Solution Concept for Public Libraries: One Library

Fujitsu has been engaged in the public library market for over 30 years. With all-around support that covers the overall market through multiple products and services, Fujitsu currently has the largest share of this market in Japan. However, public libraries are operated mainly by local governments and they provide free-of-charge services in principle. Consequently, there are some aspects where the cost-benefit achieved with information and communications technology (ICT) cannot be directly identified. Furthermore, the current economic circumstances weigh on the operations of public libraries and make it difficult to invest in keeping and expanding services. On the other hand, there are growing needs for public library services due to changes in people's lifestyle that are caused by ICT such as the spread of smart devices. In consideration of these situations, Fujitsu has set out the concept "One Library" as guidelines for promoting new proposal activities and product development while continuing to expand multiple existing products. In this paper, the background to this concept creation and the product development based on this concept are described.