The User Pays : Cost Billing in a Company Library

Discusses the background to the decision to bill users of the library of the Dutch company KEMA on the basis of actual use, and the problems involved. KEMA′s practices are related to the theory as covered in the literature of the past five years. Users have generally reacted positively to the charging system. The library adheres to the four important rules which a library must apply in operating a cost billing system – response time, reliability, competitiveness, and value – but the system is administratively cumbersome. The KEMA library succeeds in covering its costs and so fulfils its task of “providing commercial services with a balanced budget”.