User Fee in U.S. Public Libraries

ABSTRACTThe article presents the status and possibilities for abolition of user fees in Slovenian public libraries. Key international documents IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifestand Guidelines for Public Library Service define professional position on this issue. Pete Giacoma elaborates user fees from different perspectives such as economic theories, political consensus and equity. Legal framework for user fees in Slovenia is described and the study draws attention to its inconsistency. The legal framework, level of membership fees, percentage of registered borrowers etc. are compared with several European countries. Data on user fees in Slovenian public and academic libraries, museums and galleries were collected and compared. Differences among public libraries are shown regarding the structure and level of general income and income from user fees. Structure of expenditure is also presented and potential loss of income is assessed. Library directors expressed their views on consequences of proposed membershipfee elimination. The survey ends with the proposal for next action steps towards successful governance of this problem.

The user fee practiced in public libraries in Tanzania since 1996 and implications of the fee are examined in relation to the role of libraries in economic development. The paper aims at stimulating discussions among professionals and other stakeholders regarding the effects and controversies of the issue. Based on a survey of literature, brief and informal discussions with eight library users and librarians in three public libraries in Tanzania, it looks into the fee concept and discusses the experiences and implications of the fee to both the public and public libraries that so far are not optimally used. In addition, charged services in four public university libraries have been examined for possible lessons to be learnt. While recognizing the growing pressure to commercialize access to information resources as a strategy for coping with economic difficulties in the public sectors, the paper cautions that the practice may have more disadvantages than advantages. It is observed that while there may be other reasons preventing the public from using libraries, the fee may actually be a hindrance to developing positive attitudes towards use of libraries by the public for their socio-economic development. The authors see the existence of an opportunity for librarians to make tangible contribution in the society's development process by promoting the use of easily accessible information through public libraries rather than supporting restrictive rules. It is concluded that paying for basic library services may not necessarily be a solution to the library's economic constraints across the board. For this reason, Tanzania's libraries should consider the present period as a period for promotion, advocacy, and investment in the value and role of information for economic growth and in the expansion as well as creation of public library clientele. Among the recommendations put forward is the need for conducting in-depth studies that would profile the actual users of these libraries, determine membership trend and find out user opinion and attitude towards fee practices in Tanzania. The paper also recommends the use of participatory methods in order to make fair decision regarding access, use and sustainability of public libraries. The paper finally suggests some possible alternatives for economic sustainability of the libraries. University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal Vol.6(2) 2004: 13-31

New challenges facing public libraries require increasing resources and/or a more systematic approach in selecting from the increasing amount of new materials and filtering the overwhelming information glut. In facing this dilemma one idea could be to introduce user fees. Reports the results of investigations into the nature and level of user fees established in public libraries in several countries. The article discusses six general perspectives concerning user fees related to the future role of public libraries: the financial rationale underlying user fees; the willingness of users to pay; user fees as a means of collecting information on user preferences and controlling/limiting its use; the impact on the social distribution of library services; aspects of rethinking the modern welfare state; and aspects of enlightenment in a post‐modern society.

The issue of user fees in public libraries has been debated extensively in the library community in the last several years. Since their origins in the nineteenth century, American public libraries have relied almost exclusively on public funding. An examination of their nature as public goods, however, reveals public library services to be as much private goods as public goods. This conclusion based on economic grounds is supported by surveys of public opinion toward user fees in libraries, which have typically found the general public to be more tolerant of fees than librarians. In this study, we reanalyzed the data from a national telephone poll of 1,181 U.S. residents conducted in 1991 by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois. When asked what they would like to see done if their local public library were facing a fiscal crisis, 47 percent of those voicing an opinion favored raising taxes, while 44 percent favored instituting user fees. The remaining 9 percent advocated a reduction in services. We used the framework of discrete choice analysis to determine whether attitudes toward fees and taxes stem more from citizens' own self-interest or more from their political outlook. We found greater support for self-interest as an explanation. In particular, more frequent library use, urban residence, a higher level of education, and greater income were all associated with a greater preference for taxes over fees or service cuts.

