Following up on LibQUAL+: Qualitative Data Analysis

Workshop

Canadian Association of Research Libraries

Association of Research Libraries

October 24, 2007

Colleen Cook, Dean of Libraries, Texas A&M University

What are the characteristics of qualitative methods?

• The observer/researcher inseparable from the study

• Consists of a set of interpretive practices that tries to make sense of a cultural context

• Data sources: field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos to the self

• Study a natural setting, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them

How did qualitative methods evolve?

• Beginnings in Sociology: 1920s and 30s in the “Chicago School;” in Anthropology: in the studies by Boas, Mead, Benedict, Bateson, Evans-Pritchard, Radcliffe-Browne, and Malinowski

• Through seven moments (Denzin & Lincoln, 2001)

• Today: influences of poststructuralism and postmodernism from textual studies

How do qualitative and quantitative methods differ?

• Multiple realities, not a single one “out there” to be discovered

• Value laden, subjective rather than objective• Seeks closeness with the investigated

through interviewing and observation rather than abstract relationships

• Inductive rather than deductive• Purposeful sampling chosen for diversity

rather than random sampling

• Thick descriptions rather than crisp and terse background information

• Comfort with contradictions, ambiguity• Representations include ethnographic

prose, historical narratives, first-person accounts, still photographs, life histories, biographical and graphs, third-person narratives autobiographical materials rather than mathematical models, statistical tables

What data are collected by the qualitative researcher

(researcher as bricoleur, montage maker)?

• Case studies, personal experience, introspection, life story, interview, artifacts, cultural texts and productions, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts, statistics that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives.

• Inherently multimethod in focus: triangulation

What fields of study are included in qualitative methods?

• Ethnomethodology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, feminism, deconstructionism, ethnography, interviews, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, survey research, participant observation

Qualitative research: the method of choice

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

Note. A. Parasuraman. The SERVQUAL Model: Its Evolution And Current Status. (2000).

Paper presented at ARL Symposium on Measuring Service Quality, Washington, D.C.

LibQUAL+ as a research example

• Purposeful sampling• Unstructured interviews - “conversations with

a purpose”• Peer review• Immediate and continuous analysis informing

further exploration• Journal• Member checks• Audit review

Establishing Trustworthiness: A Comparisonof Conventional and Naturalistic Inquiry

Criterion ConventionalTerm

NaturalisticTerm

NaturalisticTechniques

Truth value Internal validity Credibility Prolonged engagementPersistent observationTriangulationReferential adequacyPeer debriefingMember checksReflexive journal

Applicability External validity Transferability Thick descriptionPurposive samplingReflexive journal

Consistency Reliability Dependability Dependability auditReflexive journal

Neutrality Objectivity Confirmability Confirmability auditReflexive journal

Adapted from Lincoln & Guba, 1985.

Randolph High School Stability Within Transition

IndexCard Photos

ArtifactsB: Base D:District

S: School C: Calendar A: Annuals

N:Newspaper

I. A Rich History (p.44)A. Location of the base/the TAJB. Base description/accessC. Base housing descriptionD. History of the baseE. Mission of the base/Education of personnelF. History of the school district/funding

II. The High School (p.47)A. Perimeter Road

1. Description2. Stadium3. Trees

B. Campus descriptionC. High school office description/secretariesD. Teachers/ lounge descriptionE. Patio area descriptionF. Main classroom building description/display cases

III. The Principal—”Do what’s best for the kid!” (p. 51)A. Physical description

1. “Conservative”2. “Clean-cut”3. “Honest”4. “Country Gentleman”5. “Western-cut clothes”6. “Never having a hair out of place”7. “Trim”

IA,IBIBIB,IC

IE(1-3)IF(1-2)

IIA8,98IIB(1-2)IIC(1-6)

IIEIIF

IIIA2(1-2)IIIA2(1)IIIA2(2),IIIA3IIIA4IIIA4IIIA2(1)IIIA6(1-2)

4,5,66

B1,D2

7

10,11,14,80,8165,6667,6815-18,24-2830-44,49

2,90

2,90

2,902,9090,92

B1B1

A(1,2),D2,P32N(34,35,41)

A(1-5,12)

A16

The Audit TrailThe Audit Trail

Excerpted from Skipper, 1989.

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. … Don’t get into personal conversations when I am at the desk.”

Faculty member

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. … Don’t get into personal conversations when I am at the desk.”

Faculty member

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

Library as Place

“I guess you’d call them satisfiers. As long as they are not negatives, they won’t be much of a factor. If they are negatives, they are a big factor.”

Faculty member

Information Control

“By habit, I usually try to be self-sufficient. And I’ve found that I am actually fairly proficient. I usually find what I’m looking for eventually. So I personally tend to ask a librarian only as a last resort.”

Graduate student

Information Control

“…first of all, I would turn to the best search engines that are out there. That’s 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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Dimensions ofLibrary Service Quality

Empathy

InformationControl

Responsiveness

Symbol

Utilitarian space

Assurance

Scope of Content

Ease of Navigation

Self-Reliance

Library as Place

LibraryServiceQuality

Model 3

Refuge

Affect of Service

Reliability

Convenience

Timeliness

Equipment

So…..what did we do at Texas A&M?

Affect of Service

Library as Place

Renovation

Information Control

Digital Initiatives Research Team

Digital Repositories

What are we doing now?

Total Circulation

Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2005). ARL Statistics 2003-04. Washington, D.C.: ARL, p.6.

The use of focus groups in planning

The EndThe Endwoofwoof