives national committees in Sweden and Denmark may be mentioned. These committees were set up at the beginning of the 1970s in order to deal with the organizational and practical problems arising in connection with library service to immigrants. In Denmark the committee was appointed because of the fact that although the Danish Public Libraries Act (1964) is intended to provide for extension of the same standard of library service to everyone resident in Denmark, and notwithstanding the fact that the municipalities are committed to serve immigrants in line with other members of the community, the immigrants and their families have so far received a library service of a greatly inferior standard when compared to that rendered to Danish citizens. On March 1, 1975 when the committee finished its work the stock of books available at public and school libraries in Denmark comprised more than six volumes in Danish and/or the principal languages for each Danish inhabitant to which must be added other printed matter and AV materials. For each immigrant living in Denmark less than one half volume in their own languages 137

was available. Also when looking at the provision of information and organization of activities, the immigrants were provided with a library service inferior to the one available to Danish users. These committee findings resulted in bulky reports describing the philosphy underlying the future initiatives as well as suggestions concerning the practical aspects of the work to be done. Other countries followed. One of the latest results is " A Public Library Service for Ethnic Minorities in Great Britain" by Eric Clough and Jacqueline Quarmby, published in 1978 by the Library Association, London. One might also mention "Public Library Service for a Multicultural Society", a report produced by a joint working party of the Library Advisory Council and the Community Relations Commission, London, Library Advisory Council, 1976; and from Australia "The New South Wales Report" by the Ethnic Affairs Commission, 1978. Also conferences on a national level have taken place in many countries, and on an international level during the Frankfurter Buchmesse 1978 on the initiative of the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Munich. This library should be specially mentioned because of its early recognition of the problems within this field and its initiatives in order to improve the state of matters in the Federal Republic of Germany as well as internationally. In 1979 we have also had a Scandinavian Conference resulting in many valuable suggestions concerning future cooperation between the Scandinavian countries, among other things the preparation of a handbook dealing with all sides of the matter, practical as well as sociological. The 1970s have also witnessed a considerable amount of articles and other professional literature, many ideas having been produced and many suggestions made. Nevertheless the conclusion is that on the whole only few of the many suggestions have been realised and library work as a whole could be characterized as one dominated by good intentions more than by achievements of a practical nature. Philosophy

The philosophy which can be derived from all the reports, conferences and articles is generally speaking the following: Whether the immigrants only stay for a shorter space of time or for ever, two main requirements need to be covered: 1. Information on practical, social and cultural aspects of life in the country they have come to stay in as well as knowledge of the language spoken in this country. 2. to obtain or maintain knowledge of the language, society and culture of their native country. 138

As regards the second point the goal applies to adults, many of whom will ultimately return to their own country. However, it applies to an even higher extent to the children who were small when they came to the new country, or who may have been born here, and who, as will be known by experience, are bound to encounter great difficulties of a psychological and practical nature if they return to their own country and know nothing of the alphabet, language and culture in what will to them be a new native country. It should also be pointed out that it is of vital importance that children and young people become familiar with the language and culture of their native country in order to avoid a widening within the family of the gap between the generations by a cultural and linguistic gap; which may otherwise appear as children more easily than the adults get acquainted with the language and customs of the new country. It is up to the parents and the schools to ensure that teaching is given in the mother tongue. But the opportunities of becoming familiar with their native country's language and culture in the broadest meaning of the word will almost exclusively be available to children and young persons via a comprehensive range of library facilities. It should be borne in mind that in addition to wanting them to learn the language of the host country, by far the majority of immigrants have a burning desire to see their children (like themelves) retain their native country's language and culture and to have them taught these things. We ought to regard this wish as a right to be respected. It should also be borne in mind that whereas the host country's own citizens are informed of current events via their daily papers, the radio and television, via their daily contact with their fellow-citizens, -actually the flow of information is taken so much for granted that no one stops to think how indispensable it is the immigrants are cut off from the major proportion of all this by linguistic barriers. Practical

aspects

Besides dealing with the philosophy underlying the work many of the abovementioned reports have touched on the practical aspects, for example: Choice of materials Acquisition of materials Channels of supply Standards Cataloguing and catalogues Classification Transliteration and transcription Arrangement of the materials 139

