Understanding Library Service Quality: A Qualitative Grounding

1. “22 Items anda Box” : Qualitative Grounding Colleen Cook Bruce Thompson Boston, U.S. Shrivenham, U.K. January, 2005

2. Premise for Mixed-Methods • “The underlying premise of mixed-method inquiry is that each paradigm offers a meaningful and legitimate way of knowing and understanding” (p. 7). Note. Greene, J.C. and Caracelli, V. J. (Eds.). (1997). Advances in mixed-method valuation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

3. 13 Libraries English LibQUAL+™ Version 4000 Respondents LibQUAL+™ Project PURPOSEDATAANALYSISPRODUCT/RESULT Emergent Describe library environment; build theory of library service quality from user perspective Test LibQUAL+™ instrument Refine theory of service quality Refine LibQUAL+™ instrument Test LibQUAL+™ instrument Refine theory 2000 Unstructured interviews at 8 ARL institutions Web-delivered survey Unstructured interviews at Health Sciences and the Smithsonian libraries E-mail to survey administrators Web-delivered survey Focus groups Content analysis: (cards & Atlas TI) Reliability/validity analyses: Cronbachs Alpha, factor analysis, SEM, descriptive statistics Content analysis Content analysis Reliability/validity analyses including Cronbachs Alpha, factor analysis, SEM, descriptive statistics Content analysis QUAL QUAN QUAL QUAL QUAN QUAL Case studies1 Valid LibQUAL+™ protocol Scalable process Enhanced understanding of user-centered views of service quality in the library environment2 Cultural perspective3 Refined survey delivery process and theory of service quality4 Refined LibQUAL+™ instrument5 Local contextual understanding of LibQUAL+™ survey responses6 Iterative Vignette Re-tooling 2004 315 Libraries English, Dutch, Swedish, German LibQUAL+™ Versions 160,000 anticipated respondents

4. LibQUAL+ Process • SERVQUAL dimensions served as a priori theoretical starting point

5. Gap Theory of Assessment: Perceptions, Service Quality and Satisfaction PERCEPTIONS SERVICE “….only customers judge quality; all other judgments are essentially irrelevant” Note. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry. (1999). Delivering quality service. NY: The Free Press.

6. 76 Interviews Conducted • York University • University of Arizona • Arizona State • University of Connecticut • University of Houston • University of Kansas • University of Minnesota • University of Pennsylvania • University of Washington • Smithsonian • Northwestern Medical

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9. Dimensions ofLibrary Service Quality

10. Reliability “You put a search on a book and it’s just gone; it’s not reacquired. … There’s more of a problem of lost books, of books that are gone and nobody knows why and nobody’s doing anything about it.” Faculty member

11. Affect of Service “I want to be treated with respect. I want you to be courteous, to look like you know what you are doing and enjoy what you are doing. … Don’t get into personal conversations when I am at the desk.” Faculty member

12. Ubiquity of Access “Over time my own library use has become increasingly electronic. So that the amount of time I actually spend in the library is getting smaller and the amount of time I spend at my desk on the web … is increasing.” Faculty member

13. Comprehensive Collections “I think one of the things I love about academic life in the United States is that as a culture…, we tend to appreciate the extraordinary importance of libraries in the life of the mind.” Faculty member

14. Library as Place “One of the cherished rituals is going up the steps and through the gorgeous doors of the library and heading up to the fifth floor to my study. … I have my books and I have six million volumes downstairs that are readily available to me in an open stack library.” Faculty member

15. Library as Place “I guess you’d call them satisfiers. As long as they are not negatives, they won’t be much of a factor. If they are negatives, they are a big factor.” Faculty member

16. Library as Place “The poorer your situation, the more you need the public spaces to work in. When I was an undergraduate, I spent most of my time in the library, just using it as a study space.” Faculty member

17. Self-reliance “…first of all, I would turn to the best search engines that are out there. That’s not a person so much as an entity. In this sense, librarians are search engines [ just ] with a different interface.” Faculty member

18. Self-reliance “By habit, I usually try to be self-sufficient. And I’ve found that I am actually fairly proficient. I usually find what I’m looking for eventually. So I personally tend to ask a librarian only as a last resort.” Graduate student

