Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the perceived benefits of public libraries between five culturally different countries: Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, South Korea and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The data were based on representative samples of Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Korean and American adult library users. In Finland a mail survey was used and in other countries web surveys were used for data collection. The distribution of the proportion of those benefiting from the library in various areas of life at least sometimes was compared across countries. The pattern of benefits was compared across countries by forming four outcome indexes from the 19 benefit areas. The differences in the outcomes between the countries were explained by demographics and library use variables. Findings – The intensity of perceived benefits differ considerably, with the Finns and Americans reporting a higher level of benefits than the South Koreans, who in turn derive more profit than the Norweg...
['Pertti Vakkari', 'Svanhild Aabø', 'Ragnar Audunson', 'Frank Huysmans', 'Nahyun Kwon', 'Marjolein Oomes', 'Sei-Ching Joanna Sin']
Patterns of perceived public library outcomes in five countries