Background and purpose: Assessment of user satisfaction on library services is a major challenge in achieving appropriate services. The aim of this study was to evaluate user satisfaction with ...library services at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences based on LibQUAL model. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was conducted in 144 faculty members and students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The participants were selected by convenience sampling. They reported their satisfaction on library services of different schools at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences via completing the LibQUAL scale. Results: This study showed that, user satisfaction in three components, including service affect, information control, and library as a place met the minimum level of expectations (5.25±1.05, 5.51±1.20, 5.69±1.50, respectively), but did not met the maximum level of expectations (6.43±1.79, 5.83±1.68, 5.83±1.97, respectively). Similar Satisfaction level was seen in faculty members and students on the service affect. In dimension of information services, the expectation level of faculty members was higher than that of students, but their satisfaction level on library as a place was less than that of the students. Conclusion: The libraries and information centers studied here, met the needs of users at average levels, but they are believed to be far from ideal levels.
تحتاج المکتبات ومراکز المعلومات وکل ماله علاقة بتنظیم وتهیئة المعلومات الى اعادة تقییم بشکل دوری من اجل الوقوف على مستوى الجودة مما یعنی ان النهوض بالواقع العام لهذه المؤسسات بما یضمن رضا کافی من قبل ...المستفیدین عن الخدمات المقدمة، وهذا ما تم العمل علیه فی هذا البحث اذ تم تطبیق واحد من اهم مقاییس الجودة فی المکتبات ومراکز المعلومات وهو LibQUAL+®) ) فی واحدة من اهم وأقدم المکتبات المرکزیة الجامعیة الا وهی المکتبة المرکزیة لجامعة بغداد بموقعیها الجادریة والوزیریة، وقد بلغت عینة المستفیدین والذین تم توزیع الاستبانة لهم 75 مستفید موزعین على المکتبتین وقد تم استرجاع (68) استمارة منهم، وباستخدام منهج الحالة کوسیلة للوصول لتحقیق اهم الأهداف المرسومة فی هذا البحث ومن ابرزها التوصل الى مستویات جودة الحقیقیة وإیجاد الحلول الملائمة لعلاج جوانب الخلل ان وجدت، إضافة للوصول الى النتائج المرجوة منها والتی کان من أهمها:
- هنالک فجوة حقیقیة فی خدمات المکتبة المقدمة سواء (فجوة اکتفاء) (فجوة تمیز) کون المکتبة تقدم خدمات اقل من المطلوب من قبل المستفید او یتصور انه سیحصل علیها، وهذا اهم هدف حققه المقیاس فی الوصول الى هذه النتیجة.
اما عن اهم التوصیات فکانت:
- الطلب من القیادات الإداریة العلیا للجامعات لإعادة النظر بالدعم الموجه لهذه المؤسسات المهمة من خلال زیادة الدعم سواء المادی ام المعنوی ما یخدم بالنتیجة حرکة البحث العلمی للجامعة التی صارت الیوم احدى رکائز التصنیفات العالمیة لمرتبة الجامعات.
Background and Objectives: Since academic libraries have a significant role in promoting educational and research purposes of universities, therefore, assessment of the quality of services provided ...based on the expectations and needs of users with scientific standards, seems to be necessary. In the current research, library services of Qom University of Medical Sciences, were evaluated from the viewpoint of students and academic members based on LibQUAL Model. Methods: The present research was performed as an applied descriptive-analytical study. The statistical population included all library members of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015. At the time of this study, the participants were 1464 individuals, from which, 466 subjects were selected as samples using stratified random sampling method. Data collection tool was international LibQUAL questionnaire, which its reliability and validity was confirmed in several national and international studies. Data were analyzed using t-test at 95% confidence level. Results: Based on the findings of the study, service adequacy and excellence gap was negative in the domains of control of information and library as place, and the mean level of library services in these libraries was evaluated to be less than the minimum expectations of users. Conclusion: The findings of the present research showed that showed that the libraries of the Qom University of Medical Sciences have the highest weakness in the domains of the control of information and library as place and were not able to meet the minimum expectations of their users. The gap between the received services and maximum expectations of users was also high, which indicates that the libraries of Qom University of Medical Sciences have been weak in all domains of LibQUAL.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the gap between library users' expected and perceived library services and to examine the role of library services in developing user satisfaction and ...loyalty. A quantitative research design using a questionnaire was used to investigate the research objectives. Undergraduate students were selected as the population from the Information Technology University. The questionnaire was adopted from previous literature. It was pilot tested with 50 undergraduate students and found reliable. Data was collected from 304 respondents and were analyzed using SPSS (v.20) software. The study found that library users expected a high level of service in three categories, i.e., Affect of Service, Information Control, and Library as a Place, as all mean scores were higher than 7 when rated against a scale from 1 to 9. The participants reported that they were likely to consult the library and recommend it to others. The structural equation model confirmed that better services will increase users' satisfaction with the library resources and services and will lead to winning users' loyalty. The findings from the study provided useful insight into the determinants of user satisfaction and loyalty and could be useful for other academic libraries seeking ways to increase user loyalty and user satisfaction with library resources and services.
