







































 Humanities and Social Science Research; Vol. 8, No. 4; 2025 

ISSN 2576-3024   E-ISSN 2576-3032 

https://doi.org/10.30560/hssr.v8n4p13 

 13 Published by IDEAS SPREAD 

 

The Mechanism of the Multidimensional Formation of Public Library 

Visitors' Perception of Worthiness: A Grounded Theoretical 

Exploration Based on Online Review Data 

Qianqian Fan1 

1 Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, USA 

Correspondence: Qianqian Fan, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston IL 60208, USA. 

 

Received: June 24, 2025; Accepted: July 13, 2025; Published: July 14, 2025 

 

Abstract 

This paper explores the reasons why public libraries attract visitors by studying the formation mechanism of the 

public library visitors' perception of worthiness. Taking the New York Public Library as an example, this paper 

uses the grounded theory method to conduct a qualitative analysis of the online English reviews on the TripAdvisor 

website, and innovatively combines the perceived value theory with the expectation confirmation theory to classify 

the perceived worthiness dimensions of visitors', revealing three dimensions of perceivable value: Planning factors, 

experience factors and outcome factors, as well as six sub-dimensions (main categories): visit expectation, 

imagination, positive emotions, satisfaction, appreciation and reward. A visitors' expectation confirmation model 

of perception of worthiness is constructed. The research results of this paper theoretically provide an example for 

the expectation confirmation theory, supplement multiple dimensions perception of worthiness for the perceived 

value theory, and provide suggestions for public libraries to play a cultural function, enhance their attractiveness, 

and meet the diverse needs of visitors in practice. 

Keywords: public libraries, expectation confirmation theory, perceived value, online reviews, grounded theory 

1. Introduction 

As a public cultural facility in a city or community, a public library is a place for people to learn knowledge, and 

as a provider of public goods, it has the function of promoting social welfare. The New York Public Library (NYPL) 

is a century-old (founded in 1895) public library system with the philosophy of providing free and open knowledge 

and opportunities to everyone, according to the New York Public Library website (https://www.nypl.org/). A 

public library is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, not-for-profit institution, run by private and 

public funds, with a mission to "inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen communities" and 

rely on the "three major resources"— staff, collections, and physical space — to provide opportunities for people 

to learn and grow [1]. 

For visitors, public libraries are more than just spaces that provide services, socialization, interaction, and social 

infrastructure for visitors [2][3][4], and it is also an important way for visitors to experience the cultural atmosphere 

of a city. Some scholars have studied visitors' perception of the atmosphere, design and comfort of public libraries 

from the perspective of spatial perception [5], and many people are attracted to public libraries because of their 

atmosphere, which transcends the boundaries of physical library space, so that visitors can feel the culture of the 

city where the library is located, and even find a sense of belonging to the city. 

The extant literature shows that users and visitors of public libraries generate shared emotions by sharing urban 

public spaces, and that public libraries are often seen as vibrant spaces for encounters and social interactions, where 

visitors perceive calm and relaxation, challenging the traditional view of public libraries as strictly quiet spaces 

[6]. The perceived value is reflected in the positive perception of public libraries by visitors. However, in the 

available literature, clues about public library visitors perceiving worthwhile in-depth research have not been found. 

The public library is not only a public space for dialogue, exchange, and tolerance of differences between different 

users, but also a place for visitors to enjoy urban culture in contact with culture, leisure, and sharing time and space. 

Especially at the rapid development of digital technology, public libraries are transforming from collection spaces 

to knowledge networks of digital services, facing the challenge of the diminishing function of their physical spaces 

to facilitate user encounters [7][8][9]. Some scholars believe that libraries have adapted to the changes in urban 

life, influenced people's changing cultural needs, reshaped the spatial resources of libraries, created new spatial 



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resources, increased the flow of people and attracted visitors [10]. Public libraries attract visitors to not only play 

the diversified functions of the library, but also disseminate the cultural image of the city, and at the same time 

protect and utilize the cultural heritage status and resources of the public library. This is what public libraries are 

meant to attract users and visitors. 

