Usage of university libraries by non-academic community in Canada and the United States of America

85-87<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">A survey was carried out with a sample of 46 Canadian and 7 American university libraries to find out their present policies with regard to providing library facilities to schools, colleges, business and farm communities. It has been observed that generally university libraries are reluctant to undertake the responsibility for meeting the needs of the public, though American university libraries seem to be relatively more flexible in this regard. However, in the Maritime Provinces of Canada outsiders have access to the collection of the university libraries of the respective provinces & enjoy loan privileges at par with the academic community. Some of the conclusions drawn are: (i) loan privileges can be made flexible to encompass public during Christmas and summer vacation, (ii) extension of university library facilities to non-academic community would hamper the development of school or college libraries on the one hand & also affect the service rendered to the academic community on the other, (iii) non-academic demand of the university library facilities is dependent on factors like size of population, location of the university, existence of public library, etc.