Public Library Fees in Germany

This paper studies the impact of different payment schemes for public library borrowings in Germany. The number of borrowings is directly related to the holdings and the financial means of a library. Per medium fees lower the number of borrowings. However, a fixed fee just reduces the number of users. As this is counterbalanced by an increase in borrowings per user, the net effect on total borrowings is zero or even positive. Offering an alternative to a yearly fee for those who borrow only few media does not change results. From that, we conclude that a fee mainly eliminates nominal users and increases the library's effort. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005access pricing, demand for media, public library fees,