Managing fee-based public library services: values and practices

摘要

This article reports the results on a particular management issue of a recent Danish qualitative interview survey on experiences with fee-based public library services. It also includes a systematic comparison between underlying values, revealed through the survey, and the results of a recent large scale survey of Danish public sector values. The article outlines the evolution of the library charging discourse and investigates to what extent and how values associated with fee-based services differ and resemble the general public sector values. In particular, it will be examined to what extent fee-based services facilitate the penetration of New Public Management oriented values into public libraries. Finally, management practices concerning fee-based services are considered, focusing, in particular, on possible discrepancies between expressed values and actual practice.