Users and Uses of the Public Library Reading Rooms

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Users and Uses of the Public Library Reading RoomsSnunith Shoham PhD aa Department of Information Science , Bar-Ilan University , Ramat-Gan , 52900 , Israel E-mail:Published online: 08 Oct 2012.

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Users and Usesof the Public Library Reading Rooms

Snunith Shoham

ABSTRACT. The study examines the demographic profile of read-ing-room users in urban public libraries in Israel, as well as their patternsof use. The primary purpose of use of the reading rooms is study, whereasthe library plays almost no role in the locating of job-related information.The largest group of users consists of high school students; the secondlargest is made up of college and university students. Reading-room usersin public libraries are either high school students (in the course of obtain-ing a high school education) or people with postsecondary education.Most of the reading-room users were not subscribers to the library’s lend-ing service; that is, the reading rooms serve a different clientele. Browsingand consulting the librarians are the main channels for locating library ma-terials, whereas very little use is made of the catalog. [Article copies avail-able for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH.E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Urban public libraries, reading rooms, demographics,users, high school students, college and university students, browsing,consulting librarians

INTRODUCTION

The public libraries that were created in the mid-19th century at firstcontained mainly non-fiction books for reading and study with the aim

Snunith Shoham, PhD, is Chair, Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan Uni-versity, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel (E-mail: [email protected]).

Public Library Quarterly, Vol. 20(4) 2001http://www.haworthpressinc.com/store/product.asp?sku=J118

2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 31

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of promoting education and higher education, in keeping with the pur-pose of these libraries’ establishment. Reference services, in the senseof a library staff that stands ready and waiting to give assistance and ad-vice, began only later. Among the first libraries to establish referenceservices, including an information desk and reference assistance to thepatrons, were the Public Library of Rhode Island and the WorcesterFree Public Library in Massachusetts.

The pioneer of reference work was the librarian of the WorcesterFree Public Library, Samuel Green, who in an article in the LibraryJournal in 1876 described his concept and maintained that the libraries’approach of allowing people to fend for themselves was mistaken; in-stead, a personal connection should be created between librarians andreaders so as to help readers find the materials best suited to them(Green, 1876). His argument was received with great skepticism. Forinstance, when it was proposed to have a person work in the BostonPublic Library’s Bates Hall reading room, which catered to the morescholarly patrons, with the task of responding to questions of all kindsand directing patrons to the information they were seeking, the library’sBoard of Trustees responded that it would be impractical to transfer aperson to such a role from his other work in the library (Katz & Tarr,1978). Nevertheless a position was created, which in 1883 becamefull-time, in another room of the Boston Public Library, the Lower Hall,which contained mainly popular books for home use. This position con-sisted primarily of showing readers how to use the catalog, giving sug-gestions for reading, and advising teachers and parents on the readingrequirements of children. There is no clear-cut distinction here betweenthe themes of “information service” and “improvement of readingtastes” (Rothstein, 1955).

A remark by William F. Poole in the Library Journal in 1882 alsosuggests that the new approach to assisting library patrons was begin-ning to take hold: “To aid inquirers . . . is one of the most pleasant dutiesof my position” (p. 201).

Melvil Dewey was one of the first to grasp the importance of “aid toreaders” and regarded personal assistance as a central, not peripheral, li-brary service that could be most effectively provided by specifically as-signing personnel to the task. He began to implement this concept at theColumbia College Library where he worked (Rothstein, 1953).

As the new concept gained acceptance, the term “reference work”began to replace the older terms “aid to readers” and “assistance to read-ers.” Martin (1998) hypothesizes that the emergence of the reference

32 PUBLIC LIBRARY QUARTERLY

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service reflected a need for reference and recommendation among li-brary patrons.

The term “reference” first appears in a 1891 article by William Childof the Columbia College Library: “By reference work is meant simplythe assistance given by a librarian to readers in acquainting them withthe intricacies of the catalogue, in answering questions, and, in short,doing anything and everything in his power to facilitate access to the re-sources of the library in his charge” (p. 298).

