摘要：Much has been said in recent years about the library's user population. It has been studied, commented upon, and criticized, both explicitly and implicitly, for not using local libraries or for not availing itself of the resources and services of national libraries (Modern Medicine, September 9, 1968, "Contemporaries" section). Generally, the descriptions of the user population given by several Regional Medical Library Programs and Regional Medical Programs have consisted of total numbers of physicians, total numbers of physicians now using library resources, and the increase in library resources necessary to serve the difference of these two totals. I submit that this approach is unrealistic. In particular, resource and service increases are based upon total numbers of physicians rather than upon present physicians served and upon some measure of the satisfaction of physician requests presented to the libraries.