In addition to the positive perception of the atmosphere of the public library, the architecture of the public library 

is also a very interesting object of perception for visitors. The cultural and creative atmosphere and diverse 

functions of public libraries are shaped by their architectural layout, lighting, acoustics, digital technologies, 

furniture, and plants, which benefit both general users and casual visitors [11][12]. 

The physical space of the library provides visitors with a physical carrier of perceived value, which has been 

elaborated by many scholars from different perspectives. For example, emphasizing the importance of the library's 

physical space for democratic inclusion [10], using the library as a gathering space for dialogue and thus fostering 

a sense of belonging [13], and reinforcing the importance of its physical safe space for social networks as a place 

of interaction and trust for informal gatherings [14][15]. Visitors will perceive the high social value of public 

libraries as vibrant public spaces in society, with concepts such as democracy, diversity, and personal security 

considered important dimensions of social value [16]. 

However, the existing literature has not fully elaborated on the specific dimensions of public library visitors' 

perceived value and the formation mechanism of perceived value of worthiness. This happens to be the focus of 

this research. For example, what are the expectations of visitors before visiting the New York Public Library? 

What expectations do the actual visit meet, and what are those expectations confirmed? What perceived values 

(e.g., emotional, functional, social, aesthetic) under expectations best contribute to the perception of "worthiness"? 

How is the visitor's "worth perceiving" formed in the process of expectation and experience confirmation? 

Therefore, this study takes the New York City Public Library as an example, takes visitors' online English reviews 

as the data source, and explores the multi-dimensional formation mechanism of visitors' perceived value of 

worthiness based on the perceived value theory and the expectation confirmation theory. The results of this study 

will provide inspiration and suggestions for exploring how public libraries can shape the experience of visitors, 

meet their diverse needs, and give full play to the urban cultural communication function of public libraries. 

2. Theoretical Foundation 

2.1 Perceived Value 

This research studies the multi-dimensional formation mechanism of public library visitors. Here, being worth 

perceiving is a perceived value, a cognitive evaluation. Early researchers applied perceived value to marketing, 

defining it as an overall assessment of a product's utility [17]. Later, some researchers applied it to the field of 

tourism, arguing that perceived value is a reliable concept for predicting tourist behavior [18][19], and is influenced 

by service quality, pricing, emotional connection, and social factors [20]. 

In a general sense, perceived value refers to a customer's perceived benefit, which is a multi-dimensional structure 

that contains the various components that make up perceived value. Perceived value is usually composed of four 

key dimensions: product or service quality, emotional response, cost, and social impact [21], and this dimension 

composition represents the view of most researchers. This is clearly a benefit to the perceived value of the visitor. 

Although there have been many elaborations on the dimensions of perceived value in the existing literature, there 

are still few studies on the dimensions of perceived value. Some scholars have studied the constituent factors of 

the perceived value of public libraries from the perspective of public library attractiveness, including seven aspects: 

environment and atmosphere, architecture and interior design, location and transportation, online popularity, 

library collections, cultural activities, personnel and services [22]. The perceived value of worthiness of visitors is 

not only satisfaction, but more importantly, the value-added evaluation of the perceived value elements of public 

libraries. 

2.2 The Perception of Worthiness 

According to the concept of perceived value, perceived value refers to the fact that the perceived gain is greater 

than the perceived effort compared to the perceived gain, that is, the pure benefit perceived. Unlike perceived 

value, the perception of worthiness refers to the perceived benefit even though the perceived effort is greater than 

the perceived gain, and the perceived sacrifice is acceptable or even worthwhile. In this study, perceived benefits 

can refer to the advantages that a visit to a public library brings to visitors, or they can be service advantages, such 

as interactivity, customization, and personalization, while perceived sacrifices can refer to monetary or non-

monetary costs [23], such as the visitor's time cost and psychological cost.  



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Thus, the perception of worthiness can be seen as a weighted result determined by perceived benefits and perceived 

sacrifices. When the perceived sacrifice is constant, there is a positive relationship between the perceived benefit 

and the perceived value of the visitor, and when the perceived benefit is constant and the perceived sacrifice 

increases, the perceived value tends to decrease [24]. Therefore, if the perceived sacrifice does not increase, the 

perceived benefit increases. When visitors perceive the benefits that a public library can bring, such as time 

flexibility, free visits, personalized experience, high-quality service, content richness, and additional gains, their 

perceived value tends to be higher, or they may ignore their perceived sacrifices, such as time cost, physical cost, 

energy cost, or opportunity cost, to conclude that it is worth visiting, which is what the perception of worthiness 

means. 