The reference service in the public libraries was instituted gradually(Rothstein, 1978), with the public libraries anticipating the academiclibraries in this regard. The need for such a service emerged in the pub-lic libraries because of the large numbers of inexperienced readerswho came to them. Thus the assistance focused initially on guidancein the use of the library and suggestions in selecting materials; in aslow process these services expanded in the direction that is familiartoday.

By the end of the 19th century, reference librarians were employed inmost of the large central public libraries; by the early 20th century theservice had also been extended to the branches. In the Detroit Public Li-brary in 1902, two reference librarians were employed; by 1913 therewere six (Rothstein, 1955).

By the 1920s, such service points were already common in the me-dium-size and large public libraries. The problem was how to cope withthe gigantic growth (since the end of World War I) in the number ofpublic library users. The libraries dealt with this reality in a number ofways. To begin with, greater emphasis was placed on reference servicesin the central libraries, at the expense of smaller-scale reference servicesin the branches. In addition, “information desks” were set up with theaim of easing the pressure on the reference departments. These infor-mation desks provided general information about the library, includingits physical layout and its rules; assistance in using the catalog; as well asanswers to easier questions with the help of “ready reference books.”Furthermore, a “readers’ advisory service” was set up to help readersin choosing books for reading. These two services were aimed at re-ducing pressure on the reference services, which were designed todeal with complicated reference questions.

In the 1940s, attempts were made to improve the level of the refer-ence services via subject departmentalization (Rothstein, 1955). Thepublic libraries came to give the work of assistance departmental status,

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added steadily to their staff of reference librarians, extended the hoursof service to evenings and Sundays, undertook to supply assistance bymail and telephone, and brought the service closer to the consumer by asystem of branch library reference service (Rothstein, 1955). Yet, ac-cording to Berelson (1949), by the late 1940s the reference serviceswere still small in scope compared to the circulation services and wereoriented to a very specific clientele.

The General Report of the Public Library Inquiry, initiated by theAmerican Library Association (Leigh, 1950), states that even the small-est village library has some of the apparatus for serving the public as anelementary information or reference center: dictionaries, encyclope-dias, maps, and indexes. In regard to the larger libraries as well, it statesthat reference materials and the information function are also growing.

In the medium-size libraries, the reference collections also containedmaterial on childcare that was designated for parents and teachers. The li-braries in large cities also offered materials on topics of business and tech-nology for a readership of businessmen and technological organizations.

At the same time, the picture that emerges from the report (the 1940s)is one of a service that is secondary in importance to the circulation ser-vices. Leigh observes that the reference services require fewer man-hoursthan the circulation activities. “Despite the popularity of the concept ofthe public library as the community’s center for reliable and useful infor-mation . . . the idea has not taken hold widely” (p. 96); hence, he asserts,“the public reference service is an under-used institution.”

From the beginnings of the public library to the present, the non-fic-tion collection, which also includes the reference books–though refer-ence materials have since become available in new formats such ascompact disks, online databases, and the Internet–together with the ref-erence services and librarians’ assistance, has formed a central compo-nent of the public library. Nevertheless, the circulation of readingmaterials is still the most active service, constituting one and a half(Lange, 1988) or even two to three times (Knight & Nourse, 1969) thescope of reference activities.

The present study focuses on how reference services are used and ona profile of the users.

SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Studies have monitored reference services in terms of subjects re-quested, search time, or the purpose of using the reference service (e.g.,Goldhor, 1979). Many studies of reference services have in fact examined


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only one library or one administrative network of libraries, and many ofthese have focused on user satisfaction and on evaluating the reference ser-vices in a particular library (White, 1971; Childers, 1997). Reference ser-vices have also been evaluated in broader studies (e.g., Lancaster, 1977;Weech, 1974). Another aspect of reference work that has been examined isthe reference interview (e.g., Taylor, 1968; Lynch, 1978).

One of the early studies of the reference service is the article by Dor-othy Cole (1946), “Some Characteristics of Reference Work,” whichnotes, among other things, a number of unpublished master’s and doc-toral theses of the 1920s and 1930s that considered different aspects ofthe reference services in public libraries.