Cultural activities Public Relations work, contact work Organization (central collections/decentralized collections) Inter-library-lending Training of librarians It is of course not possible within the limits of a paper to go into detail regarding all these questions, and I must admit that I have not any new ideas or suggestions to supply in addition to the said reports. So I have chosen to say a little about only two of the topics, and in doing so I admit owing Quite a debt to the Danish report "Public Library Service to Foreign Workers" by a committee prepared by my own office, the Danish State Inspection of Public Libraries, 1975.1 am happy to be able to add that the joint association of the immigrants in Denmark has approved every word in it. The two topics I have chosen to describe in some detail are a Selection of materials b Cultural activities Selection of materials I would like to repeat that the most important means and the best way of ensuring that the immigrants are properly considered as regards their cultural needs is a comprehensive range of library facilities. These needs are, as previously mentioned: to consolidate and strengthen the identity of the individual, to retain and extend their knowledge of and their contact with the language and culture of the native land; and to get to know and understand the society and culture of their host country. In this connection the libraries must always consider the following important questions when building up their collections of materials and other kinds of services: What is the extent of our readers' previous knowledge, what abilities require to be developed, maintained or resuscitated? What are our readers' problems, and what literature and means do they to help them solve these problems? What other tasks will these materials be required for? When considering these questions it should also be borne in mind that national differences of language and education make it even more difficult to retain one's contact with the culture and language of one's native land. Many of the immigrants come from highly rural surroundings, and in some cases their 140

schooling has been of short duration. In addition, the only experience some of them have had of their own country's culture has been limited to verbal accounts. Further when selecting materials one must of course consider the numbers of people from the different language groups present in the municipalities concerned. For example if they are Yugoslavian, the library must determine whether they speak Serbo-Croat, Macedonian, Slovenian, Albanian, Turkish or any one of a series of other languages. Serbo-Croat can be written in either the Roman or the Cyrillic alphabet. Pakistanis normally talk Urdu, but there are other languages, e.g. Punjabi and Pushtu. In addition many of them speak English. Arabs all speak various dialects of Arabic, according to their country of origin, but the written language is broadly the same. When selecting materials one ought to ensure that the needs of the various national and linguistic groups are covered by works by their "own" authors. The following materials are needed and suggested: Adult printed matter in own language Newspapers Newspapers are an important source of information about the world and the home country. Since it is impossible to cover all political convictions by purchasing a wide selection of papers, it is most suitable to provide the various linguistic groups with one or more nation-wide, comprehensively informed papers plus the relevant papers from one particular locality or region in a foreign country being largely represented. A local paper will satisfy the need for provincial coverage of news experienced by people coming from rural regions. Periodicals Periodicals are a significant factor allowing the immigrant to remain abreast of developments in society, its culture and practices. The prime need is for periodicals and weeklies of a general cultural nature. Reference books Dictionaries and phrase books from the immigrant's native language to that of his host country, dictionaries in his own language, synoptic works on his own country, and reference books on technology, housekeeping, medicine and hygiene, history and geography, and community matters in the home country (see below under Materials - host country). Other specialist literature The religious literature of the home country, e.g. the Koran; the main historical and cultural historic books of the native country; own-language textbooks; own language song books, textbooks in the major European languages if required, plus literature on the same subjects as mentioned under Reference Books and in this connection also books on such subjects as child 141

