LibQUAL

1
LibQUAL An Overview

• CASLIN
• The Czech Republic
• June, 2006
• Presented by
• Bruce Thompson
• http//www.coe.tamu.edu/bthompson

2
Total Circulation
Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2003). ARL
Statistics 2002-03. Washington, D.C. ARL, p.8.
3
Reference Transactions
Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2003). ARL
Statistics 2002-03. Washington, D.C. ARL, p.8.
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 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

5
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.
6
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.
7
(No Transcript)
8
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

9
(No Transcript)
10
Reliability

• You put a search on a book and its just gone
  its not reacquired. Theres more of a problem
  of lost books, of books that are gone and nobody
  knows why and nobodys 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. Dont
  get into personal conversations when I am at the
  desk.
• Faculty
  member

12
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

13
Self-reliance

• first of all, I would turn to the best search
  engines that are out there. Thats not a person
  so much as an entity. In this sense, librarians
  are search engines just with a different
  interface.
• Faculty
  member

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22 items
2000 2001 2002 2003
41-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
15
Survey Instrument
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22 Items and The Box.

• Why the Box is so Important
• About 40 of participants provide open-ended
  comments, and these are linked to demographics
  and quantitative data.
• Users elaborate the details of their concerns.
• Users feel the need to be constructive in their
  criticisms, and offer specific suggestions for
  action.

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and Five Ancillary Items

• Either Zero or Five Ancillary items are selected
  to address local or consortial concerns
• Items from the initial LibQUALTM item pool.
• Items written by previous consortial groups.

18
alpha By Language
By Language Service Info. Lib as Group n
Affect Control Place TOTAL American
(all) 59,318 .95 .91 .88 .96 British (all)
6,773 .93 .87 .81 .94 French (all)
172 .95 .90 .89 .95
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alpha by University Type
By University Type Service Info. Lib as Group
n Affect Control Place TOTAL Comm Colleges
4,189 .96 .92 .89 .97 4 yr Not ARL 36,430 .95 .91
.88 .96 4 yr, ARL 14,080 .95 .90 .87 .96 Acad
Health 3,263 .95 .92 .90 .96  
20
World LibQUAL Survey
21
Rapid Growth in Other Areas

• Languages
• American English
• British English
• French
• Dutch
• Swedish
• 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
• U.S., U.K., Canada, the Netherlands, South
  Africa, Sweden, France, Australia, New Zealand,
  Malaysia

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LibQUAL Participants
23
LibQUAL Implementation
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InterpretationMean Perceived Scores (n34)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesUndergraduates American English
(n 37,661)
26
LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesGraduates American English
(n 16,750)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesFaculty American English
(n 11,755)
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LibQUAL Resources

• LibQUAL Website http//www.libqual.org
• Publications http//www.libqual.org/publication
  s
• Events and Training http//www.libqual.org/even
  ts
• Gap Theory/Radargraph Introduction
  http//www.libqual.org/Information/Tools/libqual
  presentation.cfm
• LibQUAL Procedures Manual http//www.libqual.o
  rg/Manual/index.cfm

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LibQUAL ContactInformation

• Martha Kyrillidou
• Senior Program for Office of Statistics and
  Measurement
• martha_at_arl.org
• Mary Jackson
• LibQUAL Services Manager
• mary_at_arl.org
• MaShana Davis
• LibQUAL Technical Communications Liaison
• mashana_at_arl.org
• Richard Groves
• Statistics Research Assistant
• richard_at_arl.org