This report presents a model developed to examine costs of public library services, such as reference, circulation, and special programs, to be used by librarians in implementing a program budget and planning a budget system. Allocations for personnel costs, materials costs, costs of supplies and services, technical processing costs, reference use…

Reports the results of a study which examined costs and search results for 20 searchers conducted on both BRS After Dark and Knowledge Index. Various features of the two retrieval systems are reviewed, and advantages and disadvantages of each system are summarized. Data are presented in one table and several graphs. (24 references) (MES)

A survey of 34 of the largest public library systems, each serving at least 500,000 people, showed: (1) minority offer online database services; (2) cost is major prohibiting factor; (3) New York Times Information Bank is most popular database; (4) fee structures vary; and (5) business organizations are most frequent users. (JD)

Presents the results of a survey conducted by the ALA Office for Research to determine current practices with respect to the financing of online services in public libraries. Special emphasis is placed upon questions surrounding the imposition of user fees for such services. Seven tables summarize the data. (JL)

Describes the availability of databases held on DIALOG, ESA-IRS, and DATA-STAR. Database overlap among the systems, prices, database contents, and data transmission costs are addressed; and results of a search of the ENVIROLINE database on each system are presented. The appendix lists subjects referenced on each system and compares database…

Reports results of a preliminary survey which examined the potential of downloading as a means of reducing the recurrent printing costs of CD-ROM database use in libraries. Highlights include (1) profile of a typical library; (2) printing availability, restrictions, and fees; and (3) downloading availability, promotion, and computer support. (MES)

Describes a study conducted at Purdue University Library to determine not only the costs of providing online information services to users, but the value of time saved by the end user in having a computer search run and user satisfaction with the results. Six references are listed. (RBF)

Presents a chronological overview of the initiation and operation of the State University of New York at Albany library's computer-based reference services, with a discussion of costs, planning, organizational, and managerial considerations. (Author/CWM)

Explains conjoint analysis and its use in marketing research and describes an evaluation of reference services in academic libraries that used conjoint analysis to determine user preference regarding the importance of definitiveness of answer, waiting time, service time, number of items found, hours of available service, and cost. (Contains 13…

Compares the relative costs of online and offline printing of retrieved citations in bibliographic searching. A formula for cost comparison is presented, and some of the advantages of high-speed (120 characters per second) output devices are outlined. (JL)

Eight public libraries participated in a two-year experiment to investigate the potential of the public library as a "linking agent" between the public and the many machine-readable data bases currently accessible using on line computer terminals. The investigation covered users of the service, impact on the library, conditions for…

Discusses trade-off analysis, a data collection method with conjoint measurement technique in which respondents rank order a matrix of pairs of levels of specific attributes, and gives examples for use in determining library users' perceptions of relative utility of completeness of information versus cost of a search. Twelve sources are cited.…

Uses the example of bibliographic retrieval services to explore the potential impacts of historic usage trends, technological advances, actions/policies intended to enhance or control evolving services, and other social, economic, and political developments on areas of concern to users of online systems. Eight figures and 23 sources are included.…

A survey of 121 academic libraries examined five general areas of CD-ROM use: (1) user and librarian acceptance; (2) impact on the printed source; (3) cost; (4) assistance and maintenance; and (5) user confusion with multiple computer resources. A copy of the questionnaire is appended. (12 references) (MES)

Controlled experiments were conducted with an enhanced experimental intermediary system, CONIT (COnnector for Networked Information Transfer), to test how effective such a system could be in assisting end users in online searching of medical and biomedical literature. A total of 16 end users, none of whom had previously operated CONIT or any of…