Dissemination of the Public Library Planning Process among Smaller Libraries

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of the diffusion of the Public Library Association's planning process. Forty-eight state library development agencies were surveyed with respect to the techniques used to disseminate planning information. A second survey was conducted with a nationwide random sample, stratified by size, of libraries serving under fifty thousand people in order to determine the extent to which smaller public libraries had received and were using the information about planning coming from the state. Access to information about planning and attendance at conferences was found to explain half of the variance in adoption of the planning process.