2.3 Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) 

ECT was first used to analyze consumer post-purchase satisfaction and repurchase behavior [25], and this theory 

was later integrated into the expectation confirmation model (ECM), which has been widely used in the field of 

consumer behavior analysis and user behavior analysis in information systems [26]. ECM-based ECT is a cognitive 

model that explains the dynamic cognitive processes that individuals undergo when making continuity-related 

judgments [27]. When analyzing the driving factors of consumers' post-purchase behavior, ECM proposed two 

main drivers of performance confirmation and perceived usefulness [28], and believed that confirmation and 

perception affect the satisfaction evaluation after experience. 

Most of the research on the application of ECM in the existing literature focuses on the study of IT (Information 

technology) or IS (Information system) user behavior, which is used to understand the continuous behavior of 

users in different IT/IS environments, such as mobile health, mobile banking, e-learning, mobile applications, 

mobile Internet services, and web portal use [29]. After literature search, this paper found that there are few 

literatures that apply ECT to the behavior analysis of library visitors. In fact, the behavior of public library visitors 

is similar to that of IT/IS users, and it is expected that after being confirmed, it will also produce satisfactory 

reviews, which may also lead to continued visitor behavior or continuous word-of-mouth recommendation 

behavior. Thus, ECT conceptualizes the consumption process [30], arguing that the expectation confirmation 

mechanism is realized after the process. This provides a theoretical basis for explaining the formation mechanism 

of the perceived value of public library visitors. 

Visitors first create expectations about a visit to the New York Public Library, the experience that results from the 

visit, and the overall impression and perception are formed, which are then evaluated, and finally the visitor 

compares the perceived experience to the initial expectations. In this process sequence, the visitor's confirmation 

of the expectation leads to satisfaction, and when the expectation is high and confirmed, the satisfaction is high, 

and the visitor derives a worthwhile evaluation, which is reflected in the form of an online satisfaction review, 

which can be observed from the higher rating of the online review. At the same time, the visitor's satisfaction with 

the outcome also leads to an eWOM contribution behavior, which is an act of recommending other visitors to use 

it on an ongoing basis. The use of ECM can explain that the eWOM writing behavior of public library visitors is 

based on initial expectations and actual experience confirmations, and visitors express their satisfaction in the form 

of writing positive or negative reviews [31]. 

Throughout the visit, the visitor's perception runs through it. Visitors compare the perceived performance 

(experience) during the visit with their beliefs (expectations) about the service attributes of the public library prior 

to the visit to judge the extent to which the expectations have been met (confirmed). In this study, we will use 

visitors' online reviews as the data source to explore the multi-dimensional formation mechanism of visitors' 

perceived worth value by applying the grounded theory method to verify the applicability of the expectation 

confirmation theoretical model. 

3. Methodology and Data Sources  

3.1 Grounded Theory Method 

This theory emphasizes understanding the essence of the problem by analyzing the views and experiences of 

individuals. Although it originated in the sociological study of the medical field [32], it has been widely used in 

many other fields, including nursing, physical therapy, healthcare, anthropology, psychology, information systems, 

and software engineering [33], as well as education [34], management [35] and other social science fields [33]. It 

systematically collects and analyzes data to develop new theories about human behavior in all areas of society. 

At present, the research on perceptual experience applied to grounded theory has been extended to more research 

topics. For example, the perceived experience of gym users, the user experience of healthcare platforms, and the 

brand perception of home consumers [36]. The research on the perceived experience of visitors/tourists in the 



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fields of culture, leisure and tourism has become the methodological reference of this study. For example, a study 

using grounded theory on the memorable experience of hotel guests [37]. 

