The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

CHAPTER II
THE FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY: AN ANALYSIS
The function of a library is to provide its users with access to
information.
It is important at the outset to distinguish this basic function
from the activities of a library. 1 These include:
• The selection and acquisition of library materials.
• Cataloging, binding, labeling, and otherwise preparing material
for use.
• Circulating materials to users.
• Provision of assistance to users through reference services,
individualized and group instruction, and preparation of bibliographies.
• Preservation and protection of collections.
• Relations with other libraries and similar institutions to serve
users more fully.
• Administration of the library as an institution and organization.
All of these activities are important, but from the standpoint of
the user they all contribute, directly or indirectly, to the central
function of providing access to information. An analysis of any library-of
its characteristics, operations, and services--must therefore be
based on the components of this function; that is, on:
• the nature of its users;
• the nature of the information needed by the users; and
• the nature of access to the information.
1 Most of the literature on libraries discusses such activities in terms
of missions, goals, and objectives--terms which Crum has pointed out
tend to be used either interchangeably or with varying degrees of
generality (Norman Crum, Library Goals and Objectives: A Literature
Review, Washington, ERIC Clearinghouse on Library and Information Science,
1973, pp. 2-4). Since most of the literature on libraries is written by
librarians it is natural that their activities should form the basis for
discussion, but it is nevertheless surprising that there has apparently
been so little systematic effort to analyze libraries from the users'
point of view.