Economic Contributions of Public Libraries’ Children’s Services: An Empirical Analysis

Waseem Afzal; Linda Mahony; Asim  Qayyuma

doi:10.1080/24750158.2025.2571417

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Economic Contributions of Public Libraries’ Children’s Services: An Empirical Analysis

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Economic Contributions of Public Libraries’ Children’s Services: An Empirical Analysis

Waseem Afzal, Linda Mahony and Asim Qayyuma

Australian Library and Information Association. Journal, Vol.75(2), pp.354-372

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2025.2571417

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Abstract

public libraries

children's services

economic value

story time

Australia

Children’s services at public libraries offer a multitude of benefits to parents/carers and children. A major portion of these benefits are intangible, such as early literacy and cognitive development. Many studies have examined some of these intangible benefits; however, the research on the economic contributions of children’s services is almost non-existent. Public libraries are increasingly advocating for the value they contribute to communities and gaining some knowledge of the economic impact that children’s services generate can be pivotal in supporting advocacy work in this area. The current study examined two of the Australian Capital Territory Libraries’ children’s services: Giggle & Wiggle and Story Time, for their economic impact. We used a wide range of measures to estimate the economic contributions these services make. We found that these services (1) were valued by parents/carers almost seven times more than the cost incurred on their delivery, (2) economically benefited parents/carers in the form of savings on books, toys and electricity costs amounting to $177,580 per annum and (3) generated economic activity equal to almost $1.6 million. This study will inform the advocacy work of public libraries and the research efforts, aiming to determine the economic contributions of public libraries’ children’s services.

Details

Title: Economic Contributions of Public Libraries’ Children’s Services: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Waseem Afzal (Corresponding Author) - Charles Sturt University
Linda Mahony - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Education and Tertiary Access
Asim Qayyuma - Charles Sturt University
Publication details: Australian Library and Information Association. Journal, Vol.75(2), pp.354-372
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1080/24750158.2025.2571417
ISSN: 2475-0166
Copyright note: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Organisation Unit: School of Education and Tertiary Access
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991172945802621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Information Science & Library Science

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