Community users in North American academic libraries

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a two-year experiment at one North American academic library with extending free borrowing privileges to community users.Design methodology approach - The paper reviews previous research on services to unaffiliated community users by ac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:New library world 2011-01, Vol.112 (3/4), p.141-149
Main Authors: Dole, Wanda V., Hill, J.B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic libraries
Analysis
Borrowing
College campuses
Communities
Community colleges
Community relations
Cost-benefit analysis
Costs
Economic impact
Enrollments
Fees & charges
Fund raising
Higher education
Humanities
Information industry
Integrated library systems-ILS
Internet access
Librarians
Libraries
Library associations
Library materials
Loans
Methodology
National Surveys
Organizations
Outcomes of Education
Reference services
Rock
Social sciences
Students
Studies
User groups
Users
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a two-year experiment at one North American academic library with extending free borrowing privileges to community users.Design methodology approach - The paper reviews previous research on services to unaffiliated community users by academic libraries and employs quantitative measures to examine the costs and benefits of providing such services at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), Arkansas, USA.Findings - The data indicate that services can be provided to unaffiliated community users with minimal effort and cost. However, the benefits to the organization, such as increase in good will and social capital, are difficult to measure.Research limitations implications - This paper reports on one North American academic library's experience providing service to unaffiliated community users and may provide guidance for other libraries in allocating resources for community outreach. The results of this study may or may not be generalizable to all academic libraries.Originality value - There has been little research that attempts to assess the economic impact of unaffiliated community users on academic libraries.
ISSN:0307-4803
2398-5348
1758-6909
2398-5356
DOI:10.1108/03074801111117041