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LibQUAL+™: Assessing and Improving Library Service Quality

Learn about LibQUAL+™, a suite of services that libraries use to gather and analyze user opinions of service quality. The program includes a rigorously tested web-based survey and provides valuable insights to help libraries enhance their services.

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LibQUAL+™: Assessing and Improving Library Service Quality

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  1. A fairytale about “22 items anda box” presented by Martha Kyrillidou May 24, 2004 Medical Library Association Washington, DC old.libqual.org

  2. Relationships: perceptions, service quality and satisfaction ….only customers judge quality; all other judgments are essentially irrelevant” Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry. (1999). Delivering quality service. NY: The Free Press.

  3. The Association of Research Libraries Mission: Shaping and influencing forces affecting the future of research libraries in the process of scholarly communication. Members: 123 major research libraries in North America. Ratios: 4% of the higher education institutions providing 40% of the information resources. Users: 3 million students and faculty served. Expenditures: $2.48 billion annually, $954 million for acquisitions of which 20% is invested in access to electronic resources. www.arl.org ASSOCIATIONOF RESEARCH LIBRARIES

  4. Assessment “The difficulty lies in trying to find a single model or set of simple indicators that can be used by different institutions, and that will compare something across large groups that is by definition only locally applicable—i.e., how well a library meets the needs of its institution. Librarians have either made do with oversimplified national data or have undertaken customized local evaluations of effectiveness, but there has not been devised an effective way to link the two.” Sarah Pritchard, Library Trends, 1996

  5. ARL New Measures Initiative • Collaboration among member leaders with strong interest in this area • Specific projects developed with different models for exploration • Intent to make resulting tools and methodologies available to full membership and wider community

  6. What is LibQUAL+™ LibQUAL+™ is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users’ opinions of service quality. The program’s centerpiece is a rigorously tested Web-based survey bundled with local training that helps libraries assess and improve library services.

  7. LibQUAL+™ Outcomes • Securing information that contributes meaningfully to planning and improvement efforts at a local level • Providing analytical frameworks that institutional staff can apply without extensive training or assistance • Helping decision-makers understand success of investments • Finding useful inter-institutional comparisons

  8. LibQUAL+™ Resources • • An ARL/Texas A&M University joint developmental effort based on SERVQUAL. • • LibQUAL+ ™ initially supported by a 3-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) • • Initial project established an expert team, re-grounded SERVQUAL concepts, and designed survey methodology • • Survey conducted at over 400 libraries resulting in a data base of over half a million user responses • • NSF funded project to refocus LibQUAL+™ on the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)

  9. Dimensions

  10. Library Values • Library values are reflected in: • physical environment (Library as Space) • warmth, empathy, reliability and assurance of library staff (Affect of Service) • ability to control the information universe in an efficient way (Information Control) • and are unifying and powerful forces for: • Overcoming language and cultural barriers • Bridging the worlds of our users • Improving library services • Advancing the betterment of individuals and societies

  11. Year 3 Year 4 308 202 Year 2 164 Year 1 42 Year 0 13 LibQUAL+TM Participants Spring 2000 Spring 2001 Spring 2002 Spring 2003 Spring 2004 For More Information about Participants: Visit old.libqual.org

  12. Strategies - Actions

  13. LibQUAL+ 1. About 40% of participants provide open-ended comments, and these are linked to demographics and quantitative data.

  14. Focus Group Follow-up • Downward trend in scores on question, “Employees have knowledge to answer user question.” • What employees? “I asked for help in searching on the 1st floor of the annex. They said they aren’t trained in that….” • What knowledge? “Some just say, ‘I don’t know.’ Do you know who could tell me? I ask, and sometimes, they don’t know that either” (Crowley & Gilreath, pp. 82-83).

  15. Multiple Methodsof Listening to Customers • Transactional surveys* • Mystery shopping • New, declining, and lost-customer surveys • Focus group interviews • Customer advisory panels • Service reviews • Customer complaint, comment, and inquiry capture • Total market surveys* • Employee field reporting • Employee surveys • Service operating data capture *A SERVQUAL-type instrument is most suitable for these methods Note. A. Parasuraman. The SERVQUAL Model: Its Evolution And Current Status. (2000). Paper presented at ARL Symposium on Measuring Service Quality, Washington, D.C.

  16. LibQUAL+ Related Documents • LibQUAL+Web Site http://www.libqual.org • LibQUAL+Bibliography • http://www.libqual.org/publications/index.cfm • Survey Participants Procedures Manual • http://www.arl.org/libqual/procedure/lqmanual2.pdf

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