psychology, the care of children, sexology and sex instruction, public health, nutrition and all kinds of "how to do it books" and "how it functions books". These fact books should be properly illustrated. Leaflets All leaflets published in the host country referring to immigrants. Belles lettres The classical prose and poetic works in the literature of the home country, including religious literature. The works of more recent authors in the native country's language, including exile authors. Significant works of world literature in translation. The entertainment angle must not be forgotten, but the choice ought mainly to fall on literature which satisfies the reader's need to expand his horizons. I would like to stress the opinion that although fiction is important the libraries should not provide this at the expense of non-fiction. At least 50 % of the stock should be non-fiction, as this kind of literature often anwers many questions of importance to the immigrants. Unfortunately there is a great shortage of fact books in many of the languages in question. This applies to books for adults as well as for children. As many people are more or less unaccustomed to reading, much of the above mentioned printed material ought to be available as talking-books and specially adapted easy to read books, but so far we have only witnessed such a production sporadically. Printed matter in the native language for children The guidelines laid out above for the selection of literature and information for adults also apply to the range offered to children before and after leaving school. In addition, there is the choice required by pre-school-age children, who rapidly learn to speak and understand the language of the host country but who have more difficulty with their parents' language and are particularly exposed to the likelihood of experiencing difficulties if they ever return to their home country. Adult readers ought to have their attention drawn to childrens' books, since grown-ups not too accustomed to reading may gain great benefit from them. From kindergarten age and up there will be a need for books for reading aloud from fairy tales and stories from the home country, rhymes, childrens' classics, books of songs, and easily understood illustrated books about the countryside and folk life of the home country. ABCs are frequently asked for, since families often want the children to learn their alphabet.

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Primary school children need the same cover as kindergarten children, plus some easy to read books. For older children one needs to buy textbooks on geography, history, biology, civics etc, - primarily about the various native countries. There must also be periodicals and comics for children. Despite the fact that adults generally outnumber children, one should remember that children's books are read quickly and that many copies should be available. Adults printed matter in host language Reference books and textbooks will frequently have to be in the host country's language or in one of the major languages because of the shortage of material in the immigrants' languages. Reference books and other textbooks about the host country are usually only available in that country's language. In this case one should concentrate on supplying simple, easily-read descriptions such as are used by the 15-16 year-old students in the school. But of course such books can really only be utilised by such immigrants as have mastered the elements of the host country's language. Printed matter in the host language for children From the time they go to day nursery, the host country's products will probably suffice for these children. E.g. illustrated books where the child being read to points at the pictures. This also applies to the youngest kindergarten pupils. In addition, a fair proportion of the host country's books purchased for use by children up to the age of 13 - the upper age limit for normal childrens' library membership in Denmark - will cover the requirements of immigrant teenagers in the 15-16 year age-group. This applies to technical books, etc. The kind of textbook called Easy Readers produced for older children will also be of assistance to those trying to learn the language of the host country. Audio-visual

aids

I would like to stress significance of supplying audio-visual aids of relevance to the immigrants. There is a big gap to be filled in the seeking out and production of suitable AV materials. The following remarks therefore point out a situation which is currently far from ideal but which one ought to try to solve satisfactorily in the course of time. As we all know AV materials frequently constitute a very useful supplement to printed materials. This applies particularly to those with difficulty in reading and people not used to reading. 143

A V materials for adults The audio-visual materials concerned primarily comprise the following: Gramophone records Tape recordings (primarily in cassettes) Colour slides and film strips Documentary films Movie films Overhead projector talcs Videotape A few comments on some of the abovementioned audio-visual materials: Gramophone records The folk music of the native country, earlier and more recent music in general, plays, speeches, readings from literature, and language courses in the native language, the host country's language, and in the major languages. Tape recordings Like gramophone records. One would have to concentrate on tapes produced in the native country. In a small country like my own in which not many immigrants reside it is not realistic to depend on the commercial production of tapes specially for immigrants nor to expect the radio and television to spend much time transmitting programmes primarily intended for immigrants neither in their own language nor in that of the host country. This only takes place to a small extent. Colour slides and film strips Descriptions of the host country's and the native country's geography, financial systems and natural history. Some of the series of slides published for use in geography and biology teaching could be used to provide information for immigrants. Documentary films The range of films providing informative material about the immigrant's native countries available in host countries is very limited. Films describing conditions in the host country will useful in certain connections, e.g. at meetings at which the film can be interpreted or explained in the language of the audience. Films of this nature could be lent through the libraries. Video tapes It has very frequently been pointed out that the laws existing in many countries prohibiting or placing restrictions on the the free utilisation of radio and television productions should be repealed. A V materials for children and young persons Many of the AV materials suggested for use by or for adult immigrants are also 144

