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The paper aims to discuss the course of change and development of reader self‐service within public libraries in China.

The paper takes the form of a discussion of the issues.

The paper finds that self‐service has compelled librarians to change from “helping readers” to “helping readers to help themselves”.

The paper examines change and development in the public library service in China and analyses its inevitability and necessity, as well as pointing out some of the inherent problems.

An overview article about self‐service ought to start with a definition of the concept. Although many of us have some idea of what constitutes self‐service, it is difficult to find a good definition. None of the encyclopaedias I examined had a separate entry for self‐service. The concept appears though in articles about retailing and self‐service restaurants. In the tenth edition of the Merriam‐Webster's Collegiate Dictionary the following definition was given: “the serving of oneself (as in a restaurant or service station) with goods or services to be paid for at a cashier's desk or by means of a coin‐operated mechanism”. This definition is old‐fashioned and much too limited. It does not cover all the aspects of self‐service that have been made possible through technical development. At the end of this article I will come back to a definition more applicable to self‐service for libraries, but I would like to start with an overview of different aspects important to a self‐service library.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of self-service at public libraries from the perspective of their users. The implementation of self-service is related to a diverse societal context including, for example, an overall digitalisation, budget constraints and political expectations on public libraries to contribute to marketing the local community.

Semi-structured interviews with users and observations have been undertaken at self-service libraries in the south of Sweden. The material is analysed by means of a theoretical framework consisting of previous critical LIS-research, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Habermas’ theory of the colonisation of the life world.

The implementation of self-service is affecting the users’ library practices as well as their expectations on the library. These expectations are shaped by various and sometimes competing discourses.

To support public libraries’ role as democratic, public spheres, the complexity of the users’ understandings should be taken into consideration when implementing self-service.

The differing expectations articulated by the users, and the various discourses they can be related to, implicate a hegemonic struggle, corresponding to a changing view on public libraries.

The European Commission SELF project enabled an international team of researchers to explore the potential for self‐service systems in libraries, to examine existing systems in detail and to devise a generalised functional specification for self‐service systems. In this article, the Project Director summarises the project's findings and its recommendations.

The present study aims, by adopting bibliomining, to analyse the borrowing and collection records in self-service libraries at mass rapid transit stations in northern Taiwan to discover reader borrowing preferences and patterns.

The current study used data mining to analyse two years of book-borrowing information from self-service library stations; it made use of an association rule mining model and the bibliomining process to identify readers’ preferred books and to explore reader borrowing behaviours. In addition, the librarians’ perceptions of the proposed approach were also investigated.

The findings indicated that readers often borrowed books in the bibliographical classifications of Home economics; Medical sciences; Psychology; Commerce: administration and management; and Education in the self-service library stations. Based on the bibliomining results, 23 reader borrowing patterns as well as potential books favoured by readers were uncovered. In addition, the challenges of bibliomining and data mining applied to library operations are reported.

Among the studies on the application of self-service technologies in libraries, most examined the integration of the self-service system and investigated users’ opinions. The present study used borrowing records and collection records in self-service library stations to conduct bibliomining and to explore reader borrowing preferences and behaviours as references for collection development and book recommendation services.

The early 1990s saw the emergence of automated self‐service issue units in the UK. Since then we have seen the introduction of second and third generation systems, the launch of self‐return facilities and their adoption for use in both public and academic libraries. This paper re‐examines the position of self‐issue and return towards the end of the decade and century based on the literature and research conducted by Loughborough University. It describes the main self‐issue/return systems available, lists the benefits and opportunities of implementing them and discusses considerations such as objectives, costs, security, location of equipment, functionality and design of systems, and the effect self‐issue/return has on users and staff.

Self‐service has many benefits for the borrower and should be considered by librarians everywhere. It can help to provide the means to address the growing demands of the user while so many libraries suffer from the enormous pressures of limited library resources and budgetary constraints. Provides a synopsis of the methods used to achieve success with the self‐service project at the University of Sunderland, approximately costings, and an outline of project achievements and plans for the future.

The self-service technology (SST) launched outside libraries has received great attention in Taiwan. This automatic book stop (ABS), FastBook, has raised some interesting issues regarding users’ behavior in the library context. The purpose of this paper is: first, to assess critical variables that contribute to users’ acceptance of SST in the library context; second, to propose an integrated SST acceptance model in terms of technological and individual factors; and third, to further examine the gender differences among all the theoretical relationships proposed in this research model.

Based on a sound theoretical foundation, the authors proposed a research model to investigate users’ intention to adopt FastBook, including both technological and individual factors. The survey methodology and structural equation modeling were used in this study.

The proposed model successfully accounted for about 92 percent of the total variance explained in attitude and 45 percent in behavioral intention (BI). Individuals’ attitudes toward FastBook had a significant impact on their usage intention. All three technological characteristics (perceived ease of use, usefulness, and reachability) and one individual trait (self-efficacy) were confirmed as critical determinants of attitude. Note that the effect of self-efficacy on attitude was much stronger for male than for female users.

The SST launched outside libraries has received great popularity and extended the library service to readers in Taiwan. This research connected actual users’ experience and the SST literature to provide a conceptual understanding of FastBook adopting process.

Self-service libraries (SSLs) have been regarded as an effective approach to provide convenient book services to the enormously large populations of China’s cities. These SSLs are in fact automatic book service machines, which provide a combination of services, including reading card issuing, book lending and returning, and book reservations and collection. However, despite acclaimed success, SSL services are not well received by patrons and are underutilised. The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the causes of the underutilisation of SSL services in Chinese cities.

This study adopted an inductive approach and a case study research design. The SSL services in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, were adopted as the case study, in which 20 public librarians, SSL workers and managers, and library patrons were approached and interviewed using semi-structured question scripts. The interview data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach.

The analysis pointed to 13 causes in three main themes: management problems, service limitations, and the implicit role of government. Further conceptualisation of the findings revealed that the underutilisation of SSL services has resulted from the absence of a patron-centric perspective and the negligence of patrons’ needs and requirements. Therefore, to increase the popularity and usage of SSLs, it is necessary to develop patron-centric management mechanisms through which patrons’ needs and requirements can be effectively understood and responded to.

This study aims to develop specific suggestions to improve the usage of SSLs. Furthermore, although this study focuses on SSL development in China, this research can provide useful suggestions and implications that can be shared across international borders.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce how the Taipei Public Library established an intelligent library that offers automated service equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) and a self‐checkout system. The study concludes with suggestions offered for the reference of the Taipei Public Library and other public libraries in setting up similar automated libraries in the future.

The study examines the functions of the Ximen Intelligent Library as provided to 106 patrons who are under observation. Afterwards, a questionnaire is distributed to obtain the personal information of these patrons and the specific nature of their patronage of the library. Items of observation and investigation include their use of the library's facilities and the return of library material to a return box located outside the library; patrons include those aged 12 years old and above.

In comparing the aspects of human resources, capital investment, and library hours, between a public reading room and an intelligent library, it is obvious that the intelligent library has many more advantages. A major difficulty for the patrons of the library is their unfamiliarity in operating the automated circulation system, compounded by the fact that very few patrons call the service line for help when they encounter difficulties. Moreover, patrons cannot always locate on the shelves the books they intend to borrow, even though the catalogue indicates that they are on the shelves.

The paper offers helpful information on understanding this type of library, including its patrons, their behaviour in the library, and how it operates. The results of this study can serve as a reference for improving current intelligent library services for librarians at the Taipei Public Library and at other public libraries that plan to set up RFID intelligent libraries.