Purpose - The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of participatory outcome in academic libraries and value co-creation as a mechanism to guarantee their adaptation in a new university environment generated by the Bologna process. It is considered that value emerges or is created due to general use processes, implying that the user, in a specific context, creates value when he applies resources to generate processes and outcomes. The customer is a value creator too. Sometimes he needs the provider´s support to generate value proposals to accomplish value. In this sense, the customer generates opportunities to engage the provider in value co-creation and as a facilitator to the value formation. Since value is experienced for the benefit of the user, the provider shares value co-creation if he directly or indirectly shares the user outcomes. This resource as a basis to value co-creation has also been considered central to the concept of business ecosystems. In library environment, the “participatory library” concept has emerged as an idea to a truly integrated and open library system, allowing the users to participate in the library core functions. This new library concept is related to the debate about how to take advantage of the possibilities of web2.0 in libraries. The relationship between libraries and users have evolved to a system of “information services providers – customers”, by means of which the library users have become more independent in choosing and using library services, sometimes assuming the role of co-producers in collaborative interactions. For the library customers, this processes mean emotion, conversation, cognition and behavior, whereas for library systems mean planning, implementation and generation of opportunities for co-creation. The way both parties act upon the processes of value creation as a business service organization in order to adapt their performance to create this participatory environment configures our research problem. The paper analyses a case study that took place in the academic library of the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), a higher education institution located in the northeast of Portugal, concerning the articulation of several users and library resources, in a common and customized academic service on the way to become a participatory library. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based in a single case study and has both inductive and deductive characteristics. Since the researchers had no control over the narratives under consideration and since the study reveals complex configurations of events and structures embedded in temporal contexts, the combination of theoretical and empirical insights is justified to make sense of empirical data. Most data was collected in 2013 from library user’s stories, using both narrative inquiry techniques and critical events. Other information, as past surveys, in a triangulation process, were held to confirm the study boundaries and scope and to define the critical events that shaped relationship development within the library context. Findings - Our analysis, focused on two main groups, academic researchers (who also teach in postgraduate courses) and MSc and PhD students, presents several insights on how these groups address the interaction with the library staff in order : (i) to organize and plan both the research and the literature review, (ii) to assist connecting with other researchers with common interests and problems, (iii) to provide informal learning materials to be shared within these groups. We noted that it is difficult to present successful solutions without sharing future goals, consequences, opportunities and threats in common temporal and spatial dependencies, Relevance/contribution - The new role in library management is about assisting these groups in catalog management both with traditional and virtual references, as well as working with digital collections, databases, the construction of use data, counseling or just providing tips to search or learn in group conferences, workshops, blogs, wikis and other community processes. The goal is working with teachers, researchers, students and other staff to create institutional repositories of academic papers, teacher lesson plans, organizational documentation, and the like that help local and neighborhood community conversations in order to support information flow and knowledge. The paper will contribute to increase knowledge about how non-profit organizations can co-create value in the university library context and combine service systems, value co-creation and participatory networks, approaching a research gap in value creation at a network level.

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value-in-use, participatory networks, interaction