applicable for the younger members of their families. The boundary lines between the age groups for whom materials are suitable are not nearly so sharp here as they are in the case of the printed word. One would obviously purchase records and tape recordings of the native countries' music, songs and nursery rhymes. One would also want to supply records of tales and fairy stories being read aloud, small musicals, etc. As a supplement to all these books, records and tapes, the smaller children especially need series of slides and films from their native countries so as not to lose their visual memory of their countries' landscape and inhabitants. In this connection the Swedes have produced a series of cassettes for preschool-age children in Finnish, Serbo-Croat, Greek and Turkish under the auspices of "Television och Radio i Utbildningen" (Radio & television in the service of education). These tape recordings cover such important topics as "Starting school", " Waiting for an addition to the family", or, "Getting a new little sister or brother". Stories in these languages have also been recorded, and can bought by libraries. Cultural

activities

I would also like to add a few words about the importance of establishing a range of cultural activities in addition to the provision of printed and audiovisual materials, the aims of laying on such activities being the same as I have mentioned under the supply of these materials. Such events ought as far as possible to be laid on in association with the immigrants' clubs and organisations with that neutrality and universality of view laid down in the library legislation. Events which libraries can lay on include: 1 Music of the homeland. Live music, gramophone records, concerts on tape 2 Film shows. Entertainment films and documentaries about the native country and the host country 3 Music and dancing 4 Reading aloud; and recitations of the poetry of the native country 5 Native drama, e.g. amateur dramatics put on by local immigrants 6 Talks by fellow countrymen or other people speaking the language concerned. This includes "authors' evenings" and talks about the home and host country situation and various topics of interest 7 Debates 8 Exhibitions The AV materials held can be of great use in such arrangements, in addition to their usual application as loan items. At these events the immigrants get a chance to meet fellow countrymen. The 145

host country's own citizens ought also to be encouraged to attend, laying the foundations for a dialogue between the two communities. As a matter of fact this has proved to be the case in my country. Cultural activities and arrangements can be laid on for several linguistic groups or nationalities at once. Experience tells us that in such cases the library should spare no effort to stress its neutrality and in arranging the programme avoid anything which could be interpreted as making judgements in, for example, political questions or in appearing to favour one nation or cultural group rather than any other. Events ought in general to aim at the whole family, but arrangements may also be laid on for women and/ or children. Children - not least children under school age - ought to be given the opportunity of enjoying story time periods in their own language, just as they ought also be taken into consideration in connection with the other activities of the childrens' library, e.g. musical playroom, hobbies, etc. There will be a great demand for both informative and general cultural activities in the library - preferably the more practical sort of arrangement such as how people in the host country manage such things as furnishing a house or shopping. The group most exposed to isolation are the housewives without an outside job. In accordance with the customs of their homeland they spend most of their time indoors, but without the home country's opportunities for contact with neighbours and family. The men can get to know the host country's language and customs via the place of work, and have greater opportunities for meeting other men from their own country. In this paper I have tried to describe public libraries as cornerstones regarding the immigrant's knowledge of the language and culture of their own country as well as giving them information on practical, social and cultural aspects of life in their new country. I have not tried to draw a veil over the numerous difficulties which arise in connection with this aim. International

cooperation

I consider it important that these difficulties be discussed openly at international level and I think that by means of such a discussion some of the difficulties could be overcome. I would like to conclude this paper with a quotation by Marie F. Zielinska, The Multilingual Biblioservice of the National Library of Canada. In Unesco Bull, for Lib. Vol XXXII No 1 1978 Mrs Zielinska writes that all documentation reveals similarities of experience and difficulties as regards the organization of the library service and problems of selection, acquisition and cataloguing.

