Objectives of this study were to assess public library history, current status, trends, and problems and to suggest approaches to improvement. Trends indicate a new era of library and information services, making it necessary for librarians to decide whether the public library will be an active or passive institution for public enlightenment and social change. Public librarians are most concerned about improving ways of measuring a library's effectiveness as a social institution, studying the user and non-user, utilizing manpower, financing library service, and organizing and administrating a library. The long range issue is seen as determining and providing the kind of library service needed. The major recommendation is the creation of a national commission to guide research and development for improved library services and to devise a comprehensive national plan for library service. More immediate recommendations involve the areas of: federal appropriations for public libraries, metropolitan libraries, regional reference centers, Library of Congress, federal standards for libraries, service to the disadvantaged, an advisory commission for state libraries, and matching funds. Appended is a chapter on the development of the public library from Elmer Johnson's "A History of Libraries in the Western World" (Scarecrow Press, 1965) and a bibliography of 124 items. (JB)