DEMAND FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES: A TIME ALLOCATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE APPROACH TO USER FEES.

摘要

The present study is an economic analysis of fees for public library services. It is concerned with the choices that people make about library services: Why does the community support the library? Why do people use it? Are fees compatible with the reasons for the library's tax support? And how would fees affect who uses the library, and for what?;For the community to fund it, the library must contribute to one or more public sector functions: efficient allocation of resources; equitable distribution of wealth; and stabilization of the economy. Public finance theory indicates that library services should be subsidized but not necessarily without fee. Several characteristics of library services interfere with their efficient provision by the private market: the public good nature of information; external benefits of library use; decreasing average costs in the provision of library services; and certain merit good aspects of information. As an agent of redistribution, the library may contribute to equalization of opportunity, but its users are disproportionately middle-income, while its support comes from all taxpayers. Finally, the library has no role in stabilization. The conclusion is that fees for public library services should be based on the marginal costs of physical access and user assistance, the functions with the greatest private benefits.;The question of why some groups use the library more than others is addressed using the theory of the allocation of time, which explains consumption as a function of its full cost in both money and the consumer's time. The value of consumption time depends on the wage rate and the extent to which the commodity contributes to production. Library use is a time-intensive commodity, differences in which are shown to be consistent with changes in the value of time across individuals and from one period to the next. The time allocation model is then used to predict changes in who use the library and for what with and without user charges. Without fees, the full cost of library use will increase relative to less time-intensive commodities with increases in the real wage rate, reducing total use. Fees for all library services would concentrate use among a smaller and more affluent group. Fees for selected services replacing more time-intensive ones and for services otherwise unavailable from the public library may actually increase total social welfare by providing a greater range of time and money cost combinations and subsidies.;Limited fees for selected library services are shown to be acceptable and in some cases desirable. The important consideration is not the presence or absence of fees but the individual's full time and money costs of using the library.;The analysis begins by defining the library as the agency responsible for cultural preservation, storage, and retrieval. Then it reviews the literature on users, and finds that the public library serves a relatively young, educated, and middle-income minority of the population.