INCREASING THE VALUE OF USER TIME

The time that library users spend in the library may be the most important element in the production of information services. If all library users were salaried library employees, the “user payroll” in a typical library would exceed any other library expenditure; at Vanderbilt, such a payroll would be more than twice that of the library staff's payroll. Because the way users spend their time is so crucial in library service, library managers may want to help manage users' time as they do staff time; that is, by recognizing how library users value their time, library managers can introduce innovations to make user time more efficient, more productive, and more enjoyable.