LibQUAL+ TM : A Total Market Survey Duane Webster ARL Executive Director

1. LibQUAL+TM : A Total Market SurveyDuane WebsterARL Executive Director 11-12 January 2004 San Diego, CA old.libqual.org

2. 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

3. The Problem of Assessment in Academic Libraries • Traditional statistics emphasize inputs, expenditures, acquisitions, holdings, etc. • National Rankings are often misleading • No demonstrable relationship between expenditures and service quality • The lack of metrics describing outcomes: success from the user’s point of view

4. 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

5. ARL New Measures Projects • Demonstration project for service effectiveness measures (LibQUAL+) • Project to define usage measures for electronic information resources (E-Metrics Project) • Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS): a joint development effort led by Kent State with IMLS funding • Investigation of role libraries play in support of the research process • Investigation of role libraries can play in campus learning outcomes activities • Identification of cost-drivers and development of cost-benefit studies

6. LibQUAL+™ Project Goals • Improvement of mechanisms and protocols for evaluating libraries • Development of web-based tools for assessing library service quality • Identification of best practices in providing library service • Establishment of a Service Assessment Capability at ARL

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 a 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. Year 3 Year 4 204 308 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

10. Closure • LibQUAL+ methodology focuses on success from the users point of view (outcomes) • LibQUAL+ demonstrates web based survey can handle large numbers; users are willing to fill it out; and survey can be executed quickly with minimal expense • LibQUAL+ requires limited local survey expertise and resources • Analysis available at local and inter-institutional levels • Lots of opportunities for using demographics to discern user behaviors

11. 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.