In this study, Vonyant Tools and SPAAUA will be used to extract high-frequency words from visitors' comment 

texts, and determine the subject words to determine the range of dimensions worth perceiving. After that, manual 

or software tools will be used to open coding, axis coding, and selective coding the text data to determine the 

multi-dimensional formation mechanism that visitors are worthy of perceiving. Finally, under the framework of 

ECM, a multi-dimensional formation mechanism model of public library visitors worth perceiving is constructed. 

3.2 Data Sources 

The New York Public Library (NYPL), founded in 1895, was selected as a case study site for public libraries 

because of its history, purpose, and cultural heritage characteristics. It has its origins in educational philanthropy 

and is the largest public library system in the United States, an important cultural venue and civic institution in 

New York City, and according to its website, its mission is that "the library is built on the ideal of free and open 

access to knowledge and opportunity for everyone, and is an important provider of free books, information, ideas, 

and education to all New Yorkers." Not only that, but the NYPL, with its collection of 54 million items, opens its 

doors to millions of visitors/visitors around the world every year (https://www.nypl.org/). A large number of 

users/visitors have accumulated a large amount of online review data, which provides a rich data resource for 

related research. 

In terms of data collection, TripAdvisor, the world's largest tourism and travel website, was selected as the source 

of online review data. Online reviews were chosen as research data because of their accessibility, completeness, 

and representativeness [38]. The number of visitor reviews of the NYPL on the Tripadvisor website is huge, and 

as user-generated content has been proven to be reliable and representative of literature research [39]. 

As of February 2025, there are more than 20,000 online reviews on TripAdvisor for NYPL, including reviews in 

a variety of languages, and the study selected the largest number of reviews in English (14,717) with an overall 

score of 4.6 out of 5. 99.27% of the reviews were positive and neutral in terms of 5 to 1 star: Excellent (9,638), 

Very good (4,179) and Average (793), while Poor (75) and Terrible (33) were negative. The star rating range of 

the online review data selected for this study is 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star reviews to capture perceived cues of 

worthwhile visits in neutral and positive reviews. 

Valid reviews after data cleansing became a small database for this study. In addition, this study ignores the time, 

place, and reviewer information of the online review data, and only emphasizes the open exploration of visitors' 

perspectives to better explain the phenomenon being studied [36], and attempts to derive the formation mechanism 

of visitors' worthwhile perception through a grounded theory approach, revealing why NYPL can get so many 

high ratings and what aspects it is worth visiting. 

4. Data Analysis Process and Results 

4.1 Identification of Perceptual Factors 

Identifying perceptual elements means subjecting to keyword analysis of visitor online review data prior to 

grounded theory coding. Use frequently used keywords to quickly discover which experiences are repeatedly 

mentioned by visitors, such as "beautiful," "historic," "inspiring," "crowded," "knowledgeable guides", etc. These 

keywords give an initial indication of what elements of the experience visitors consider "worthy" or "not worthy". 

Identifying perceptual elements can improve the systematization of grounded theory coding. Doing a round of 

keyword/subject word extraction before manual open coding can avoid missing high-frequency or important 

perceptual clues, which can make subsequent open coding more directional, and also help to discover potential 

feature categories. Finally, when selectively coding, subject heading frequency can also help determine which 

paths are more important in the process of forming "worth perceiving". 

Through data cleaning, nonsensical words and unified synonyms were removed, and keyword extraction was 

carried out in this study. Manually use a combination of software (Nvivo or Voyant Tools) to count high-frequency 

words. Sort by number of occurrences and list the top 30 high-frequency words. With the help of word cloud 

analysis, a word cloud map can be generated to visualize the main talking points of the visitor's online comments. 

The word cloud color shade or font size can reflect the frequency of words and help visualize core areas of interest. 

See Figure 1. 



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             a                                           b 

                  Figure 1. Cloud map of online comments from visitors 

The excellent review word cloud (Figure a) highlights keywords such as "library", "building", "visit", "beautiful", 

"reading room", etc. The word cloud (Figure b) also highlights "library", "building", and "visit", but keywords 

such as "shop", "interesting", and "greatest" also appear more frequently, indicating that the details of the 

experience are slightly relaxed and casual. Figure 2 illustrates this as well. 