The recent debate about user fees in public libraries has lasted over twenty-five years and still continues to be an emotional and heated one. Likewise, those from both the pro- and anti-fee camps seem commonly to argue across one another, with little meaningful communication taking place. A close analysis not only of the content, but also the form, of the arguments from the proponents and opponents of fees illuminates the situation. The pro-fee position is based largely on teleol-ogical or pragmatic arguments, while the anti-fee position is centered primarily on a communitarian ethic based on a historical relationship between public libraries and their communities.

PurposeAs a research topic within the field of LIS, programs in public libraries are underexplored, and the question of user fees for programs has not previously been addressed.Design/methodology/approachThis article compares data collected from two individually conducted studies of public library programs in North America and Denmark to enrich our understanding of user fees in relation to programs.FindingsThe comparative analysis shows both similarities and deviations regarding the levying of fees for library programs. While paying a fee to attend a program is rather normal in Denmark, it is more of a fringe idea in North America.Research limitations/implicationsBy exploring a previously understudied facet of contemporary public librarianship, this article opens up new avenues for inquiry regarding how the relative accessibility and availability of programs relate to theoretical discussions about programs as public library services.Practical implicationsThis article provides library managers with needed information about how to conceptualize the roles of programs as public library services.Social implicationsAs programming surges to the fore in contemporary public librarianship, the levying of user fees has social implications in terms of social equity and the public library ethos of free and equal access for all.Originality/valueThis article is the first study of user fees for public library programs, as well as among the first cross-national comparisons of programming as a dimension of public librarianship.

Alberta is the wealthiest province in Canada. It is also the only jurisdiction in North America where the majority of local library boards charge patrons to use their public libraries. There are many reasons why these fees came into being in the 1980s and continue to exist today. Library trustees see them as an easy source of funds for their cash-strapped libraries, some librarians feel that they help instill a sense of value in library materials and services, library patrons realise the fees are often less than the cost of a single paperback book and don’t mind paying them. But the main reason the fees still exist is because of the unique form of conservatism espoused by the popular Alberta premier Ralph Klein, who favoured big business, lower taxes, and privatization of public services while leading the province from 1992 to 2006. Klein’s policies included a focus on user-pay models for all manner of services. Paying for library cards is something that Alberta’s citizens have accepted for the most part. But because of Alberta’s strong support for user-pay models, this isn’t just an issue for the librarians, patrons, and politicians of that province. The possibility also exists that libraries in other provinces could be opened up to a GATS challenge by for-profit corporations outside of Canada because of Alberta’s current user fee policies. How this unique user fee arrangement developed, the current situation, and what the future may bring will be the subject of this paper.

12 - China

In the current tough economic climate there is a growing trend in public libraries to charge user fees for at least some services. Access to public library resources and the opportunities they prov...

User fees are charges levied against individual consumers of publicly produced services and commodities and publicly granted privileges on a cost‐per‐unit basis. In the broadest definition, user fees include charges for specialized database searches performed by public libraries, for electricity produced by a city‐owned utility, and for liquor licenses. In each of these cases, an individual can avoid the charge by consuming zero amount of the service, commodity, or privilege. By comparison, an individual cannot avoid the general taxes assessed for support of the library or other government services even if his or her direct consumption of a given service is zero.