146

Mrs. Zielinska concludes: "Many of these problems could probably be solved through international cooperation, chiefly through a world-wide exchange of information, such as (a) registers of ongoing national and/ or regional studies in this field; (b) the collection and analysis of data on types of services; (c) the planning of such services; and (d) the means of collaborating with ethnic organizations. Librarians, whether those who are already involved in this new field of multilingual public library services or those who are interested in the creation of such services, are scattered all over the world and at present lack effective means of communication. It would be useful if the planners of international library conferences would include in their agendas services to the world's ethno-cultural minorities." This has been the case for this Lund conference, and may I add that as library service to the ethnic and linguistic minorities is a field of work in which international cooperation may really prove highly effective I hope that in the future this aspect of library work is going to receive far more attention at the hands of IFLA than has till now been the case.

147

Resolutions I

Concerning the successful meetings of the Seminar on Public Library Policy, held in Lund, 20-24 August 1979, the participants of the Seminar suggest 1. that in consequence of the Lund Seminar, which has been devoted to the general principles of public library policy today, other seminars, either international or regional, be organized to discuss how these principles may be applied to public library work in urban communities and in rural areas, 2. that the papers and the proceedings of the Lund Seminar be published and widely disseminated. II In many countries the needs of ethnic and linguistic minorities as regards library service present themselves with great force. The needs have been considerably enlarged in the last ten years because of the many refugees and fugitives and because of the vast immigration by people seeking work in other countries than their native country. Generally, an adequate library service might enable these ethnic and linguistic minorities to function better culturally and socially in the countries they live in and especially an adequate library service might contribute to comply with two urgent needs. 1. To provide information on practical, social and cultural aspects of life in the host country. 2. To obtain or maintain knowledge of the society, the culture and the language of their native country. It has been proved, however, that great problems, mostly of a practical nature, have arisen regarding providing an adequate library service in the countries in question. The lack of effective communication could be remedied through an active effort by IFLA. It is therefore recommended that IFLA sets up a Working Group commissioned to study the said problems. Ill Whereas Latin American countries are trying to a greater or lesser degree to implement the NATIS concept in their nations Whereas the development of public libraries has been recognized in the majority of our 148

countries as a priority and consequently, public libraries have felt and expressed the urgent need to 1 ) define the role of the public library within the Latin American context 2) to establish strategies of development of such libraries and means of regional cooperation Whereas IFLA is very interested in fostering action within the regions - and due to certain circumstances the action of IFLA in Latin American countries and the participation of Latin American countries in IFLA has been minimal the Latin American participants of the Seminar on Public Library Policy, Lund 1979, suggest to the Public Libraries Section of IFLA that it considers organizing a special regional meeting in Latin America within the next two years in cooperation with the regional organizations. In case this suggestion be accepted, the Latin American participants to this Seminar will take it upon themselves to make the necessary contacts with their own national organizations and regional bodies in order to help define the seat and participation of this meeting. Its main topic will be "Public Library Policy in Latin American and Caribbean countries". IV Considering the need for facts and figures regarding library use and habits as a base for public library policy, the Seminar on Public Library Policy, Lund 1979, recommends that a joint Working Group with the Section of Library Theory and Research be created, to develop a method or technique which can be used as a model for library user research in such a way that: a) the effectiveness of public library activities in different countries could be reliably measured b) surveys based on such a model could be comparable.

