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Chapter 5
Extension/Outreach Services
The information function of the JPL had been accepted from
the library's inception, but discharge of this duty had of
necessity relied upon the quality of the library's collection and
strategies to increase patronage. Publicity had developed and
been used to disseminate the news of "good" books available to
patrons, but the extension movement sought to make these
resources more widely available to all, often outside the walls
of the library itself. It is not surprising that the JPL's first
documented effort at library extension was directed at
Janesville's working class men. The library was, after all, the
product of a nineteenth-century movement that envisioned the
education and self-improvement of the masses.
Early JPL Extension Efforts
Early library extension efforts in Janesville were directed
first at increasing patronage and secondly at geographically
- ill -