Library usage mining in the context of alternative costs The case of the Municipal Library of Prague

Abstract

The behaviour of a library user is based on his ability to evaluate the consumption of library services based on alternative market services. The purpose of this paper is to study the usage behaviour in a public library building in the context of alternative costs instead of a narrow focus on book circulation data. Design/methodology/approach - By library usage mining, using associative rules, the authors described the behaviour of library users and identified the typical behaviour during the visits. The authors analyse the results in the context of alternative costs assigned to the visits. Findings - The results confirm that some underused services, such as digital services, deliver significantly greater benefit. The frequency of use, the duration of visit and the number of items used are associated with higher alternative costs. There were no significant differences in alternative cost within economic groups (excluding pensioners). This paper identified 41 frequent patterns with different alternative costs.