Public library systems in the United States

The term public library systems has different meanings for both the lay and professional person. To the writer, it meant a large municipal system such as the Chicago Public Library with its forty-one branches1 or a cooperative effort of small Iowa libraries working together. In reviewing the literature concerning library systems, one finds professionals like Kenneth B. Shaffer stating: The library system has been an accepted as a reasonable and viable concept for half a century ... While we have employed the term, decade after decade, the meaning of the term library system has changed significantly to the point, certainly, where it is sematically useless.2 This paper is an attempt to clarify the term and relate facts concerning public library systems in United States