A survey of central Indiana libraries : staff attitudes toward public relations and the administration of public relations

The study surveyed public relations in twenty-five public libraries in an eight-county region in central Indiana. It examined staff attitudes toward library public relations, the extent of public relations activities and administrative patterns of library PR. It compared attitude and administrative patterns with the extent of public relations activity in an attempt to determine what factors are most important to active library PR.A mail questionnaire was used to establish attitude and an interview surveyed the extent of PR activity and administrative factors.Data suggested that the surveyed library staffs are generally favorable toward PR. However, the hypothesis that a favorable staff attitude would indicate higher PR activity, was not substantiated. The findings show that most of the surveyed libraries did not implement PR as a formal management function. The small size of the sample prohibits generalizations, but library size appears to be an influential factor affecting the extent of PRactivity.Thesis (M.L.S.