A Trial Study to Examine the Relatioship between Attributes and Access from Residents of Citizens and Digitalizing Urban Service

Abstract

Digitalization is going to affect the provision of various public service which has been mainly provided by public facilities. The study picks up public library service provided by libraries as public facilities and electronic libraries, and examines what kind of attributes of citizens, including access to these libraries, are decisive factors to use or not to use library service through the case study of western region in Hyogo prefecture, Japan. Cross tabulations, statistical tests and logistic regression analyses clarify influences of distance from residents of citizens to the libraries as well as several other attributes, including some behaviors related to reading habits and wariness against Covid-19. The study also estimates the number of users by some scenarios and shows that introduction of electronic libraries in every municipality supplements restructuring of public libraries.