What are my objectives in charging?
‘Before introducing charges for any service it is essential to consider where the service sits within your long-term objectives and priorities and establish that: there is a need for the service; there is a willingness to pay; and you have the appropriate resources and skills to take it forward’ (Webb, 2003). You must decide what your objectives are in charging. For instance:
• are you trying to produce value-for-money outcomes? (Cooper, 1997)
• are you attempting to make a profit, recover costs or control excessive use? Libraries are often more concerned to recover costs than to make money, e.g. ‘cost-minus pricing’, providing subsidized services below costs (Snyder and Davenport, 1997)
• is the charged-for service peripheral (e.g. a service to ‘non-core’ users) or integral to what the library offers (e.g. passing on costs to internal users)?
Answers to such questions will generate very different pricing strategies (Ward et al., 2002).
Libraries should establish a pricing mechanism only after determining the implications of such a policy on performance and utilization of library services (elasticity analysis) (Olaisen, 1992).
What are my motives?
Possible reasons for charging include:
• to generate revenue
• to recover costs, in whole or in part
• to benefit from users’ ability and willingness to pay
• to control usage (Snyder and Davenport, 1997) e.g. by ‘non-core’ users
• conversely, as outreach to ‘non-core’ users (Ward et al., 2002)
• to bring a service in line with ‘competitor services’ (Ward, 1997)
• to provide ‘value-added’ services e.g. a new or upgraded service. If a service benefits only a small proportion of library users, they may be expected to pay (Snyder and Davenport, 1997)
• to create a measure of value, aiming to demonstrate – e.g. to funding bodies – that information (and by extension the information expert! (Webb, 2003, 5)) is viewed as a valuable commodity
• as the only way to afford some services at all (Snyder and Davenport, 1997).
What services might I charge for?
Table E.1 suggests possible services that might be charged for:
You should not introduce charges randomly for existing, unchanged, previously free services (Webb, 2003). Previous demand from existing users does not necessarily convert into sales. You may need to look more broadly and recruit new clients (Webb, 1994).