Five essays on public uses of the humanities from the 1981 National Conference of State Humanities Councils are presented. After a foreword by Donald Gibson and an introduction by Steven Weiland, "The Uses and Status of Literature" by Catherine Stimpson is presented. She recommends that public programs in the humanities address the quarrels about literature itself. In "Quality in History Programs: From Celebration to Exploration of Values," Michael H. Frisch considers the "quality gap" in contemporary public history programming. As illustration, some issues and opportunities in community-based oral history projects are addressed. In "Scholarly Standards and Public Humanities Programs," William C. Havard discusses problems of inducing humanities scholars to participate in National Endowment for the Humanities' public programs, and the universities' role. In "Applied Humanities: Utility as Standard of Value in Public Programs" Barbara Hillyer Davis examines humanist in residence programs, while in "The Humanities and the State Councils: Retooling in the 1980s," Abraham Edel discusses the needs and values of programs of state humanities councils, self-assessment, and criticisms of the programs. (SW)