THE USERS' SPHERE OF RURAL LIBRARIES ON SERVICE LEVELS : A study on the planning of the regional facilities in sparsely populated areas 2

Abstract

This paper discusses the dual structure of users' sphere from viewpoint of rural libraries' service levels. At 11 libraries, 7 regional are in Mie and 4 are in Siga, the users' spheres are investigated and their factors are analyzed. The main results is following: 1) On rural libraries, the users' sphere is closely connected with the number of collection books. 2) Service levels of libraries makes the users' sphere extend, but it does not influence enough people who live near the library. 3) The extending of users is under the influence of the services and number of libraries in neighboring area.