Despite the centrality of the reading room, more studies have dealtwith the profile of those who borrow books in the public libraries thanon the profile of the users of reading rooms and reference services. Wehave data from a number of studies on the profile of users of the refer-ence services in public libraries, which include the following demo-graphic components.

Gender: The Public Library Report (Leigh, 1950) states that a largerproportion of men than women use the reference services compared tothe circulation records.

Berelson in his historic book, the first to document a nationwidestudy of public library users, which was conducted by a research andsurvey team at the University of Michigan in 1947, also states that moremen than women use the reference services of the public libraries,whereas more women than men use the circulation services (Berelson,1949). The book, which summarizes and analyzes different user studiesas well as a national sample, also quotes the study by Haygood (1938)that was conducted among users of the New York City Public Libraryand found that 84% of the reference-department users were men andonly 16% were women; whereas in the circulation department the pro-portions were 46% for men and 44% for women. On the other hand, in astudy in the 1980s of 463 users of the reference services in five public li-braries in the state of Illinois, the opposite was found: 59.4% werewomen and only 40.6% were men (Weech & Goldhor, 1984). Appar-ently, when there are more women and greater integration of women ininstitutions of higher education, their use of the reference services alsoincreases.

Age: Berelson (1949) concluded in his study that young people consti-tuted most of the patrons of the public library reference departments, withmost of the use of reading rooms being related to their school assign-ments. A similar picture, based on statistical data, emerged from a 1947

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survey in the framework of the Public Library Inquiry (Campbell &Metzner, 1952), in which 1,151 people across America were asked abouttheir children’s use of the library. Eighty-nine percent of the public li-brary users were aged 6-20, with library use declining the higher the age.

In a study conducted in five libraries in Illinois almost 40 years later,Weech and Goldhor (1984) came up with the following breakdown: upto age 19: 13%; 20-29: 22%; 30-39: 25%; 40-49: 18%; 50-59: 12%;60+: 10%. In other words, young people were the majority of the users.

Education: The Public Library Inquiry (Campbell & Metzner, 1952)found that the library was most frequently used by people with ad-vanced schooling. According to the study by Weech and Goldhor(1984), 21% of the users of reading rooms have a high school educationand all the rest, except for a small percentage who have completed onlyelementary school, have a postsecondary education. In other words, theusers of reading rooms are people with an education.

Occupation: The initial studies already pointed to the prevalence ofpeople in the liberal and white-collar professions among reading-roomusers (e.g., Campbell & Metzner, 1952). Students also constitute a largegroup (see Table 1).

The Public Library Report (Leigh, 1950) stated that the largest iden-tifiable group making use of the reference shelves and staff consisted ofschool and college students.

More recent studies came up with similar results. In a study from the1970s, students and teachers constituted 50.8% of reading-room users(Vickers, 1973). In a study from the 1980s, users were found to consistof: 38%, administrators and liberal professions; 16%, white-collarworkers; 20%, high school and university students (Weech & Goldhor,1984). Cole (1946), who reports on data that were collected in 1941,draws a link between occupation and subjects of the reference ques-tion/search. Students, who formed the largest group (35% of the total of


TABLE 1. Users of Reference Services by Occupation

Van Hoesen (1948) E. Cole (1943) Haygood (1938)

Liberal professions 59% 27% 33%

White-collar workers 9% 15% 13%

Students 46% 25%

(Studies from the 1930s and 1940s)

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1,026 participants in the study), were interested in political science,economics, law, medicine, agriculture, literature, biography, and mod-ern history. Professionals (25% of participants) were interested in thefields of political science, administration, language, and engineering.Other, smaller groups of users who were defined by the researcherswere: skilled laborers, shopkeepers and salesmen, and clerical workers.

Other aspects of the use of reference services in the library concernthe purpose of use and the mode of use. The latter refers to the extent ofuse of the library catalog for locating sources of information, and theextent of use of librarians’ assistance. For years, in the United Statesand other Western countries, much of the use of reference services hasbeen made from afar, mainly by telephone. This is not the case withpublic library services in Israel.