The LibQUAL+ instrument serves as an indicator of user satisfaction. While offering clear insights into user satisfaction levels, it lacks interpretability when seeking to judge overall library ...success. This study aims at adopting LibQUAL+ as a measurement tool to predict library users' intention to patronize the library more in future. A theoretical model is presented to measure the relationships among the three LibQUAL+ service dimensions and the overall library user satisfaction. We estimate the effects of the three service dimensions on two indicators of students' attitudes and beliefs (Overall Satisfaction and Perceived Academic Success) and, in turn, the effects of those two variables on students' anticipated library use. We tested the research model using structural equation modeling. Our study results reveal that the three dimensions, Library as Place, Affect of Service and Information Control have considerably different impact on Satisfaction and Perceived Academic Success. Similarly, the two mediating variables, Satisfaction and Perceived Academic Success, have different impact on the Intention to Use the Library More in future. Our work is meant to explain how an effective and widely used measurement tool can become more effective and informative through SEM analysis and to provide a broader model to predicting library success.
Customers usually have high expectations on the services they receive. The LibQUAL model was employed in this study to investigate the quality of services at an academic library. The participants ...were chosen from the five colleges in a university using simple random sampling. Two hundred participants were chosen from each college. In all, 1000 participants (including faculty members, postgraduate and undergraduate students) were selected for the study. The study revealed that users knew and used the library's services. The researchers delivered the questionnaires to the respondents at the library. The results showed that the library service quality (LSQ) fell short of users' expectations. There was a statistically significant difference in LSQ between gender of users. The users' expectations of the library's level of service were out of sync or mismatch. The variations could be attributed to differences in information needs of users. This requires the library to assess its services from users' perspective regularly. The use of the LibQUAL model provides useful information that library management can employ for developing service quality measurement scale and planning for service quality. The study also provides information about services that needs improvement, so that library staff could manage users' expectations and satisfaction in a better way. University authorities expect good return of investment made into the development of the library. Therefore, libraries should improve upon their services to boost the image of the Universities.
The purpose of this paper is to study the scattered behaviour of the overall published output of library service quality literature. Different parameters have been taken into consideration to analyze ...the literature on library service quality. The bibliographical data of the total number of publications published on Library Service Quality (LSQ), during 1960-2018 were searched from the Scopus database by using the search phrases, "Library Service Quality", LibQual and LibQual+, in Title, Abstract and Keyword have been used with Boolean operator 'OR' on December 8th, 2019. The search query resulted in 290 records. The first-ever publication published in the field of library service quality was published in 1997 as reflected from the Scopus database. The data were analyzed to observe the year wise pattern of growth of output with citations per publication (CPP), most prolific countries, institutions, and authors. It also identified the distribution of citations with highly cited papers and further source titles were used to establish the linkage between research results. Analyzing authors, institutions and country of the publications, citations complete count methodology was followed. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Iran were found to be the leading contributors to the field, and the pattern of growth is undulating. The journal articles (228) were scattered among 80 source titles, and it connotes that on an average, approximately three articles were produced by each source title. Moreover, a detailed and comprehensive content analysis of all the publications of clusters formed in co-citation and bibliographic coupling networks was employed to get the in-depth knowledge of the trend in concerning literature. The present study is the first bibliometric as well as text-analysis research to assess the overall research output on service quality in the field of Libraries & Information Science.
The study sought to assess user expectations and acceptance of library services at the African Union Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The study, which targeted 94 library users, employed LibQUAL ...and SERVQUAL protocols to collect data, which were subsequently analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that users have the lowest expectations of the physical aspects of the library, namely the
and of its
. By contrast, users had the highest expectations in aspects associated with people and of the library collection, namely the
,
,
and
. The study recommends the allocation of resources in a way that ensures that the human aspects of the library remain at high levels of service quality, while shortcomings related to information control, library space and equipment should be addressed. Further, the library should invest in electronic content that users can access remotely. The findings have implications for information practice, in that studying user expectations enables libraries to understand individual and group expectations. These, in turn, will inform decision-making processes in respect of service provision, and provide justification and accountability for the resources used during such service provision.
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