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Dissertation Information for Holly Geneva Willett

NAME:
- Holly Geneva Willett

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA) (1986)

ADVISORS:
- Marilyn Lea Miller

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Ray Warren Carpenter
- Linda Lacey
- Barbara B. Moran
- Peter A. Neenan

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: SERVICES AND RESOURCES IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN FISCAL YEAR 1977-78 AND FISCAL YEAR 1982-83

Abstract: Many youth services librarians believe that when budget retrenchment is necessary, services to children and teenagers receive disproportionate reductions in allocations. Reduced public library expenditures after the implementation of Proposition 13, a tax-limitation measure, provided an opportunity to study this question in California public libraries. The investigation used survey questionnaire and case study methodologies to compare the proportional relationships among services for children, youth, and adults in fiscal years 1977-78 and 1982-83, before and after Proposition 13. The following variables were studied: public service staffing, supervisors and coordinators, materials expenditures, volumes acquired, activity programs, outreach projects, and outreach project staff. The first hypothesis tested whether the relationships among the three age-level services had changed throughout the state. The second and third hypotheses tested the possibility that size of population served or type of government jurisdiction affected the relationships among the age-level services.

Staff at 108 libraries (67%) returned partially usable survey responses. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the survey data. Only one of the twelve variables, book expenditures for adult services, showed a statistically significant difference in the relationships among the age-level services for 1982-83 as compared to 1977-78. This result was due to inflation, and it cannot be generalized beyond the libraries studied.

Four libraries were selected as sites for case studies. At the case study libraries, materials expenditure and M.L.S. staffing for children's and young adult services were reduced disproportionately after Proposition 13, but adult services activity programs were reduced more than programs for children. Although some reductions remained, by 1983-84 relationships among the age-level services at case study libraries were no longer disproportionate on some variables.

The results of the study suggested that public librarians need to keep better records of their activities for accountability and planning at state and local levels. Librarians also need to consider how best to provide services to teenagers when specific staff is not designated for young adult services. Further research is needed into economic ability to provide public services as a source of variability in public library age-level services.

MPACT Scores for Holly Geneva Willett

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:19:58

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