Financial Problems Affecting Metropolitan Libraries.

OFTHE TOTAL population of the United States, 68.6 percent live in metropolitan areas.Of these metropolitan dwellers, 31.4 percent live in the central or core city and 37.2 percent live in suburbs outside the core city.'These statistics are indicators of major trends occurring in American society in recent decades.These trends include the flight from the farms to the city, the movement of the mobile urban population to the suburb and now the far suburb, and the in-movement to the city of people with less education and fewer skills and financial resources.The core city in recent years has actually been a center for the recycling of people.For the purpose of this paper, a metropolitan area is defined as a central city having a population of 300,000 or more, surrounded by incorporated suburbs (thus preventing the core city from annexing land), with a substantial portion of the work force commuting daily to the central city.There is no need to document here the social and economic effect such population shifts have had on the character of the American metropolitan area.Suffice it to say that these core cities are beset with increasing crime, declining schools which are not relevant to the needs of the new resident, inadequate public transportation, declining property values, inadequate welfare and social services, poverty and pollution.And what of the suburb?It may be defined as a small or medium-sized city, town or village with open land for expansion of residences, industrial parks, and large shopping centers.Its population is more educated, more skilled and wealthier than that of the core city.The suburb has adequate to good schools reinforcing the mores of the more affluent, predominantly white population.It has an expanding tax base not only because of the ability of the people to pay