Public Libraries and Questions about the Environment

Abstract

Investigates whether public libraries are capable of providing a basic science enquiry service. Examines the range of environmental enquiries handled by five participating libraries as a part of their everyday business. During the study some 110 detailed enquiries where recorded: somewhat less than 20 per cent of these concerned local environmental questions; the rest related to environmental queries at the national or global level. The three most popular topics were: pollution; names/addresses of environmental organizations and people; and recycling. Enquirers were evenly split between school attenders and adults. Most of the enquiries could be answered by making use of the resources already available in the library; no more than 10 per cent had to be referred elsewhere for an answer.

Citation

Hodges, S., Cooke, M. and Meadows, J. (1993), "Public Libraries and Questions about the Environment", Library Review, Vol. 42 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242539310039775