149

List of Participants Mr. Mustafa Akbulut, Vice President, Turkish Library Association, Ankara, Turkey Mr. Z. Sunday Ali, Secretary General, Lagos, Nigeria Dr. R.A.C. Bruyns, Library School, Amsterdam, Netherlands Miss Barbara Chevannes, President, Jamaica Library Association, Kingston, Jamaica M. Yves Courrier, UNESCO, Paris, France Mr. Johannes Daugbjerg, Deputy Librarian, Gentofte, Denmark Miss Margaret Dunkle, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Mr. Flemming Ettrup, Secretary, Danish Library Association, Copenhagen, Denmark Mr. J.A.O. Faseyi, Deputy Director, Kaduna State Library, Kaduna, Nigeria. Mr. Sören Fjeldborg, Danish Library Association, Copenhagen, Denmark Mr. Basiamang Garebakwena, Botswana Library Service, Gaborone, Botswana Mr. Jan Gumpert, Director, Bibliotekstjänst AB, Lund, Sweden Miss Angela Harland, Lecturer in Library Studies, Boroko, Papua New Guinea Mr. K.C. Harrison, City Librarian of Westminster, London, England Mr. Bengt Holmström, Director, Malmö Public Libraries, Malmö, Sweden Mrs. Rosario Gasso de Horowitz, Secretary General, Caracas, Venezuela Miss Elisabet Ingvar, Director, Public Library, Lund, Sweden Mrs. Lucila Martinez de Jimenez, Director, Bogota Public Library, Bogota, Colombia Mr. D.R. Kalia, President, Indian Library Association, New Delhi, India MissHalina Kaminska, Principal Specialist, Ministry of Culture and Art, Warsaw, Poland Mr. E.E. Kaungamno, Director, Tanzania Library Sezvice, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Mr. Preben Kirkegaard, President of IFLA, Copenhagen, Denmark Dr. P.H. Kühl, Institute of Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark Mrs. Anna-Maria Kylberg, Director, Landskrona Public Library, Landskrona, Sweden Mr. Huck Tee Lim, President of the Library Association of Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

150

Mr. Yves Chan Kan Lon, President of the Library Association of Mauritius, Curepipe, Mauritius Mr. Alan Longworth, County Librarian of Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, England Mr. J.C. Mehta, Director, Delhi Public Library, New Delhi, India Mr. T.E. Mlaki, Tanzania Library Service, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Mrs. Carmen de Garcia Moreno, Director, Mexico City Library, Mexico. Mrs. Jane Hale Morgan, Director, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Michigan, USA Mr. Jafred S. Musisi, Kenya National Teachers' College, Nairobi, Kenya Mr. Raphael Ndiaye, President of ANABADS, Dakar, Senegal Miss Sally P.C. N'Jie, Chief Librarian, National Library, Banjul, The Gambia Mr. Samuli Nuotio, Editor, Kirjastolehti,

Helsinki, Finland

Mr. Jan Nyberg, Secretary, Swedish Library Association, Lund, Sweden Mr. David Oddoye, Deputy Director, Ghana Library Service, Accra, Ghana Mr. A.R. Oluoch, Director, Kenya National Library Service, Nairobi, Kenya Mr. István Papp, Director of Library Services, Budapest, Hungary Mr. Jes Petersen, Inspector, State Library Inspection of Public Libraries, Copenhagen, Denmark Ms. Kristin Petursdóttir, General Director of Libraries, Reykjavik, Iceland Mr. Marouf Rafeh, President of the Library Association of Lebanon, Beirut, Lebanon Dr. Gotthard Riickl, President, Bibliotheksverband der D D R , Berlin, D D R Ms. Poori Soltani, Head of Library Research, Teheran, Iran Mr. Sukarman, Head of Library Development, Jakarta, Indonesia Dr. P.J. van Swigchem, Chairman of the Organising Committee, and Director, Public Library, The Hague, Netherland Mr. F.K. Tawete, Tanzania Library Service, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Mr. Barry Totterdell, Chief Librarian, Brent Public Library, London, England Mr. D.E. Uba, Owerri, Nigeria Mr. Charles Wambugo, Deputy Director, Kenya National Library Service, Nairobi, Kenya Mr. A.L. van Wesemael, Professional Coordinator, IFLA, The Hague, Netherlands 151

