Implementing LibQUAL

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Implementing LibQUAL Massachusetts LSTA
OrientationMCCLPHEI Consortium
Martha Kyrillidou Association of Research
Libraries
Boston, MA November 1, 2006
old.libqual.org
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Overview

• Research Foundation and Current Uses of LibQUAL
• Preparing to Implement the Survey
• The Survey Process Initial Steps
• Mapping Disciplines
• Approving and Running Your Survey
• Understanding Your Results An Overview
• General Discussion and QA

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Total Circulation
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Reference Transactions
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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 applicablei.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

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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.
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The LibQUAL Premise
PERCEPTIONS SERVICE

• .only customers judge quality
• all other judgments are essentially
• irrelevant

Note. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry. (1999).
Delivering quality service. NY The Free Press.
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(No Transcript)
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Dimensions
2000 2001 2002 2003-2006
41 items 56 items 25 items 22 items
Affect of Service Affect of Service Service Affect Service Affect
Library as Place Library as Place Library as Place Library as Place
Reliability Reliability Personal Control Information Control
Provision of Physical Collections Self-Reliance Information Access
Access to Information Access to Information
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Survey Structure Page 2(Detail View)
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Rapid Growth in Other Areas

• Languages
• American English
• British English
• French
• Dutch
• Swedish
• Norwegian
• Finnish
• Danish
• Consortia
• Each may create 5 local questions to add to their
  survey

• Types of Institutions
• Academic Health Sciences
• Academic Law
• Academic Military
• College or University
• Community College
• European Business
• Hospital
• Public
• State
• Countries
• Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland,
  France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway,
  South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, U.K., U.S.

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LibQUAL Participants
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LibQUAL Surveys by Type
  Years Years Years Years Years Years
  2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Academic law       1 25 10
Academic military       6   1
College or university 13 41 111 244 150 191
Community college     16 29 3 14
European business         5  
Family history library         1  
Health sciences library   1 35 23 13 12
Hospital         10 1
New York Public library     1      
Public       4 1 1
Smithsonian     1   1  
State       1   1
University/TAFE           2
Electronic           1
Natural Resources           2
FFRDC           5
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LibQUAL Languages
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LibQUAL Surveys by Language
  Years Years Years Years Years Years
  2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
American English 13 42 164 285 176 207
British English       20 22 31
Continental French         1  
Dutch         1  
Dutch English       1 1  
French Canadian       2 1 4
Swedish         5 2
Swedish English (A.E.)         2 1 
Afrikaans           4
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LibQUAL Surveys by Consortia
  2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
AAHSL   1 35 21 14 12
AJCU         20  
Alabama Academic (NAAL)       10 1 8
CES         6  
City University of New York           19
CUC           8
EBSLG         6  
FFRDC           5
Hospital/MLA         7  
MERLN       6    
NELLCO           8
NY3Rs       76   2
Oberlin       12 9 13
OhioLINK     57 45 1 14
SCONUL       20 17 16
State Universities of Florida         6 2
University of Wisconsin System         14  
VALE           12
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Participating Libraries by Country
Country 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Australia         1 6
Canada 1 3 4 8 10 15
Denmark         1  
Egypt         1  
France         1  
Ireland         1 1
Netherlands       1 1  
Sweden         3 4
Switzerland         2  
U.A.E.         1  
UK       20 17 16
South Africa           12
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Surveys by Session 2004-2005
Year Session 1 Session 2
2004 202 2
2005 199 56
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World LibQUAL Survey
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Preparing for the Survey Implementation
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Why is Your Library Participating in LibQUAL ?

• Institutional goals
• what do you want to get out of the survey?
• Survey requirements
• people, supplies, technology

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Get Permission from your Institutional Review
Board

• Local group that approves human subject research
• May also be called
• Committee for Human Subject Research
• Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects
• Not all institutions need to obtain permission

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Get Permission from yourInstitutional Review
Board

• If permission is required
• Seek well in advance of survey
• Supply a copy of the survey, if requested
• Inform them that results will be shared among
  participants
• No need to inform LibQUAL of decision

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Determine Whom to Survey

• Random sample
• or
• Entire population

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If You Sample

• Recommendations
• At least 1,200 random email addresses for each
  user group
• Separate sample groups for undergraduates,
  graduates, faculty, and staff
• Think about survey fatigue if you want to repeat
  the survey regularly
• Keep notes on your methodology as you will be
  asked to describe it in the Post Hoc Questionnaire

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If You Survey the Entire Population.

