Purpose The aim of this paper is to identify common challenges amongst academic libraries and museums environments through service paradigm lens in support of our approach “Library as a museum”, addressing the new technological age and the university environment created by the Bologna process. In our Internet age it is common within the academic world to ask about the future of libraries and librarianship. This is not a completely new trend. Similar institutions such as art galleries, exhibits and special events centers and museums are going through the beginning of this digital age, experiencing the same challenges. Today all library managers can be considered curators, since as curators, librarians act similarly, either by using their skills and knowledge of the information landscape to construct paths in order to help users to access the vast body of analog and digital resources available to them, or by bringing, borrowing and swapping collections of data, images, sound, or other materials. Librarians must be centered in the academic communities, considering them as customers and focusing on the service, in order to bring users to a new knowledge landscape. Libraries, museums and other similar institutions are usually non-profit organizations centered in knowledge content use, by establishing a new concept service that provides the service offering and service package that meet the customers use. The adoption of a service centric focus is proposed as being the core to a services-marketing approach, where making intangible elements more tangible in the communication and provision of the service renders them more memorable, concrete and influences increased service consumption. The study presented in this paper is guided by the research question ‘‘What does the consumer expect from a library experience that could be common to an identical one at museums?”. The paper adopts a service research paradigm informed by a service operations approach to look at what consumers want, how they interact, how they perceive process, flow and aspects of servicescape, and finally how these interact in order to influence positive judgments by customers. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based in a single case study and has both inductive and deductive characteristics. The combination of theoretical and empirical insights is justified to make sense of the empirical realities, since the researchers had no control over the narratives considered, and the study reveals complex configurations of events and structures embedded in temporal contexts. Most data was extracted during 2013 from library user’s stories using both narratives inquiry technique and critical events. Other information as pasts surveys, in a triangulation process, were held to confirm the study boundaries and scope and define the critical events that shaped relationship development within the library context. Finally, the findings were compared with those referenced in relevant literature using service–centric approach on museological environment. Findings Our analysis focused on two main groups, teachers and undergraduate students, and presents several insights on how these communities address the interaction efforts with the library staff. The issues raised by these communities, similar to those found in the literature addressing museums management, included experiences, social exchanges, expectations, entertainment, accuracy of information, interactivity, frontline personnel behavior and online learning. The intangible aspects of the library experience highlighted by respondents included the concept of the use of servicescape to create reflective spaces with consumers for self-paced consumption and adequate process flow. Service delivery factors included increased interactivity and edutainment through technology allowing the consideration that those users emphasize three levels of expectations of the desired service, specifically entertainment, education and edutainment. Relevance/contribution The new role of libraries as well as of museums management is about supporting these communities in the use of catalog/collections management with traditional or virtual references, as well as working with digital collections, databases, or in the construction of use data or other community involvement processes. Thinking as curators requires librarians and museum staff to engage in active management of information and knowledge whatever the form they take. The paper will contribute to increase knowledge about how non-profit organizations co-create value in the university library context and combine two streams of literature, service management and service operations management, to get a new approach to library management.

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Service Operations Management, Academic Librarianship, Interaction