Is the Time Past for Public Libraries? Rethinking a California Institution

Are public libraries facing extinction?

--One-third of the nation is illiterate and 40% of young adults don’t read books, author Jonathan Kozol writes.

--In Shasta County, the public library, strapped for funds, is boarded up and voters defeat a property-tax fee for library support.

--A new study reports a growing disparity between traditional users of public libraries (white, female and better educated) and the general population (projected by the year 2000 to be 48% ethnic and racial minority).

Given this sobering news, what can be said about the future of the public library in California? Is it doomed, like the dinosaur? Or can it, like the primate, develop adaptive skills to survive in a changing environment?

If you have not paid a visit to a public library in recent years, you may be in for a surprise. Libraries are not the same places they were even five years ago. The ones in tune with their communities have already begun the process of adapting services to the needs and interests of varied users, and even to some heretofore non-users. It is not uncommon to find the following:

--Books, periodicals, records and other audio-visual materials in a multitude of foreign languages, both for the native speaker and the student.

--Proliferating audio-visual materials, including audio and video cassettes, compact discs and full-length “talking books” on audiocassettes, as well as playback equipment to check out.

--Microcomputers for in-library use and software to check out.

--Classes in computer literacy, to learn English as a second language or one-on-one literacy tutoring.

--Income-tax forms and the photocopy machines to reproduce them.

--Computerized access to library catalogues or information databases.

--Expanded after-school programs for the “latchkey” child, as well as story hours for preschool toddlers.

How public libraries can or should adapt to the state’s changing population is the focus of a 112-page study by the Santa Monica-based RAND Corp., commissioned by the California State Library. The study’s recommendations, together with those of a recent conference of librarians, public officials and community leaders, will be reviewed by the entire library community at eight meetings to be held around California this summer.

The study and ensuing discussions have been prompted by concerns among library leaders that the growing numbers of ethnic and racial minorities in the state’s general population may lead to declining use of library services--because minorities are generally less well-educated, less affluent and may come from countries without the tradition of library use found in this country and in Europe.

Moreover, libraries, by virtue of the ways they organize and present their services, may present barriers to effective use by the unsophisticated user. For an ethnic minority, these barriers may be compounded by monolingual staff or the absence of minority staff, the lack of material and instructions for library use in the individual’s language and the individual’s own lack of familiarity with library use and services.

Since studies have shown that only 25% to 30% of the general population uses libraries, and that one-third of all library users account for two-thirds of their use, the RAND report raises serious questions about who is--and who is not--availing themselves of library services.

Libraries must carefully examine the “socioeconomic and cultural characteristics” of the particular communities they serve, the document says, to learn what cultural traditions exist toward reading, government and libraries, traditions that librarians can use to adapt delivery of services. For example, a library serving a large immigrant population may discover that members are used to getting information not from books, but from community kiosks. Or that assigning descriptive labels to sections of books rather than only providing their Dewey Decimal System number may enable users to find their way around the library more easily.

By the year 2000, 60% of Californians under age 20 will be minorities. Therefore, one strategy for libraries to meet the needs of an ever-growing minority population is to emphasize services to this age group. Since studies also show that children tend to introduce their parents to library use, closer coordination between the library’s adult and children’s services would be one way to introduce minority adults to library use.

Faced with declining budgets, libraries may not be able to continue to be “all things to all people.” For example, in order to provide more materials in foreign languages, the library may have to buy fewer copies of best sellers.

Libraries attempting to adapt services to serve growing numbers of minorities may alienate not only longtime users, but elected officials as well. For it is also true that both elected officials and the voting public are less likely to be ethnic and racial minorities and consequently may not believe in the value of libraries providing specialized services to these groups.

The study is bound to stimulate controversy and debate, particularly in its call for the public library to “clarify and limit its role”--by cutting back such traditional services as adult reference, for instance. The reduction of reference services will not seem an appropriate trade-off for libraries with heavily used reference services.

And the study’s emphasis on the provision of services to ethnic and racial minorities may be viewed as ignoring the needs of all other individuals and groups in a library’s service area--the disabled, the business community, the growing senior citizen population and the “traditional” library user. A library director must evaluate the needs of all groups in the community and may not be able to trade off services to one at the expense of another--especially if doing so will mean the loss of their support of the library’s programs and budget.

But this would be an unfair evaluation, because at the heart of this study is the question of what should be the nature of library service to an entire community, whether its constituency is minority or predominantly white. Libraries as the repositories of vast amounts of stored knowledge and information should concentrate on making themselves a vital part of a community’s cultural agenda. To do this, they must ensure that their services are offered equitably to all segments, not only to those who have always used them.

Since the only reason for the public library to exist is service to the community that supports it financially, the library must ensure that precious tax dollars are providing services that are valued and used, rather than ignored.

The problem must be addressed at the state and the national level. But the public library must do what it can, as an institution of the local community, to encourage and if necessary educate people in effective library use. Librarians are realistic enough to know that we will never have sufficient resources to serve all members of our communities, nor will all who pay for libraries choose to use them. But we feel an ethical responsibility to do all we can:We are still the “people’s university.”

So is the public library in danger of extinction? I don’t think so--at least not yet. This summer’s discussions will be reinvigorating, because they will be on a topic dear to the heart of every librarian--how to serve our communities.

And finally, for your information--dinosaurs may be extinct, but they live on in the imaginations of children. That is why the 1988 theme for summer reading programs across California is “Discover Dinosaurs--Be A Read-A-Saurus.” Thousands of children will visit libraries and find that dinosaurs--and the “dinosaurs” that house them--are alive and well.