• Recommendations
• Think about survey fatigue if you want to repeat
  the survey regularly
• Keep notes on your methodology as you will be
  asked to describe it in the Post Hoc Questionnaire

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Obtain Email Addresses

• Typical sources include
• Campus computing office
• Campus administrative records office
• Library patron database

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Promoting your Survey

• Place ads in campus newspaper
• Write article for library newsletter
• Post flyers around campus
• Present at faculty meetings student
  orientations
• Create a survey Web site and feature on librarys
  home page
• Take the survey to where users are dining halls,
  study rooms, dorms

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Become Familiar with LibQUAL Resources

• Management Center
• http//www.libqual.org/Manage/index.cfm
• LibQUAL Procedures Manual
• http//www.libqual.org/Manual/index.cfm
• Updated Version September 2006
• Much more detail
• Discussion list
• LIBQUAL-L_at_listserv.tamu.edu

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The LibQUAL Management Center
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The Survey Process Initial Steps
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Mapping Disciplines
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Mapping Disciplines

• Results notebooks summarize findings by user
  group and provide a chart for, both, standard and
  custom disciplines
• Standard disciplines
• Customized disciplines
• Recommend no more than 10 disciplines, if possible

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The Standard Disciplines

• Agriculture/Environmental Studies
• Architecture
• Business
• Communications/ Journalism
• Education
• Engineering/Computer Science
• General Studies
• Health Sciences

• Humanities
• Law
• Military/Naval Science
• Other
• Performing Fine Arts
• Science/Math
• Social Sciences/ Psychology
• Undecided

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Customized Disciplines

• Use your local terminology to map to the standard
  disciplines
• Cautions
• Need to provide representativeness data for each
  discipline
• Too many choices present challenges to users

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Standard Disciplines A PA Academic Library
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Customized Disciplines A PA Academic Library
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Getting Practice with Mapping

• Lets practice mapping your disciplines

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Approving and Running Your Survey
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Understanding Your Results
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Results Notebooks

• Sections for Overall, Undergraduates, Graduates,
  Faculty, Staff, Library Staff include
• Demographic Summary
• Core Questions Summary
• Dimensions Summary
• Local Questions
• General Satisfaction Questions
• Information Literacy Outcomes Questions
• Library Use Summary
• Appendix describing changes in the dimensions and
  the questions included in each dimension.

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Results

• Results Notebooks (PDF)
• http//old.libqual.org/Manage/Results/index.cfm
• Group Notebook (PDF)
• Unified Notebook (PDF)
• User Comments
• Excel Data File
• SPSS data files (if requested at registration)
  will be e-mailed to the primary contact two to
  three months after the session has closed.

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Core Items and Dimensions

• 22 core items (i.e., questions)
• Three dimensions
• Affect of Service 9 questions
• Information Control 8 questions
• Library as Place 5 questions

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Understanding a Radar Chart
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Key to Radar Charts
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What Do the Colors Mean?
Green And Blue
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What Do the Colors Mean?
Red
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What Do the Colors Mean?
Little Yellow
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What Do the Colors Mean?
A lot of Yellow
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Dimension Summary
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Library Use Question (Unified)
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2006 LibQUAL Highlights Overall
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Qualitative Analysis User Comments

• About one-half of users include comments on their
  surveys
• User Comments available on the LibQUAL Web site
• Download comments in Excel or text file
• Skim the comments
• Conduct ATLAS.ti analysis

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General Discussion and QA
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Summary and Closure
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LibQUAL Resources

• LibQUAL Web site
• http//old.libqual.org
• Publications
• http//old.libqual.org/publications
• Events and Training
• http//old.libqual.org/events
• Gap Theory/Radargraph Introduction
• http//old.libqual.org/Information/Tools/libqualp
  resentation.cfm
• LibQUAL Procedures Manual
• http//old.libqual.org/Publications/index.cfm

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The LibQUAL Team

• MaShana Davis
• Technical Communications Liaison
• mashana_at_arl.org
• Richard Groves
• Customer Relations Coordinator
• richard_at_arl.org
• Martha Kyrillidou
• Director, Statistics and Service Quality
  Programs
• martha_at_arl.org