Purposes of Use: Reference services are clearly linked to the demo-graphic traits of their customers. As noted above, Berelson (1949)found that young people constituted the majority of patrons of the refer-ence departments of public libraries, since most of the use of the readingrooms was for school assignments; while the minority of adults whoused the reading rooms did so to search for facts that they needed andonly rarely for research purposes.

In one of the studies (the Maryland study) that are quoted in the bookLibraries at Large (Knight & Nourse, 1969), which surveys studies oflibrary use over the years 1949-1967, it was found that most public-li-brary use is made by students for free reading or homework preparation,whereas only a small amount of the use was for the needs of the work-place and/or other social-public activities. Forty-nine percent of the re-spondents said they used the library for personal purposes, 42% forworking on school assignments, and only 6.5% for job purposes. Simi-lar data were found in another study carried out in Ohio in the 1960s,with 45% of the respondents stating that they came to the public libraryfor schoolwork and 50% saying they did so for personal reasons.

In a study conducted ten years later, users of the reference depart-ment of the Urbana Free Library (Illinois) were asked what was the mo-tive for their reference question. Forty-three percent said that theirquestion reflected personal interest, 31% mentioned job-related con-cerns, 18% cited school-related concerns, and 8% said curiosity was themotive (Goldhor, 1979). This study’s data are somewhat different fromthose of the others. This may stem from the fact that users were inter-viewed by telephone, unlike in Berelson’s study were users were ap-proached personally in the library.

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In a later study, Weech and Goldhor (1984) found that the purpose of28% of reference-service users was the preparation of homework andschool projects, whereas for 26% the purpose involved their jobs.

How Are Items Located? In a field study conducted in 1947 by theResearch Center for the Public Library Inquiry it is reported that most(88%) of those using the library for reference purposes turned to the li-brarian, 22% made use of the catalog, and 4% went through the stacks.

Berelson (1949) asserted that even though the catalog is the main toolfor locating library materials little use is made of it, though this variesaccording to the size of the library. Berelson reported that only 4% of allpublic library users in a national sample said that they used the catalogoften, while another 45% said they had used it in the past, apparentlywhen they were students. This reflects very little use of the catalog forlocating fine literature.

In a study of the use of public libraries in the area of Baltimore andWashington, D.C., Bundy (1967) found that browsing among theshelves was the most common way of locating library materials (43%).This stems from the fact that most of the reading-room patrons come tothe library with no specific book in mind. Another 22% used referencebooks, 19% used the catalog to locate library materials, and only 16%said that they turned to the librarian.

Childers (1997), in a study based on a very small sample of read-ing-room users in one library, found that only 8 out of 57 research sub-jects made use of the catalog.

METHOD

Goals of the Study

• To present a demographic profile of reading-room users in publiclibraries.

• To learn about patterns of use in public library reading rooms.

Research Questions

1. What is the demographic profile of the reading-room users (gen-der, age, education, and employment)?

2. For what purposes do people come to the reading rooms?3. Do users of reading rooms and reference services also make use of

the other library services?4. How are reference materials located in the public library?


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Research Hypotheses

Based on the results of studies that have been done, mostly in theUnited States, the hypotheses are:

• The main group of reading-room users consists of high school stu-dents.

• Among adult users, the majority consists of people involved in astudy framework of some sort, of young people, and of peoplewith a postsecondary education, with those in the liberal profes-sions being prominent.

• Reading-room users make little use of the library catalog.

Research Procedure

The research tool is a questionnaire that was distributed in 1997among reading-room users in six urban-center libraries in Israel. Alto-gether, 335 questionnaires were collected.

In the questionnaire, people who were sitting and working in thereading rooms were asked to give demographic details about them-selves, to indicate their main purpose in coming to the library that day,and to report on their use of additional library services, whether theywere members of the libraries, the type of material they were makinguse of at that moment, and how this material had been located. Theywere also asked to state whether they had turned to the librarian duringthis visit and whether they had made use of the catalog.

