More Missions Are Better

摘要

There is widespread agreement that the public library mission must include several roles and kinds of service. This convergence reflects the profession's reluctant recognition that a public library must offer "something for everyone" or at least something for every taxpayer. A library cannot "concentrate and strengthen," as the great Lowell Martin advised years ago, setting in motion the Public Library Planning Process with its attempt to focus public library service by setting specific roles. Many great administrators have urged libraries to focus on one or two roles and one broad mission. They warned that a library simply cannot be "all things to all people" and must narrow its focus and vision because of limits forced upon it by a scarcity of resources.