| The purpose of the study was threefold: first, to fill a knowledge void in modeling the dimensions of library service quality from the user perspective; second, based upon the model, to develop a web-delivered, effective total market survey for service quality assessment in academic libraries; and third, using the derived instrument, to recommend a process for an ongoing program of comparative outcome measurement for academic libraries.; Interviews with academic library users affirmed the presence of SERVQUAL dimensions of Assurance, Responsiveness, Empathy, Reliability and Tangibles in the service quality construct for academic libraries, and surfaced additional theoretical dimensions specific to libraries: Collections, Ubiquity of Access, Library as Place, and Self-reliance. A model of service quality supporting this construct was tested through a 56-question, web-based survey instrument, administered to 20,416 users of 43 academic libraries in spring 2001. Analysis largely affirmed the theoretical model of service quality with some modifications: Affect of Service subsumed the affective elements of SERVQUAL dimensions; Library as Place was supported as an expansion of SERVQUAL Tangibles; a proposed dimension of Self-reliance was subsumed in a dimension of Personal Control and a fourth dimension of Information Access subsumed Collections.; From validity and reliability analyses of the 56-question pilot instrument, a parsimonious 25-question tool, LibQUAL+™, was proposed to serve as a total market survey for academic libraries. Such surveys constitute one of the three essential customer-centered listening methods recommended from the services marketing discipline.; An increasing demand for accountability in higher education, particularly for outcome measures, the globalization of information, and growing competition from for-profit information providers are drivers compelling academic library administrators to action in augmenting traditional input measurements of effectiveness with outcome, user-based assessments. In support of this movement, LibQUAL+™ holds promise of serving as an effective total market survey for academic libraries. |
