fairytale a fairytale about “ 22 items and a box ” libqual+™ meeting san antonio, tx and...

A fairytalefairytale about

“22 items and a box”

LibQUAL+™ MeetingSan Antonio, TX and London, UK

Jan 23 and Feb 1-2 2006

Martha KyrillidouDirector, ARL Statistics and Measurement Program

Association of Research Libraries

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Library 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 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

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Total Circulation

Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2003).ARL Statistics 2002-03. Washington, D.C.: ARL, p.8.

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Reference Transactions

Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2003).ARL Statistics 2002-03. Washington, D.C.: ARL, p.8.

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

Quality?Quality?

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LibQUAL+™ Goals

• Improve mechanisms and protocols for evaluating libraries

• Develop web-based tools for assessing library service quality

• Identify best practices in providing library service

• Support libraries seeking to understand changes in user behavior

• Assist libraries seeking to re-position library services in the new environment

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Partnership among ARL

Texas A&Mhundreds of librariesthousands of users

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PERCEPTIONS SERVICE

“….only customers judge quality;

all other judgments are essentially

irrelevant”

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

The LibQUAL+™ Premise

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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 methodsA. 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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Dimensions

2000 2001 2002 2003-200641 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 ControlInformation Control

Provision of Physical Collections

Self-RelianceInformation Access

Access to Information

Access to Information

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Survey Structure – Page 2(Detail View)

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Colleges and Universities

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2005 Highlights

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LibQUAL+ surveys by type

  Years

 200

0200

1200

2200

3200

4 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

American English

Dutch EnglishFrench Canadian DutchSwedish

Swedish(British English)

Afrikaans

DanishFinnishGerman Norwegian

British English

Continental French

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surveys by language

  Years

 200

0200

1200

2200

3200

4 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 Consortium

  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

Country200

0200

1200

2200

3200

4200

5

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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2006 registrations as of 1/13

• 209 Registrations (as of 1/13)• 100 participating with a consortium• 61 international surveys • 36 ARL libraries (main, medical, & law counted separately) • 107 first-time participants• 4 seventh year participants (Arizona, Houston, TAMU, and Pittsburgh)

Four new languages:

-German

-Finnish

-Danish

-Norwegian

Five new consortium:

-AJCU Academic Libraries

-Georgia Consortium

-North Carolina Community Colleges

-Massachusetts LSTA grant group

-National Health Service England

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Think outside of the box

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… a revolution in making

Il est plus nécessaire d'étudier les hommes que les livres

—FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613–1680)

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Confirming

expectations

Disconfirming expectations

Confirming perceptions

Disconfirming perceptions

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Library 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) • 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

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Sensitivity 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)

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Online Resources

• StatsQUAL™ Website:http://www.statsqual.org

• LibQUAL+™ Website:http://www.libqual.org

• Publications:http://www.libqual.org/publications

• Events and Training:http://www.libqual.org/events

• LibQUAL+™ Bibliography:http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~bthompson/servqbib

• LibQUAL+™ Procedures Manual: http://www.libqual.org/Manual/index.cfm

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LibQUAL+™ Contacts

• Martha Kyrillidou– Director, Statistics & Measurement Program – martha@arl.org

• Richard Groves– Research Assistant - Statistics & Measurement – richard@arl.org

• Jonathan D. Sousa– Technical Applications Development Manager– jonathan@arl.org

• MaShana Davis– Junior Technical Applications Developer– mashana@arl.org