University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

An Informal Information Service at the Chicago Public Library's Bezazian Branch

Dawood, Rosemary Smith

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1589

Description

Title
An Informal Information Service at the Chicago Public Library's Bezazian Branch
Author(s)
Dawood, Rosemary Smith
Issue Date
1971
Keyword(s)
  • Libraries and community
  • Social service --Information services
  • Reference services (Libraries)
  • Community information services
Abstract
"The public library in the United States is a community facility dedicated to service to everyone. This broad concept of service, however admirable, implies objectives which public librarians find increasingly difficult to meet with their present limited resources and staff. Because of limited resources, library programs and services are spread thinly over a wide span dealing with education, information, culture and recreation. Meager budgets must be stretched to anticipate and respond to the extreme diversity of a constantly shifting clientele. Responding to drastic changes in neighborhoods is not a new experience for public library administrators and personnel. Occasionally they have been lethargic in responding to changing situations, but meeting social changes has always been a part of public library history. Today public librarians encounter inner-city problems far more complicated than those of previous years. Creative new responses are needed to meet this situation and the informational needs of the residents of these urban centers. Social, political and economic changes have always influenced approaches used by public libraries to reach people and provide the information they request. Librarians ask such questions as, ""What new responsibilities should public libraries accept in contributing to the direction of change?"" ""How far should the public library go in developing the high levels of personal and telephone reference service and information retrieval required by sophisticated urban complexities?"" ""How many nontraditional library activities should be sponsored by the library to acquaint the low-income inner-city children and adults with the library's presence in the community and the informational services it offers?"" Definitive solutions to such questions are not easily reached, but the response to the following question will indicate the extent of the potential solution. ""How willing and ready are the public library administrators and staff to change to meet all the information needs of the constituency they serve?"""
Publisher
Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Allerton Park Institute (17th : 1971)
ISSN
0536-4604
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1589
Copyright and License Information
Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1971.

Owning Collections

1971: Libraries and neighborhood information centers PRIMARY
Allerton Park Institute Proceedings (no. 17, 1971); Edited by Carol L Cronus and Linda Crowe