Comment

IN 1972 the Public Libraries Research Group (PLRG) was presented with a discussion paper on public libraries and long range planning. The group had recently published its public library aims and objectives statement and was looking for ways to assess future developments in these areas of management. Wennerberg in Sweden had just published a paper in the Unesco Bulletin on the Delphi technique as applied to special libraries, and reading this had stimulated the discussion paper. A search of the literature had revealed some references to the use of Delphi in industry, urban planning and professional areas such as medicine and higher education and, after considerable discussion, the group decided to accept the offer of the author and a colleague, Gordon Pratt, to attempt some research using this approach. The project organisers combined substantial and varied experience in a number of libraries with statistical knowledge and this combination proved to be highly desirable producing a truly multi-disciplinary approach to the work.