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Modern IT‐based loans and delivery automation systems combined with video surveillance and monitoring cameras have enabled new service opportunities and models in public libraries. In Denmark, staffless public libraries have appeared recently in many local communities. This article aims to report on the Danish experiences with open libraries in terms of local community characteristics, their use – visits and loans, characteristics of the users in terms of sex and age and, finally, an analysis of critical success factors revealed in association with open libraries.

The data upon which this article is based were collected during the autumn of 2011 by the Danish Center for Library and Media through an electronic questionnaire to all 97 of Denmark's municipalities.

The origins of the concept of open libraries were shaped by the opportunities made by a combination of the technological development of automated loans and delivery systems and electronic surveillance techniques. The open library concept has been described as a success in terms of growth rates of visits and increasing number of loans.

The article shows that the concept has been quite successful in terms of use and local support and that it has strengthened the position of the local public libraries in the local communities.

A pan‐European network for the academic, government and commercial research community is to be provided by DANTE, launched in July in Cambridge, England. The name stands for ‘Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe.’

The aim of this article is to identify the main approaches and discuss their perspectives, including their strengths and weaknesses in, especially, public library contexts. The purpose is also to present and discuss the results of a recent – 2014 – Danish library user segmentation project using computer-generated clusters. Compared to traditional marketing texts, this article also tries to identify users segments or images created by the library profession itself. Segmentation of users can help libraries in the process of understanding user similarities and differences. Segmentation can also form the basis for selecting segments as target users and for developing tailored services for specific target segments. Thus, several approaches and techniques have been tested in library contexts.

Basically, the article is built upon a literature review concerning different approaches to user segmentation in, especially, public library context from approximately 1980 till now (May 2014).

The article reveals that – at least – five different principal approaches to user segmentation have been applied by the library sector during the past 30-35 years. Characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are identified, discussed and evaluated.

When making decisions on future library user surveys, it is certainly an advantage, concerning the ability to make qualified decision, to know what opportunities that are at hand for identifying important segments.

Some of the approaches have been treated individually in the library literature; however, it is probably the first time that the professions own user images and metaphors are dealt with in a user segmentation context.

Several recent library innovations seem to make professional and clerical staff superfluous such as automated loan and delivery equipment, staff-less libraries open in 80 hours a week, and virtual services, enabling users to search the library catalogue and make reservations of library materials from their home address. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether such developments will necessarily lead to a situation where public libraries become self-service institutions or to what extent self-service and innovative staff-intensive library services can develop and co-exist. Furthermore, the paper will examine what challenges library leaders face and what they can do, and actually have done, to handle staff resistance and other related problems to the benefit of both the users, the local communities, and also, the staff, in particular, when introducing new and innovative services.

The paper is based on the author's evaluations of two recent Danish library development projects. Both evaluations are based on empirical data and apply quantitative (questionnaires) as well as qualitative (interviews, observations) methods.

The findings reveal that staff attitudes toward staff-less libraries, and – more surprising – also toward more staff-intensive practices have been somewhat reluctant and skeptical. The paper also presents leadership initiatives which have proved to handle such resistances constructively.

The paper contains a first-hand report on the results of a recent (2011-2012) unique, full-scale, Danish public library development project, investigating the experiences with pro-active and guest-customer relationships within a public library setting.

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.

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 new technology of RF‐ID, intelligent tagging, has become widespread in some industries such as distribution and baggage handling, and is set to dominate retail security in the near future. Library security and automation are tailor‐made applications for it which are ready to roll. What is it and what does it mean for Librarians?