The quest for attractiveness of publicly owned libraries: a service quality perspective

Purpose Publicly owned libraries deliver a fundamental public service, fostering the citizens' access to knowledge. However, little is known about the factors underpinning the public libraries' organizational attractiveness. The article aims to shed light on this issue, investigating how the public libraries' service offering contributes to increasing their attractiveness. Design/methodology/approach Secondary data were collected from the national census study of libraries carried out in 2019 by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). More than 4,500 publicly owned libraries established in Italy were involved in the analysis. A linear regression model was designed to examine the implications of public libraries' service offering on the number of people who visited them in 2019. The units of analysis were grouped in three clusters based on their organizational size. Findings Small-sized libraries' attractiveness relied on loan services (LS) and catalogs' integration, as well as on the availability of spaces for promoting social exchanges (SE) and interactions. The same was true for medium-sized libraries, whose attractiveness was also fostered by digitization. Large-sized libraries' ability to attract users was primarily affected by LS and by the provision of people-centered cultural services (CS). Practical implications Publicly owned libraries should arrange tailored strategies to increase their attractiveness. Small-sized and medium-sized libraries should exploit community-oriented initiatives to establish a co-creating dialog with users. Conversely, large-sized entities should advance the users' access to conventional services and implement people-centered cultural activities, recontextualizing their exchange with users in the digital domain to enhance service quality. Originality/value The article originally investigates the factors affecting the attractiveness of publicly owned libraries, providing intriguing insights to managers and practitioners.