 

Figure 2. Comparison of high-frequency words 

Figure 2 is a bar chart of word frequency comparisons. From the figure, the two groups of reviews, extremely good 

reviews and very good reviews, which keywords are more prominent, "library", "building", "visit", etc. are very 

high frequency in both groups. For example, for "library", very good reviews paid more attention to "visit and 

building", and extremely good reviews paid more attention to "visit and building". 

Table 1 shows the preliminary categorization of subject headings, which can be combined into four topic groups, 

which are spatial aesthetic experience, learning experience, emotional experience, and social experience. 

 

Table 1. Preliminary theme classification 

Theme groups Example of theme words 

Spatial aesthetic experience 

Learning experience 

Emotional experience 

Social experience 

beautiful, stunning, architecture, corridor, hall, room. ceiling 

informative, reading, history, knowledge, exhibits, books 

emotional, inspiring, moving, excitement, passion, fondness 

sharing, friends, family, communication, queuing 

 

In Table 1, the classification of the four thematic clusters is based on the classification of the basic dimensions of 

perceived value (products, services, emotions and society). Space experience is the carrier of library experience, 

learning experience is the main function and service of the library, emotional experience is the emotional value of 

the library, and social experience is the outstanding social value of the library. 

The results of further analysis are shown in Table 2, and the perceptual performance is divided into three 

dimensions: tangible perception, intangible perception, and functional experience perception. On the basis of the 



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classification of high-frequency words, subject words and topics, a worthy perceptual value composition table was 

preliminarily formed. 

 

Table 2. The composition of "worthy of perception" was initially proposed 

High-frequency keywords  

of tangible perception 

High-frequency keywords  

of intangible perception 

Functional experience keywords 

of perception 

building, architecture,  

reading room, ceilings, rooms, 

library, rose, time, shop, public, 

place, inside, original, people 

gorgeous, worth, visit, definitely, 

great, really, work, beautiful, 

amazing, stunning, great, history, 

experience, closed, rude, waste 

visit, free, tour, exhibit, books, 

new, reading, quick slow, 

peaceful, openness, orderly,  

important, convenient 

 

Combining Table 1 and Table 2, it is found that the product and service dimensions in the perceived value 

dimension, the spatial aesthetic experience and learning experience in the library experience, can be classified into 

tangible perception, the emotional and social dimensions in the perceived value dimension, and the emotional 

experience and social experience in the library experience. It can be classified as intangible perception. In addition, 

some experiential elements that assist perceived value can be classified as functional experiential perception. 

4.2 Grounded Theory Data Analysis 

Step 1 is open coding which extracting concepts from the raw corpus and then categorizing the concepts to form 

categories. At this stage, the research work is to carefully read and analyze the original review text data, record 

and encode all relevant data according to their original context, and refine the preliminary perception nodes in 

order to discover concepts and categories and name them to indicate the content of the original materials. 

The purpose of open coding is to extract the content of the original text that contains the positive experience of the 

visitor, and disassemble it into independent sentences, and then extract the encoded elements of these sentences to 

form a preliminary concept. After many times of manual coding, revision, filtering, and refinement, a total of 150 

basic concepts were extracted from the conceptualized results. Then, according to the semantic logical connection 

between the research topics and concepts of "Perception of Worthiness" in this paper, a total of 20 preliminary 

categories were refined. Examples of open coding are shown in Table 3. In Table 3, the conceptualization results 

show 17 of the 150 basic concepts, and the categorization results show 5 of the 20 preliminary categories. 

 

Table 3. The examples of open coding 

Original comment texts Conceptualization Categorization 

There are numerous wonderful bronze plates on the sidewalk with great 

quotes leading right up to the library worth reading. 

wonderful 

great 

Beautiful 

 

The current exhibit of their treasures is incredible and the smaller 

Virginia Wolff exhibit is fascinating. Well worth your time. 

The library inside is stunning.  

incredible 

fascinating 

stunning 

Amazing 

 

 

This beautiful landmark needs a visit. 

I imagine it would be a great place to hang out and people watch… 

You will be able to see many rooms not open to the public and get a sense 

of the history behind the building and library system. 

Ok, pose just go in the lobby, marvel at the fancy gilded age  

landmark 

a great place 

rooms 

history, building 

lobby, marvel 

Landmark 

 

 

 

 

Then go right in to the permanent treasures exhibit. 

