Introduction

One of the themes of growing importance to society, and thus, to libraries, is the needs of the great variety of diverse groups in our society. Marcia Naurital argues convincingly that traditionally libraries have focused on meeting individual needs and not on targeting services for specific groups within our population. She believes that information available in libraries remains largely unexploited by many groups in our society because of the library’s traditional focus on school-related needs or recreational reading and service to individuals. She proposes that libraries redirect a substantial portion of their services from individuals to groups. She also observes that–many attempts at special programs have failed due to underfunding, lack of community involvement, insufficient understanding of the life experience of target clienteles, and a reluctance to structure services to meet collective as well as individual needs. ¹