Finding The Under Served

摘要

The heart of the public library mission is to provide service to the entire community and serve the under-served. But how do you identify the people you are not reaching, where they live, and what they need? And what does it mean for your services if in your community the underserved are not also underprivileged?rnContrary to popular belief, in a surprising number of communities the upwardly mobile middle and upper-middle classes are underserved. This creates a marginalized library with eroding support. It can threaten the library's ability to serve the underprivileged and may well isolate it from the majority of community residents. Although a recent OCLC report found that library support isn't necessarily tied to library usage, in tough economic times libraries cannot count on well-meaning citizens who have sustained it in the past to pay for "the greater good." In a climate of shrinking paychecks and rising prices, a tax increase for library services they don't use can be a nonstarter.