PUBLIC-OPINION TOWARD USER FEES IN PUBLIC-LIBRARIES

The issue of user fees in public libraries has been debated extensivel y in the library community in the last several years. Since their orig ins in the nineteenth century, American public libraries have relied a lmost exclusively on public funding. An examination of their nature as public goods, however, reveals public library services to be as much private goods as public goods. This conclusion based on economic groun ds is supported by surveys of public opinion toward user fees in libra ries, which have typically found the general public to be more toleran t of fees than librarians. In this study, we reanalyzed the data from a national telephone poll of 1,181 U.S. residents conducted in 1991 by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois. When asked what they would like to see done if their local public library were f acing a fiscal crisis, 47 percent of those voicing an opinion favored raising taxes, while 44 percent favored instituting user fees. The rem aining 9 percent advocated a reduction in services. We used the framew ork of discrete choice analysis to determine whether attitudes toward fees and taxes stem more from citizens' own self-interests or more fro m their political outlook. We found greater support for self-interest as an explanation. In particular, more frequent library use, urban res idence, a higher level of education, and greater income were all assoc iated with a greater preference for taxes over fees or service cuts.