"It is also relevant, and perhaps more important, to inquire into the relationship of the occupational composition of the public library's clientele to that of the population as a whole. Is the library's clientele a representative sample of the total adult population by occupation? Again the answer is "No." Professional and managerial people, students, and white-collar workers make greater use of the public library, relatively speaking, than do the other occupational groups." (pp.33-34)
"The young use the library more than the old, the better-educated more than the lesser educated and women more than, and differently from, men. The public library serves the middle class, defined either by occupation or by economic status, more than either the upper or lower classes."
(pp.49-50)
Good social progressives that most librarians are, it is taken a priori that the number of working-class and poor people who use the library should be increased. But working people, as a single homogenous group, generally do not go to libraries. The homeless go there; some immigrants go there; and often the children of the poor (especially the children of recent immigrants) go there. But the people librarians most desperately want to reach out to--working-class adults--never do.
Is that a problem? Are we wasting our time, having been chasing these people now for almost a century?
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3 comments:
“The report attempts to tell what the public
library does, not what it can do or should do.
This is important enough to repeat: the report
attempts to tell what the public library actually
does.” (Berelson, 1949 pg. 3)
"Berelson threw down the gauntlet and demanded
that professionals and academics remove
themselves from the idealistic Victorian notions
that initiated the public library movement and
begin to address the gritty questions of what real
libraries do and what real patrons do." (Taken from Successive approximations : The story of information behaviour
research by
George R. Goodall at http://www.deregulo.com/facetation/pdfs/successiveApproximations.pdf ).
Striving to bring in people into libraries who are not typically patrons is not wasteful but what libraries are doing and have been doing that isn't working is wasteful. Berelson points out that libraries must study themselves and what they are currently doing before being able to instigate change and get these sections of the public into libraries. But then the question still stands, how do you get this segment of the population into libraries even with self-reflection and modification of programs?
As a "good social progressive," I really, really like Alycia's suggestion that the ALA/libraries get involved in workers' rights in order to attract segments of the population who are missing from library patronage. It's a great suggestion and could be more effective than how libraries and librarians have operated in the past.
But...it's incredibly ambitious--what steps could the ALA actually take? Does the ALA really have any political or social agency in this arena? It certainly doesn't have any economic weight to throw against employers like Wal-mart...if labor unions have failed, how can the ALA be expected to have any influence in the plight of the working class and working poor?
Everyone here has excellent comments, and I agree with most of them. I do think Alycia has a great point -- that many segments of our society, particularly the working class -- simply do not have the time to go to the library and read. ALA could take a stand on that issue and attempt to push for more material and programming that the poor and working classes need (such as language classes, classes and workshops for computers) and might want. Even making computers available without having to get a library card (which homeless people cannot get) is also a start. ALA has made reading and going to the libraries a big issue for children; why not working adults? Do libraries ever reach out to businesses or places of employment to either form partnerships or at least have some advertising with them to let workers know that the library is there waiting to serve them?
Ultimately, though, this is a societal issue that libraries can only go so far in remedying -- people have less time than ever in this country and that is the economic reality we live in. Libraries have such potential to sources of leisure, information and education that it is upsetting when the people who could most use them do not but that should not stop libraries from trying different methods to get people in the door and using their facilities. As others have said, libraries should be mindful not to waste time and resources on things that are not working but we should still continue to try.
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