Recovery of significant achievements by exemplary individuals and institutions in public education and librarianship informs our present understanding and motivates future efforts. This narrative history recounts some of the struggles and successes of a great city library when the very conception of a free, public library was still being defined.…

In an experimental selective dissemination program, public library patrons were supplied with printed booklists based on individual subject preferences.

Describes a project of the Levittown Public Library to determine its book loss rate, the methods of determining losses, kinds and ages of books lost, and use of the "Tattle Tape" security system to reduce book loss. (LS)

The International Association of Metropolitan City Libraries (INTAMEL) three-year research project to investigate the needs of metropolitan public library systems in developing countries is discussed. (3 references) (Author/SJ)

The President of INTAMEL (International Association of Metropolitan City Libraries) gives an overview of the changes taking place in the world public library system and the efforts of INTAMEL members to document and respond to those changes. The Declaration of Rome, a policy and goals statement, is appended. (KE)

Addresses the questions of why librarians engaged in serving children are on the defensive about the way in which they evaluate their services, and what can be done to bring children's services back into the mainstream of library thinking. (FM)

Libraries must do some research before trying to establish a community information center. Librarians should consider feasibility, identify the target population, inventory community resources, define information needs, and provide for continuing study while the service is in operation. (LS)

An announcement of a study to be conducted by Leeds Polytechnic to describe and analyze ideas about information and the public library, and offer suggestions for future services. (Author/JAB)

This article presents an interview with Karen Glover of Georgia Tech, a key person behind the planning of the Access Services Conference held last fall, and now going into its second year. Glover started working in libraries as a part-time library assistant at her local public library during her high school years. She later became a Circulation…

This essay served as the basis for the opening keynote speech during the Library Assessment Conference in Baltimore in 2010. It set the stage by tracing the demands for accountability in the beginning of the century and outlining progress made. It provided important background and context for the following four keynote papers delivered by Megan…

A study of the effects on public library circulation of putting a group of selected adult titles in a prime physical location is reported. It is hypothesized that public library circulation of these titles will be significantly greater when they are collected and placed in a prime location than when they are scattered on the shelves of even an…

Reports on efforts in the 1970's by the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, to develop new standards for public libraries. (Author/PF)

Surveyors and professional librarians should look to the methodologies of other fields, such as the social sciences, for more satisfactory techniques. (Author)

The four papers contained in this volume were presented at the August 1994 meetings of the American Statistical Association as a session titled, "Public Policy and Data Comparability: New Interest in Public Library Data." The first paper, "Public Library Statistics: Two Systems Compared" (Mary Jo Lynch), describes two systems…

Presents the results of a 1971 survey of the demographic characteristics of the adult population of North Carolina as they relate to library use. Each of 14 tables of data is accompanied by a short discussion, and the average library user as depicted by the data is described. (JVP)