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The Role of Local and State Governments.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Trezza, Alphonse F. Halcli, Albert |
| Copyright Year | 1974 |
| Abstract | STATE AND LOCAL governments provide the framework within which the public library operates. Society, as distinct from government, provides the raw material which gives library service its meaning, but government creates the necessary organizational and fiscal structure that makes library functions possible. The public library is subject to public control. It does not operate in a vacuum, and in only a narrowly defined sense does it act with complete freedom. It is responsible not only to a public which it must serve, but to a public which is also its master. Of the two levels of government, state and local, the latter has far greater impact on the library. In the mind of the public, the library and the public schools are emphatically local institutions. This status gives both institutions a special aura. Both have a certain quality which makes them seem like extensions of the home. Perhaps this is because both have such impact on children. No theory of service can gain much support that does not recognize this fact of public life. In popular political tradition, state and local governments are usually spoken of as two different sources of authority. From the administrative point of view, of course, they are different. From the constitutional point of view there are only two levels of political authority-federal and state. The United States is a federation of states, but the states are not federations of local governments. However in this, as in the other spheres, the tradition is as important as the written constitutional word. Indeed, in the minds of a significant portion of society, the local government has become the last bastion of defense against an all-encroaching government. This, too, is an essential reality that we may forget only at our peril. In legal jargon, public -libraries are the creatures of the local |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/6782/librarytrendsv23i2f_opt.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/6782/librarytrendsv23i2f_opt.pdf?sequence=1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