19. LibQUAL+Core Questions Y1 _____________________________________________________________________________ Factor_ ______ _ No. I II III IV Item Core _____________________________________________________________________________ 32 .84947 .12848 .24465 .13335 1 Willingness to help users 33 .80847 .13662 .25348 .14147 1 Giving users individual attention 7 .80757 .17881 .12781 .21125 1 Employees deal with users caring fashion 50 .79273 .19288 .18847 .12497 1 Employees who are consistently courteous 31 .77262 .16358 .26461 .20061 1 Employees have knowledge answer questions 5 .74072 .14754 .18453 .29624 1 Employees understand needs of users 3 .74052 .15102 .17296 .20793 1 Readiness to respond to users' questions 18 .71718 .19757 .18289 .26766 1 Employees who instill confidence in users 43 .62487 .22402 .29970 .28256 0 Dependability handling service problems 20 .16556 .87679 .11430 .16236 2 A haven for quiet and solitude 2 .17739 .83172 .08498 .13901 2 A meditative place 19 .22362 .83147 .14705 .22566 2 A contemplative environment 25 .16013 .80492 .18894 .16628 2 Space that facilitates quiet study 41 .20398 .80204 .17599 .20255 2 A place for reflection and creativity 37 .22528 .12353 .78405 .15466 * website enabling me locate info on my own 28 .19602 .09611 .75780 .13173 * elec resources accessible home or office 14 .33339 .16156 .60389 .31109 * access tools allow me find on my own 45 .30467 .23784 .59090 .28919 3 Modern equip me easily access info I need 17 .35390 .18467 .55690.41864 * info easily accessible for independent use 29 .30136 .21018 .55341.38474 4 Convenient access to library collections 11 .13494 .23183 .18868 .73636 3 Comprehensive print collections 39 .14894 .23743 .29367 .60350 3 Complete runs of journal titles 16 .29445 .19831 .22384 .60107 3 Interdisciplinary library needs addressed 9 .27782 .05333 .16331 .57866 4 Timely document delivery/interlibrary loan 8 .22850 .18484 .13137 .56343 0 Convenient business hours ________________________________________________________________

20. Dimensions ofLibrary Service Quality

21. Survey Instrument

22. 76 Interviews Conducted • York University • University of Arizona • Arizona State • University of Connecticut • University of Houston • University of Kansas • University of Minnesota • University of Pennsylvania • University of Washington • Smithsonian • Northwestern Medical

23. The Value of the Qualitative Perspectives • “Only with in-depth, local, qualitative, ‘culture’ studies can libraries know and understand what compels some to remain as far away from the library as possible, while others refrain from engaging library staff in their own search for proficiency and self-reliance” (Lincoln, p. 15).

24. Cultural Perspective – Self-reliance “If Foucault is correct that we in the West live in surveilled societies, then what function does self-reliance serve? …the library user who wishes to navigate resources with as little help as possible – seeks a kind of privacy from the surveillance of librarian help …Having found the relative anonymity of cyberspace and a virtual world, this self-reliant user now seeks the same independence and lack of surveillance in the text-based and digitized universe of information resources known as the library” (Lincoln, p. 12).

25. Cultural Perspective – Library as Place • “…It’s beyond the ease [with] which you can find information, just because the library experience is something like Greece or Athens…” (Undergraduate) • “…the library needs to welcome them in. It needs to make them feel like this is a place where they can be in almost a haven, a refuge” (Business professor) • “writing an undergraduate thesis with this big dome over his head…he felt really like a scholar” (Linguistics professor) • Writing a dissertation in a particular library for another scholar “was an emotional experience”

26. Cultural Perspective - Collections “In the physical [vs. virtual] reality, ‘texture’ has become important. Density of collections becomes important, and, if collections are not complete, users want to know where they can find missing volumes, journal articles, and/or how swiftly interlibrary loan will work for them” (Lincoln, p. 11).

27. E-mail to Survey Administrators “A number of the questions asked to rate the library from low to high, with n/a if it doesn’t apply to me. The latter wasn’t clear, but there were a number of questions which implied what a library should be that I don’t agree with. For example, a number of questions asked whether the library was a ‘contemplative place’ or a ‘center for intellectual stimulation.’ I don’t think our library is, but I don’t want it to be, and I certainly wouldn’t want any scarce resources to be devoted to this.” Communication to web-master

28. Service as Performance “…as users have metamorphosed from penitents to self-reliant information surfers, the rules of engagement have changed. Service is not something dispensed; rather, it is enacted as an elaborate cultural ritual, the texture and fabric of which is changing in front of us. Service may now embody multiple overlays of meaning, many too dense for anything but an anthropological fieldwork study to uncover” (Lincoln, p. 15).

29. E-mail to Survey Administrators “Other questions implied that any good library staff would ‘empower’ me to find my own research. I don’t mean to sound snippish, but if I wanted to be ‘empowered’ to be able to find all my own research, I’d enroll in the outstanding school of library science here on campus. I thought the reason we bring in talented and trained librarians is so that we can efficiently divide labor, and I can remain dependent on them – unempowered, if you will, to assist me when need it. (And let me assure you I AM dependent, and they ARE excellent in assisting me.)” Communication to web-master

30. Dimensions of Library Service Quality

31. 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).

32. 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.

33. LibQUAL+ RelatedDocuments • LibQUAL+Web Site • http://www.libqual.org • LibQUAL+Bibliography • http://www.libqual.org/publications/index.cfm • Survey Participants Procedures Manual • http://www.libqual.org/information/manual/index.cfm woof