FINDINGS

Profile of the Reading-Room Users

From an analysis of the questionnaires, it emerges that reading-roomusers are divided between 38.3% males and 61.7% females. About 40%of the respondents are aged 14-18. The second largest is the 22-30 agegroup (about 28%). As age rises, proportion among the users decreases.The exception, the age group of 19-21, is small because many people inthis age group in Israel serve in the army (see Table 2).

The age breakdown explains the finding about the education of read-ing-room users. Fifty-six percent of them are high school students orhave completed high school. Thirty-four percent have a university edu-cation, and another 7% have some other postsecondary education. Inother words, reading-room users in public libraries are either highschool students (in the course of obtaining a high school education) orpeople with postsecondary education (see Table 3).

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Some 286 out of the 335 respondents to the questionnaires (85.4% ofthe sample) are in some sort of study framework. The largest groupamong the students is that of high school students (33%); after it comesuniversity students (20.6%) and students in colleges (16.4%) (see Table4). These data indicate that public library reading rooms also serve largenumbers of university and college students.

As for the occupation of the subjects, the data reveal that most of thereading-room users in the public libraries are university or school stu-dents (65%); the second largest group of users consists of service workersand white-collar workers (19%). Those working in the liberal professionsand in administration constitute only 5%, the same as the proportion ofblue-collar workers (see Table 5).

Patterns of Use in the Reading Rooms

Only 37.2% of the respondents said they were members of the publiclibrary. In other words, 62.8% of those who come to the reading room


TABLE 2. Breakdown by Age Among Reading-Room Users in the Public Li-braries

Age group N Percentage

Up to 13 7 2.1%

14-18 132 39.5%

19-21 33 9.9%

22-30 94 28.1%

31-50 52 15.6%

51-65 11 3.3%

65+ 5 1.5%

N = 334

TABLE 3. Breakdown of the Reading-Room Users by Education

Level of education N Percentage

Elementary 7 2.1%

High school 187 56.3%

University 114 34.3%

Other post secondary 24 7.2%

N = 335

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sit there and use its facilities and resources without being subscribers tothe library’s circulation services.

When asked if they were planning to borrow a book or had borrowedone that day, 27.5% answered positively. A further 10% had book-bor-rowing privileges as library members, but were not planning to borrowone. Here a pattern emerges of use of the reading room by a group thatclearly does not use other library services.

Sixty-one percent of all reading-room respondents do not use anyother library service. Only 1% said they took part in lecture and work-shop clubs; 2.2% said they listened to music in the library, and another4.8% said they participated in other activities. As for the category of

Snunith Shoham 41

TABLE 4. The Study Frameworks of the Reading-Room Users

Study framework N Percentage

Grades 1-6 2 0.7%

Grades 7-9 35 12.2%

Grades 10-12 95 33.2%

First two years of college 4 1.4%

Open university 16 5.6%

University 59 20.6%

College 47 16.4%

Courses 20 7.0%

Other 8 2.8%

N = 286

TABLE 5. Breakdown of the Reading-Room Users by Occupation

Occupation N Percentage

University/school student 218 65.1%

White-collar services 62 18.5%

Liberal professions/administration 17 5.1%

Blue-collar 17 5.1%

Soldier/policeman 10 3%

Homemaker 1 0.3%

Retired 4 1.2%

Unemployed 2 0.6%

N = 335

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borrowing books, 32% said that they borrowed books in the library, similar tothe number of respondents who said they were library members (see Table 6).

The main purpose of spending time in the reading room that emergesfrom the research is to find materials for studies–about 58% of the re-spondents. The second most important purpose is homework prepara-tion with material that students bring with them from home (23.3%)(see Table 7). This state of affairs reflects the fact that the users consistmainly of students, who form the prominent group among them (85%).Only 3.6% of the respondents came to the reading room to find job-re-lated material. In other words, the reading rooms of the public librariesplay almost no role in regard to jobs.

