End‐users′ Hopes and Expectations

Libraries seem to be moving away from their users and heading towards customers. The essential difference between these two types of clients is that whereas the latter pay (partially) themselves for the services rendered, the former are funded by public means. Does this shift have an impact on library services? Are all the clients better off at the end of the day? Is there a market for library services? At the Delft University of Technology Library a long‐term programme of client orientation is under way. The appointment of a marketeer as early as September 1988 proved to be merely a starting point. Contrary to the expectations of management the first effects were highly introversive and it took about three years before the first well‐planned external actions could be undertaken. The results of both internal and external activities seem to be instructive and similar to experiences elsewhere.