| Despite the continuous development and provisions of state public library standards there has been little research concerning how useful they are for what aspects of public library activities. The purposes of the present study are (1) to understand, from the directors' points of view, the utility of state standards for planning and evaluation; and (2) to explore the types of factors, related to the directors' backgrounds and/or the library planning and evaluation contexts, associated with the director's perceptions. Through a self-administered mail questionnaire, 1,198 public library directors in Kansas, Texas, and Wisconsin were surveyed, and 737 directors replied (61.5% response rate).; A high agreement among the three states was found in the directors' perceptions (rank correlation coefficient (Kendall's tau_b) was above.700, p <.001). The directors perceived the standards as useful for both planning and evaluation, in particular, for assessing present service levels, identifying weak service areas, comparing services with other libraries, and formulating goals and objectives. Collection and service standards were perceived as more useful than administration, staffing and facilities standards. Library total income was related to the directors' perceptions in two states (r = −.18 1, p <.05 in Texas, and r = −.235, p <.01 in Wisconsin). Community involvement in planning and evaluation was associated with the director's perceptions (r =.3 5 8, p <.001 in Kansas; r =.302, p <.001 in Texas; and r =.459, p <.000 in Wisconsin). The director's professional background, assessed by education, experience, affiliation, and activities, was not significantly related to his or her perceptions of the utility of the standards.; The findings suggest that the director's perceptions of the utility of state standards need to be understood within the library condition and its community context, and the emphasis on community based public library planning and evaluation should continue to be employed in the standards. Further research areas suggested include qualitative research focusing on the process of the community members' involvement in the public library planning and evaluation in relation to the state standards; and examination of additional variables to explain the utility of the standards. |