Tiny books, richly illustrated Medieval bibles…just such riche. 

They offer free tours and they are totally worth the 2 or so hours. 

treasures exhibit 

riche 

free 

Precious 

 

 

we very much enjoyed our exploration of this…. 

Much better than I was expecting, but also a monument to learning. 

…… 

enjoyed 

learning 

…… 

Rewarding 

 

….. 

 

Step 2 is axial coding which refining higher-level categories based on open coding. The specific work is to bring 

the 20 initial categories and 150 basic concepts formed in Step 1 back to the original review text, repeatedly sort 

out the logical connections between the initial concepts and categories, such as inclusion, juxtaposition, cause and 

effect, and explore the relevant connections to form the main categories. After repeated comparative analysis, the 



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20 preliminary categories were condensed into 3 dimensions and 6 main categories that visitors should perceive, 

including planning factors, experience factors and outcome factors, and 6 main categories including: expectations 

of visit, imagination, positive emotions, satisfaction, appreciation and reward. The axial coding process is shown 

in Table 4. 

 

Table 4. The main category formed by the main axis coding 

Main category The corresponding 

preliminary category 

Concept groups 

Planning 

factors: 

Expectations of 

the visit 

   

Imagination 

 

planning, want, thought, 

hope 

 

Incredible, unimaginable 

 

I thought, I guess, you would think, I wanted to visit,  

If you're coming here, great expectations, just hop in 

an incredibly beautiful building, incredible art,  

I do wonder how any of, a nice opportunity, don’t expect 

Experience 

factors: 

Positive emotions 

 

Satisfaction 

 

love, excitement, 

relaxation, friendly 

 

recommended, 

respectable, useful 

 

amazing, impressed, relaxed atmosphere, warm, exciting, 

stunning, glad, my favorite places, fun, admire, friendly 

recommended, interesting, well-worth, wonderful landmark 

perfect place, special exhibits, a great example, a surprise 

Outcome 

factors: 

Appreciation  

 

Reward 

 

enjoy, memorable, 

breakthrough 

 

knowledge, spirit, helpful, 

free 

 

magnificent building, cute presents, beautiful art, unique, 

exquisite architecture, impressive structure, spectacular 

free audio tour, incredible resources, so much history, 

inspired me, has treasures to explore, unusual,  

 

Step 3 is selective coding which generates a complete storyline and finds the logical relationship between the core 

categories based on the concepts and categories generated in the first two stages. Obviously, the storyline of this 

study is a clue worth perceiving for the visitor. According to the previous research, the six main categories in Table 

4 come from subject headings and open coding, and the six main categories constitute the perceptual clues of the 

visitor's visit, that is, the story line that the NYPL visitor is worth perceiving. 

Visitors head to the NYPL with a sense of anticipation, which is neutral, even speculative and needs to be 

confirmed. During the visit, visitors experience a series of experiences, including spatial aesthetic experience, 

learning experience, emotional experience, and social experience, which are not only the experience of tangible 

physical places, but also the experience of intangible cultural atmosphere. Judging from the content of the 

comments, the positive emotions are greater than the negative emotions, with the help of various functional 

experiences, the visitors get a variety of satisfying experiences, thus forming the final appreciation and rewarding 

feelings, after the visit, the visitors will form a satisfactory evaluation of their own experience, and form a 

perception that it is worth visiting. 

The result of the selective coding process is the discovery of a storyline that is worth perceiving for the visitor 

consisting of 3 dimensions and 6 main categories. According to the constructivist and interpretivist principles of 

grounded theory, there is a certain structural relational structure in the main category's storyline (Fig. 3) that 

supports the perceived outcome that is worth visiting. 

 

Figure 3. The relationship structure diagram among the main categories 



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4.3 The Formation Mechanism of the Perception of Worthiness 

After completing the three-level coding analysis, the visitor's online review data was supplemented for re-encoding, 

and no new categories were found, so it was determined that the extraction of the above six main categories had 

met the principle of theoretical saturation. 