Whereas 96% of the reading-room users made use of a monograph,only 2.6% used periodicals and another 1.9% read a newspaper.


TABLE 6. Use of Additional Library Services

Library services N Percentage

Clubs/lectures/workshops 5 1%

Borrowing books 101 32%

Listening to music 7 2.2%

Other 14 4.5%

Do not use 190 61%

N = 313 respondents

(N = 317 responses)*

*Since respondents could give more than one answer, the total came to more than 100%.

TABLE 7. Purpose of Spending Time in the Reading Room

Purpose N Percentage

To find study-relatedmaterial

193 57.6%

To find job-relatedmaterial

12 3.6%

To find material related tointerests and hobbies

25 7.5%

Homework preparationwith material from home

78 23.3%

To bring material home 1 0.3%

Other 26 7.8%

N = 335 100%

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The subjects were asked how they had located the books they were us-ing. Thirty-seven percent responded that they had found out about the bookfrom a teacher or lecturer or from a bibliographic source that had been sup-plied to them (see Table 8). Thirty-one percent had found the book on theirown by browsing the library shelves–a finding that indicates that browsingis still a means of locating important material in the public library, and notonly in the academic library (Shoham, 2000). The librarian was also an im-portant source of assistance; 20% said it was the librarian who had broughtthem the book they were reading. The catalog, however, constitutes a veryperipheral source, with only 5% of those who came to the reading roomhaving used the library catalog. Indeed, it constituted a source for a verysmall percentage of the books that the research subjects were using at thattime. This finding is in accordance with findings of other studies in publiclibraries and suggests that there is no need to invest in an overly sophisti-cated catalog in the public library.

Those who come to the reading room prefer to consult with the librar-ian, which is certainly related to their nonuse of the catalog. The prefer-ence for assistance from the librarian reflects the fact that referencelibrarians provide a very personalized service.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study reinforce the first research hypothesis. Indeed,the largest group among the reading-room users in the public libraries con-sists of high school students (i.e., junior high and high school), who ac-

Snunith Shoham 43

TABLE 8. How the Book Being Used Was Located

The source N Percentage

Teacher/lecturer/bibliographicsource

109 37%

Friend's recommendation 16 5%

Browsing 92 31%

Librarian 58 20%

Catalog search 15 5%

Media 6 8%

Other 25 8%

N = 290 respondents *114%(N = 321 responses)*

* Since respondents could give more than one answer, the total came to more than 100%.

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count for 45% of the users, although even higher percentages wereexpected. The percentage of the students who are attending higher-educa-tion institutions is larger than anticipated. One should note, however, thatwe are speaking of urban-center libraries and that different statistics wouldcertainly be found in rural libraries and in branches of urban libraries.

About 86% of those who come to the reading rooms are in some sort ofstudy framework. Sixty-five percent of the research subjects are studentswhich is their main occupation. This means that the primary purpose ofuse of the reading rooms is study, whether through use of the library re-sources or with study materials from home. The library, then, also playsan important role by providing a place to study. It plays almost no role inthe location of job-related information.

Fifty-six percent of the reading-room users have a high school educa-tion (including many who are still in high school), and 42% havepostsecondary education. Only 2% have less than a high school educa-tion, and these are elementary school students. This means that the read-ing rooms basically serve people with education.

It also emerges that the main reading-room users are young people.About 52% of the users are up to age 21, and if we add the age category of22-30, we obtain 80% of the reading-room users (confirming the secondhypothesis). Also, unlike in earlier studies, there are more females thanmales among the reading-room users. This seems to reflect a changewherein girls and women have become more entrenched in high schooland higher education.

The fact that 63% of the reading-room users are not library membersindicates that the reading rooms serve a different special clientele.

Books are the most used item in the public library reading rooms.This finding reflects the fact that the public libraries in Israel have notyet assimilated the new information formats so that most of their mate-rials are still print materials.

Books are located by browsing and by consulting with the librarian. Thisaccounts for the fact that only 5% made use of the catalog. In the public li-braries the catalog fulfills a very peripheral function (bearing out the thirdhypothesis).

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