History provides many examples of movements both toward and away from private ownership and operation of infrastructure. In France, Great Britain, and the United States, shifts between local, intermediate, and national levels of government in ownership and regulation of some forms of infrastructure have also been common. And spending cycles in all three countries have been marked by bursts of spending followed by periods of retrenchment and stability. Jacobson and Tarr summarize the rich and varied experiences of private and public provision of urban services in France, Great Britain, and the United States over the past 100 years. Their main focus is on experiences in the United States and on shifts back and forth between the public and private sectors. A few of their observations: The values of politically important actors as well as the working of government, political, and legal institutions have shaped decisions about infrastructure development, the sorts of public goods demanded, and the roles played by private firms. The range of choices that has historically been made with respect to the ownership, financing, and operation of different infrastructures has been far too varied to be encompassed by simple distinctions between public and private. Throughout the world, many infrastructures owned and operated by governments have been built by private firms. In the United States, private firms and property-owners associations of various sorts have owned outright both toll roads and residential streets. Private firms have also collected solid wastes and provided urban transport under a range of franchise, contracting, and regulatory arrangements. The situation with mass transit has been similar in Great Britain. Although water works facilities in France are predominantly government-owned, private firms operate and manage most systems under an array of contracting and leasing arrangements. Even when facilities have been owned by private firms, direct competition has been of limited importance in the provision of many kinds of infrastructure. But market discipline can arise from other sources. Privatization can get government bureaucracies out of the business of performing entrepreneurial activities for which they may be poorly suited. When market forces are weak, however, and important public interests are at stake, strengthening government institutions may be a prerequisite for successful privatization. In the electric utility industry, private firms played a far greater role in U.S. electric utilities than in Great Britain, in part because of different views about appropriate roles for government in providing essential services. For similar reasons, the state played a much larger role in furnishing telecommunications services in France than in the United States. Beliefs about the publicness of different goods and services have helped shape the character of regulatory, franchise, and contracting arrangements. When a good is seen as mainly private, it is easier for private service providers to be compensated mainly by user fees and for most decisions about price, output, and quality of service to be left to them. But for goods viewed as public and subsidized by taxes, government agencies make many decisions about price, output, and quality, no matter what the role played by private firms in actually providing services. Goods defined as public have often been provided free to users, even though it would have been easy to exclude nonpayers. Examples in the United States include interstate highway systems, public parks, public libraries, and police and fire protection. Free services have been provided because it is believed that in these domains market relationships should not apply - and that denying nonpayers the public service would be a denial of rights. In Great Britain and the United States, the contracting out of public services has been both supported and opposed because of its potential to break the power of public sector unions and to cut workers' pay. In the United States, privatization has also come under attack on the grounds that opportunities for minority employment may be reduced. This paper - a product of the Office of the Vice President, Development Economics - is a background paper for World Development Report 1994 on infrastructure.

"To charge or not to charge", user fees in public libraries: an African perspective

Public access to computers and the Internet can play an important role in social and economic development if it effectively helps to meet the needs of underserved populations. Public access venues such as libraries, telecentres and cybercafés are sometimes free, and sometimes charge user fees. User fees can be an important barrier to use of public access venues, especially among underserved communities in developing countries. This paper analyzes the role of user fees and other critical barriers in the use of computers in public access venues in 25 developing countries around the world. Results of this study suggest that digital literacy of staff and local relevance of content may be more important than fees in determining user preference for public access venues. These findings are important to public libraries, which tend to offer free services, but where perceptions of digital literacy of staff and locally relevant content tend to be lowest, compared to telecentres and cybercafés, according to the results of this study. More attention to digital literacy of staff and availability of locally relevant content may be more important than free services to meet the information needs of underserved populations.

Public access to computers and the Internet can play an important role in social and economic development if it effectively helps to meet the needs of underserved populations. Public access venues such as libraries, telecentres and cybercafes are sometimes free, and sometimes charge user fees. User fees can be an important barrier to use of public access venues, especially among underserved communities in developing countries. This paper analyzes the role of user fees and other critical barriers in the use of computers in public access venues in 25 developing countries around the world. Results of this study suggest that digital literacy of staff and local relevance of content may be more important than fees in determining user preference for public access venues. These findings are important to public libraries, which tend to offer free services, but where perceptions of digital literacy of staff and locally relevant content tend to be lowest, compared to telecentres and cybercafes, according to the results of this study. More attention to digital literacy of staff and availability of locally relevant content may be more important than free services to meet the information needs of underserved populations.

Contents Where Does It Hurt: Identifying the Real Concerns in Ethics of Reference Service * Reference Ethics: A True Confession * Value Laden Barriers to Information Dissemination * Reference Ethics--Do We Need Them? * The Ethics of Information Serving Homo Sapiens Versus Homo Biblios * Toward the Development of an Informed Citizenry * User Fees: A Survey of Public and Academic Reference Librarians * Ethical Aspects of Medical Reference * Teaching the User: Ethical Considerations * Ethics at the Reference Desk: Comfortable Theories and Tricky Practices * The Unresolved Conflict * Some Ethical Problems of Reference Service * Ethics and the Reference Librarian * Ethical Considerations in the Question Negotiation Cycle * Triage * Regional Public Libraries and Reference Ethics * Academic Libraries and Reference Ethics * Bibliographic Overview: The Ethics of Reference Services * The Reviewing of Reference Books