Library and Information Science

The purpose of this study is to clarify the selection criteria which public libraries in Japan tacitly employ. These criteria are determined 1) by calculating the number of libraries which hold each title of the newspapers and magazines examined, and 2) by examining the results in relation to the characteristics of the titles. In total, the newspaper and magazine holdings of 435 public libraries in Ehime, Shiga, Aichi, Kanagawa and Chiba Prefectures were examined.

The study demonstrated that the users’ demand do not necessarily have priority in selecting newspapers and magazines. Rather, the overall initial reputation of a title is more important. Other factors which influence the selection include originality, genre, ideology and means of distribution. On the other hand, magazines with the pornographic, discreditable, or explicitly commercial characteristics were relatively less selected, but not altogether excluded from collection.