According to the expectation confirmation theory (ECT), the psychological and behavioral changes of visitors 

during their visit to the NYPL conform to the expectation-confirmation-satisfaction subject-path-object process. 

In this process, the 3 dimensions and 6 elements of the visitor's worthwhile perception match the framework of 

ECM, so that the multi-dimensional formation mechanism model of the visitor's worthwhile perception can be 

constructed. Figure 4 reveals the perceptual formation path of public library visitors. 

 

Figure 4. A visitors’ expectation confirmation model of perception of worthiness 

 

In this model in Figure 4, the visitor's imagination and expectation are the basis of worthwhile perception, positive 

emotional experience and satisfaction experience are the confirmation process, and appreciation and reward are 

satisfactory outcomes. The experiential outcome of appreciation and reward is very important and goes beyond 

the perceived benefit to form a perception of worthiness. 

5. Conclusions and Implication 

Literature studies show that the existing literature studies involve the impact of public library visitors' perception 

and experience on satisfaction, but few literatures classify the perceived value of public library visitors. The 

findings of this study fill the gap in the research, reflect the theoretical significance of the study of worthiness 

perception, innovatively combine the perception value theory and the expectation confirmation theory, and 

emphasize the importance of the dual-path mechanism of perception and expectation confirmation to the visitors' 

perception of worthiness. The visitor's space-service-environment visit experience path is superimposed on the 

expectation confirmation path of perceived value improvement, satisfaction evaluation, and worthwhile visit. 

The study found that the elements of visitors' positive perception of experience include spatial aesthetic experience, 

learning experience, emotional experience, and social experience. These elements can be categorized into tangible 

perception and intangible perception, where the psychological characteristics of intangible perception are the basis 

and source of perception that is worth visiting. 

The study also found that the perception of worthiness is multi-dimensional, including: visit expectation, 

imagination, positive emotions, satisfaction, appreciation, and reward. On this basis, a visitors' expectation 

confirmation model of perception of worthiness was constructed to verify and expand the applicability of the 

expectation confirmation model. 

In addition, in practice, this study has enlightening significance for in-depth understanding of the psychological 

needs of visitors, giving full play to the diversified functions of public libraries, and attracting more visitors. 



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Based on visitor expectations, the predictability of public library practice and use can create a generally 

comfortable atmosphere for visitors, and this relaxed atmosphere of public libraries can play a key role in shaping 

people's cultural identity, their ability to belong to society. 

For public libraries with a long history, the huge cultural resources they contain, whether it is their exquisite 

architecture or cultural experience, will attract visitors to stop and become the basis for visitors to perceive. This 

provides enlightenment for how public libraries can shape the experience of visitors/users/visitors and meet their 

needs, so as to protect the city's cultural heritage, inherit the library culture, develop cultural tourism, and expand 

the city's influence. 

The practical implications of the findings are also that understanding visitor attitudes can help public libraries 

become more attractive. Although public libraries may not directly profit from visitors/visitors, the increasing 

influx of visitors/visitors generates induced consumption, which benefits shops, restaurants, and other businesses 

in the surrounding area [40], thereby generating revenue for the city. 

6. Limitations and Further Research  

Although the results of this study have made research on the perception of public library visitors' worthiness, the 

research results have theoretical research significance and practical implications for the management of urban 

cultural venues. But there are limitations. The limited sample size of the study is limited to English reviews and 

positive reviews on TripAdvisor's website, and can be extended to review data from other websites and perceptual 

experience studies of other types of cultural sites (e.g., memorials, small libraries, private libraries) and 

comparative studies of reviews in different languages. The singularity of the research method only considers the 

qualitative study of the visitor review text by the grounded theory method, and the future research can consider 

the use of diversified research methods, such as on-site questionnaires, random interviews, and quantitative 

methods can be used to further deepen the research. 

Author Information 

Qianqian Fan, female, graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and 

Human Development of New York University; graduated with a master's degree in Journalism from Medill School 

of Journalism, Northwestern University. Research fields: media, cross-cultural economics, management, and 

cultural communication and development. Media specialist and law consultant. Email: qf296@nyu.edu 

References 

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Information Science (1st ed., pp. 241–249). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95689-

5.00045-6 

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