Mr. Mogens Vestergaard, Royal Danish Library School, Copenhagen, Denmark Mrs. L'Abate Widmann, Head of Regional Library Service, Trieste, Italy Miss Ina Vintges, Netherlands Centre for Public Libraries and Literature, The Hague, Netherlands Mr. Olav Zakariassen. Director, Askim Public Library, Askim, Norway

152

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Series I F L A Publications Edited by Willem R. H. Koops

3 Le contrôle bibliographique universel dans les pays en développement. Table ronde sur le contrôle bibliographique universel dans les pays en développement, Grenoble, 22—25 août 1973. Ed. par Marie-Louise Bossuat, Geneviève Feuillebois, Monique Pelletier. 1975. 165 p. DM 38.00, I F L A members DM 29.00. I S B N 3-7940-4423-1 4 National and International Library Planning. Key papers presented at the 40th Session of the I F L A General Council, Washington, DC, 1974. Ed. by Robert Vosper and Leone I. Newkirk. 1976. 162 p. DM 38.00, I F L A members D M 29.00. I S B N 3-7940-4424-X 5 Reading in a Changing World. Papers presented at the 38th Session of the I F L A General Council, Budapest, 1972. Ed. by Foster E. Mohrhardt. 1976. 134 p. D M 28.00, I F L A members D M 21.00. ISBN 3-7940-4425-8 6 The Organization of the Library Profession. A Symposium based on contributions to the 37th Session of the I F L A General Council, Liverpool 1971. Ed. by A.H.Chaplin. 1976. 2nd edition. 132 p. D M 28.00, I F L A members D M 21.00. I S B N 3-7940-4300-X 7 World Directory of Administrative Libraries. A guide of libraries serving national, state, provincial, and Lander-bodies, prepared for the Sub-section of Administrative Libraries. Ed. by Otto Simmler. 1976.474 p. DM 60.00, I F L A members D M 45.00. I S B N 3-7940-4427-4 8 World Directory of Map Collections. Compiled by the Geography and Map Libraries Sub-Sections. Ed. by Walter W. Ristow. 1976. 326 p. D M 48.00, I F L A members D M 36.00. I S B N 3-7940-4428-2 9 Standards for Public Libraries. 1977. 2nd corrected edition. 53 p. DM 16.80, I F L A members D M 12.60. ISBN 3-7940-4429-0 10 I F L A ' s First Fifty Years. Achievement and challenge in international librarianship. Ed. by Willem R.H. Koops and Joachim Wieder. 1977. 158 p. D M 3 6 . 0 0 , I F L A members D M 27.00. I S B N 3-7940-44304 11 The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. A Selected List of References. 2nd edition, revised and expanded. Comp, by Edward P. Cambio. 1977. VI, 52 p. D M 16.80, I F L A members DM 12.60. ISBN 3-7940-4431-2 12 Library Service to Children: A n International Survey. Edited for the Section of Children's Libraries by Colin Ray. 1978.158 p. DM 36.00, I F L A members D M 27.00. I S B N 3-7940-4432-0 13 Allardyce, Alex: Letters for the International Exchange of Publications. A Guide to their Composition in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. Ed. by Peter Genzel. 1978. 148 p. D M 36.00, I F L A members D M 27.00. I S B N 3-7940-4433-9 14 Resource Sharing of Libraries in Developing Countries. Proceedings of the 1977 IFLA/Unesco Pre-Session Seminar for Libraries from Developing Countries. Antwerp University, August 30—September 4,1977. Ed. by H. D. L. Vervliet. 1979. 285 p. D M 36.00, I F L A members D M 27.00. I S B N 3-598-20375-6 15 Libraries for All / Bibliothèques pour tous. A World of Books and Their Readers / Le monde du livre et de ses lecteurs. Papers presented at the I F L A 50th Anniversary World Congress, Brussels 1977. Ed. by Robert Vosper/Willem R. H. Koops. 1980. 163 p. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. I S B N 3-598-20376-4 16 Library Service for the Blind and the Physically Handicapped: An International Approach. Key Papers presented at the I F L A Conference 1978, Strbske Pleso, C S S R . Ed. by Frank Kurt Cylke. 1979.106 p. D M 30.00, I F L A members D M 22.50. I S B N 3-598-20377-2 17 Guide the Availability of Theses. Ed. by D. H. Borchardt and J. D.Thawley. 1981. 443 p. D M 68.00, I F L A members D M 51.00. I S B N 3-598-20378-0 18 Studies in the International Exchange of Publication. Ed. by P. Genzel. 1981. 125 p. D M 3 2 . - , I F L A members D M 24.-. I S B N 3-598-20379-9 19 Public Library Policy. Proceedings of the I F L A / U N E S C O Pre-Session Seminar Lund, Sweden August 2 0 - 2 4 , 1 9 7 9 . Ed. by K.C. Harrison. 1981. 152 p. D M 3 6 . - , I F L A members DM 27.-. I S B N 3-598-20380-2. In preparation.

