AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CONGRUENCE/INCONGRUENCE BETWEEN ESPOUSED THEORY AND THEORY-IN-USE RELATING TO PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE TO OLDER ADULTS IN ONTARIO AND NEW YORK

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant incongruence exists between public librarians' commitment to an officially-espoused theory of service to older adults which reflects the activity perspective on ageing, and their commitment to a theory-in-use operationalizing, in terms of actual library practice, the same gerontological perspective underlying the espoused theory.;The survey instrument developed by the investigator contained two sections. The first, an "Inventory of Preferred Practice to Older Adults" (representing theory-in-use), contained items which operationalized the activity perspective underlying the A.L.A. statement, "The Library's Responsibility to the Aging." The second section, sent separately, consisted of the A.L.A. statement itself (representing espoused theory).;The population of the study was limited to the 1270 professional librarians holding administrative or public service positions in public libraries serving populations over 30,000 in Ontario and New York. A stratified random sample of 116 Ontario and 183 New York librarians was drawn from the identified population. The data for the study were supplied by 213 respondents representing seventy-one percent of the survey sample.;The data indicated that: (1) commitment to an espoused theory of service to the ageing which is officially sanctioned by the A.L.A. and which reflects on activity perspective was high; (2) commitment to a theory-in-use operationalizing the same activity perspective was significantly less high; and (3) eight independent variables--including respondents' nationality, age, sex, position, recentness of first library degree, size of employing library, and membership in national library associations--bore no relationship to the degree of difference between librarians' commitment to the espoused theory and commitment to the theory-in-use.;A conceptual framework for the study was provided by Argyris and Schon's "theory of theories-in-action" (1976). According to this theory, the practice of a profession is subject to incongruence between espoused theories and theories-in-use, which can render professional practice less effective.;The incongruence found in this study appears to be rooted in the survival of certain traditional library philosophies--or theories-in-use--which conflict with an officially-espoused theory of service to older adults adopted in response to recent social and demographic developments.