old.libqual.org

A fairytalefairytale about

“22 items and a box” presented by

Martha Kyrillidou

19-20 January 2004Glasgow, UK

Relationships: perceptions, Relationships: perceptions, service quality and satisfactionservice quality and satisfaction

….only customers judge quality;all other judgments are essentiallyirrelevant”

Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry. (1999). Delivering quality service. NY: The Free Press.

Relationships: perceptions, Relationships: perceptions, service quality and satisfactionservice quality and satisfaction

Presentation by Parasuraman:

http://old.libqual.org/documents/admin/Parsu.ppt

The Association of Research Libraries

www.arl.org

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.

The Problem of Assessment in The Problem of Assessment in Academic LibrariesAcademic 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

AssessmentAssessment

“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

ARL New Measures InitiativeARL 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

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

What is LibQUAL+™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.

LibQUAL+LibQUAL+™™ Project Goals 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

LibQUAL+™ OutcomesLibQUAL+™ 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

LibQUAL+™ ResourcesLibQUAL+™ 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)

DimensionsDimensions

2000 2001 2002 200341-items 56-items 25-items 22-items

Affect of Service Affect of Service Service Affect Service Affect

Reliability Library as Place Library as Place Library as Place

Library as Place Reliability Personal Control Information Control

Provision of Physical Collections

Self-Reliance Information Access

Access to Information

Access to Information

Library as PlaceLibrary as Place

Presentation by Sarah Thomas:

Architecture as an Asset for Community Building

http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/142/thomas.html

Information ControlInformation Control

Presentation by Fred Heath

The Findings From LibQUAL+ and Outsell Research: Cross Checking for Correlations

http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/142/heath.html

Service AffectService Affect

Michelangelo: Sistine Chapel Ceiling

http://sun.science.wayne.edu/~mcogan/Humanities/Sistine/Panels/creation.html

Library ValuesLibrary 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

LibQUAL+LibQUAL+TM TM ParticipantsParticipants

Spring2000

Year 013

For More Information about Participants:Visit old.libqual.org

Year 142

Year 2164

308 Year 3

Spring2001

Spring2002

Spring2003

204+ Year 4

Spring2004

In an Ocean of Information How do you Define and Measure Library

Service Quality?

Strategies - Actions

Confirming

expectations

Disconfirming expectations

Confirming perceptions

Disconfirming perceptions

Think out of the box

Sensitivity to contextSensitivity to context

“If sensitivity to context is important in benchmarking, these new … studies will hopefully confirm this … both empirical and ethnographic methods are necessary to disentangle potentially erroneous assumptions and illuminate contextual and cultural differences that affect both expectations of library customers, and library performance” Rowena Cullen (IFLA, August 2003)

In ConclusionIn Conclusion

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