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

I F L A Annuals Proceedings of the General Council Meetings. Annual Reports I F L A Annual 1980 Proceedings of the 46th Council Meeting, Manila, 1980. Annual Reports 1981. 219 p. I S B N 3-598-20661-5. D M 5 8 . - , I F L A members D M 28.50 I F L A Annual 1979 Proceedings of the 45th Council Meeting, Copenhagen, 1979. Annual Reports by W. Koops/W. Coops. 1980. 232 p. I S B N 3-598-20660-7. D M 58.00 I F L A Annual 1978 (44th Meeting, Strbske Pieso, 1978) 1979.197 pages. I S B N 3-598-20659-3. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1977 (43d Meeting, Brussels: Libraries for All: one World of Information, Culture and Learning). 1978. 276 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4303-0. D M 58.00 I F L A Annuel 1976 (42nd Meeting, Lausanne). 1977. 266 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4302-2. DM 58.00 I F L A Annual 1975 (41st Meeting, Oslo: The Future of International Library Cooperation). Ed. by W.R.H. Koops, P.Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops. 1976. 232 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4301-4. D M 58.00 I F L A Annual 1974 (40th Meeting, Washington: National and International Library Planning). Ed. by W.R.H. Koops, P.Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops, 1975. 314pages. I S B N 3-7940-4300-6. D M 58.00 I F L A Annual 1973 (39th Meeting, Grenoble: Universal Bibliographic Control). Ed. by W.R.H. Koops, P.Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops. 1974. 256 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4299-9. D M 54.00 I F L A Annual 1972 (38th Meeting, Budapest: Reading in a Changing World). Ed. by W.R.H. Koops, P.Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops. 1973. 252 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4298-0. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1971 (37th Meeting, Liverpool: Organisation of the Library Profession). Ed. by P.Havard-Williams, W.R.H. Koops, H.J. Heaney. 1972. 239 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4297-2. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1970 (36th Meeting, Moscow: Libraries as a Force in Education). Ed. by Anthony Thompson. 1971. 336 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4296-4. D M 48.00 I F L A Annuel 1969 (35th Meeting, Copenhagen: Library Education and Research in Librarianship). Ed. by Anthony Thompson and S. Randall. 1970. 289 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4295-6. D M 48.00 I F L A Directory 1979 1979.197 pages, 1 folded leaf. I S B N 3-598-20779-4. D M 32.00 The Directory gives addresses with telephone and telex numbers of all I F L A offices, bodies, members, etc. It also contains statutes, conditions for membership and a list of publications. Universal Bibliographic Control A Long Term Policy — A Plan for Action By Dorothy Anderson. 1974.87 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4420-7. D M 16.80, I F L A members D M 12.80 This study was originally prepared as a working document to be presented by I F L A to the Unesco Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Overall Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures. The International Exchange of Publications Proceedings of the European Conference held in Vienna, April 24—29,1972 Edited by Maria Schiltman. 1973.135 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4311 -1. D M 28.00, I F L A members D M 21.00

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