Community users in North American academic libraries

Abstract

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.

Citation

Dole, W.V. and Hill, J.B. (2011), "Community users in North American academic libraries", New Library World, Vol. 112 No. 3/4, pp. 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074801111117041