Historical Development of Standards of the American Public Library : From National Standards to Local Planning

Abstract

The national standards for public libraries were first published by the American Library Association in 1933 and were revised approximately once a decade in 1943, 1956, and 1966. The standards placed significant influences on the development of American public libraries. However, development of these national standards was ceased by the Public Library Association (division of the ALA) in 1966 due to the new trend from the beginning of 1970s to value the planning process of individual libraries, which encourages public libraries to develop and implement individual plans based on needs of the local community. The outcome of this trend was the Public Library Mission Statement which was adopted by PLA in 1979. These changes indicate the transformation from the input to output model library as well as from national standards to local standards based on the community needs. Furthermore, this shift continues with an increasing emphasis on the measurement of the effectiveness of library services. The present paper offers a new perspective for implementing public library standards in Japan and China by examining the transformation of American public library standards.