The economic value of library services for children: The case of the Czech public libraries

Highlights

• Children have been increasingly recognized as important stakeholders of public libraries.

• A novel contingent evaluation methodology for estimating effectiveness of children's library services is presented.

• Effectiveness of children's library services is 11.2 (11.2 units of benefits for each unit invested) in the Czech Republic.

• Effectiveness of children's library services depends on the age, education and economic structure of the society.

Abstract

Public support of library services must be targeted towards children because these services play a key role in their development. However, no prior research has investigated the value of public library services for children. Specifically, earlier studies evaluated the value of public libraries as a whole, without considering library services for different stakeholders. The fact that children are not autonomous economic agents is another problem to address. These barriers can be overcome by using the contingent valuation method with parents/caregivers as the subjects queried and children used as the objects in this study. Thus, the economic value of library services for children can be obtained to support managerial decisions on services specifically designed for children. More precisely, this study is unique in that it develops a contingent valuation methodology for estimating the value of children's library services based on adults' willingness to allocate a proportion of municipal budgets. Both users and non-users were surveyed to verify the proposed methodology empirically. The results show that the perceived effectiveness (ratio between perceived benefits and costs) of children's library services is 11.2 (11.2 units of benefits for each unit invested) in Czech public libraries compared with 4.3 for a library as a whole. This finding confirms the essential role of children's library services, implying that public libraries should offer a broader selection of children's books and other services. The study also shows that the value of children's library services depends on the age, education and economic structure of the adults queried. In addition, their satisfaction with library services is another important determinant, indicating that public libraries can influence the perceived benefits of children's library services.

Introduction

The importance of public services for both society and individual citizens has been accentuated in developed countries globally for decades (Hartley, 2005). The original definitions and characteristics of public services have always been based on consumers' needs and the socioeconomic situation of the country. The consumer is the first subject when deciding individual preferences for the scope and content of public services. Their changes in behaviour, needs and preferences can be described as a revolutionary shift. A second group of decision-makers on public choice are politicians. This political decision-making is regularly repeated and often based on the original assumptions about the content of the service; the extent of the public choice decision is thus determined by public budgets (Anand, 2004). The third group of subjects are public libraries, whose future existence is under discussion (Worstall, 2014). Libraries respond to this revolutionary shift by styling themselves in the roles of “invisible intermediary”, “memory institution”, “learning centre” and “community resource” (Brophy, 2008) to substantiate their existence. Indeed, there has been extensive discussion of their basic mission, expected functions and benefits for users and society (Buckland, 2014; Goulding, 2016).

Many researchers (e.g. Benstead, Spacey, & Goulding, 2004; Casey & Savastinuk, 2006; Goulding, 2016; Rubin, 2017) have shown that the content of public services needs to be addressed and analysed. Typical examples of such services are the cultural and information services provided by public libraries. The reasoning relates mainly to the characteristics and scope of the provided services, in line with the roles libraries perform for society. The basic service provided by libraries is borrowing (e.g. borrowing books, magazines and other media). However, a wide range of studies have discussed the purpose and effectiveness of providing paper books compared with e-books (Ashcroft, 2011; Rao, Kumar, & Tripathi, 2018). Further, the information provision and processing services provided by libraries are inherently provided through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Reformulation of the way in which such services are provided has therefore naturally taken place following the development of ICT, including database access and Internet access services (Andrews, 2017).

A specific service discussed over the past decade has been the community services offered, or the library as a meeting place (Audunson, 2005). From a wider perspective, libraries have always been a place in which to stay for some time to use both their services, as discussed above, and perform one's own activities such as learning, reading, debating and sitting (Aabø & Audunson, 2012). The library is a suitable space for these types of activities, as it usually is open for long hours and has sufficient resources (Aabø, Audunson, & Vårheim, 2010).