Charged and free services in the libraries of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation within the theory of patronized goods

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the ratio of charged and free services provided by central libraries of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (i. e. republican, territorial and regional libraries). The problem of library charged user services is examined through the optics of professional library community and the government. The authors attempt to expand theoretical foundations of library services with the new ideas of national economists focusing on the humanitarian sector and, in particular, those developing the theory of patronized goods. The theoretical analysis is complemented with the large-scale empirical study of services presented at the official websites of 77 central libraries in the RF constituent entities. The findings demonstrate that the charged services dominate while the share of free services has drastically decreased. The charged services in these libraries exceed the free ones by a factor 8.4. The authors conclude that massive and mechanistic implementation of charged services is a dangerous challenge for the libraries as it exposes them to a risk of abandoning the principle of common availability of libraries and, in long run, of users exodus.