Issues in fee-based information service in academic libraries: Entrepreneurial characteristics and managerial activities.

摘要

The issue of charging fees for library service surfaced as a product of technological expansion and declining support levels during the past decade.; The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the entrepreneurial characteristics and managerial activities exhibited by three groups: (a) managers of information service centers in academic libraries to off-campus markets; (b) other university library managers at the level of department head in research libraries that are members in the Association of Research Libraries; and (c) business entrepreneurs represented by students in a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.; Data for the study were collected by questionnaires distributed to a sample of the three groups. A total of 118 usable responses were obtained (80.3%). Data were transmitted to CDC Cyber after the scanning. The SPSSX was employed for statistical analysis. Six procedures were employed: FREQUENCIES, MANOVA, ANOVA, CROSSTABS, PEARSON CORRELATION, and MULTIPLE REGRESSION.; The results were as follows: (1) Fee-based information service managers are not significantly different from other university library middle managers on entrepreneurial characteristics; (2) With the exception of type A behavior, they are not significantly higher than business entrepreneurs, on entrepreneurial characteristics; (3) Fee-based information service managers rate "Marketing" of significantly greater importance to their success than do other university library middle managers, while the latter rated "supervising staff" of greater importance than do fee-based information service managers; (4) Fee-based information service managers are not significantly different from business entrepreneurs with regard to the managerial activities; (5) The relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and managerial activities are low-moderate to low.; Conclusions. (1) This research indicates that entrepreneurial characteristics selected for this study were unable to differentiate between fee-based information service managers and other middle managers in university libraries. It seems reasonable, based upon the results of this survey, to expect that in so far as entrepreneurial qualities are concerned, individuals from either group could fill positions held by individuals from the other group. (2) Two managerial activities significantly differentiated between fee-based information service managers and other university library middle managers, i.e., "Marketing" and "Supervising staff." (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)