After winning his Montana case, P.O.Keeney left Montana and got a job in Washington D.C.in1940. There he was engaged in analysis of war information, and took the opportunity to go to Japan under the military occupation of the Allied Powers as a member of commission concerning civil affairs in 1945. Then he transferred from GS to CIE where they were preparing for the visit of the U.S.Education Mission, and he took charge of making Japanese library policy. Keeney worked for implementation of unified library system, but his plan presupposed centralized administration and was inconsistent with decetralization policy of CIE. Further, he could not obtain Japanese librarians' consent, so he held conferences throughout Japan in order to inform an advantage of his plan. But, in April 1947, Keeney was suddently to be discharged, because the U.S.Government, which confirmed its opinion for anti-communism, suspected him of being a communist.

View full abstract

The purpose of this paper is to take up The Library's Public:A Report of the Public Library Inquiry, an analytical report of public library users by Bernard Berelson made as a part of the "Public Library Inquiry"-an investigation into the social, political and economic positioning of public libraries. This paper examines how Berelson's assertion of the public library as a service to opinion leaders arises in view of his research background. As the result, it became clear that to explain how public libraries were used in the 1940s, Berelson utilized information sources other than community public libraries in his analysis and the methods and thought of his communication research reflected in the report. Though Berelson's report did not necessarily have a direct impact on the public library operation, the contentions made in this report are very important as public library theory, including the essential points with regard to the users of public libraries.

View full abstract