LibQUAL

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LibQUAL Outsell Searching forCorrelations

• Fred Heath
• ARL
• Lexington, KY
• May 16, 2003

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Presentation Overview

• Assessment models ARL/LibQUAL, CLIR/Outsell
• Trends in scholarly communication and library use
• Observations based on those assessments and
  trends

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LibQUAL? Participants
English Dutch French Swedish
English
Spring 2000
Spring 2001
Spring 2002
Spring 2003
For More Information about Participants
Visit the LibQUAL? web site.
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Dimensions of Library Service Quality
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Library Remains a Credible Resource

• 98 agree with statement, My library contains
  information from credible and known sources

Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on
Library and Information Resources. (2002).
Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information
Environment.
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The Library IS our laboratory, it IS our
archaeological excavation-site, it IS our million
dollar piece of state-of-the art hardware.
Today, research and teaching have better
resources than they have ever had in the
Universitys history. James Rosenheim
Professor, Department of History Director,
Glasscock Center for Humanities Research Texas
AM University
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Aggregate Dimension Means (n70,445)
Note LibQUAL? Spring 2002 Aggregate Survey
Results. (2002). vol. 1, p. 24
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Note. A. 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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Aggregate Dimension Means (n70,445)
Note LibQUAL? Spring 2002 Aggregate Survey
Results. (2002). vol. 1, p. 24
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Aggregate Dimension Means (n70,445)
Note LibQUAL? Spring 2002 Aggregate Survey
Results. (2002). vol. 1, p. 24
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Aggregate Dimension Summary (n70,445)
Note LibQUAL? Spring 2002 Aggregate Survey
Results. (2002). vol. 1, p. 24
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LibQUAL Assessment Survey
Aggregate (All Ranks) (All)
Aggregate (All Ranks) Texas AM University
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LibQUAL Assessment Survey
Aggregate (All Ranks) (All)
Aggregate (All Ranks) Texas AM University
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Application at AM

• Access to collections
• Staff knowledge
• Personal Control

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1994
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  Universities will have to function in a highly
digital environment along with other
organizations as almost every academic function
will be affected, and sometimes displaced, by
modern technology. The ways that universities
manage their resources, relate to clients and
providers, and conduct their affairs will have to
be consistent not only with the nature of their
own enterprise but also with the reality of
e-everything.   Preparing for the Revolution
Information Technology and the Future of the
Research University. Panel on the Impact of
Information Technology on the Future of the
Research University. Policy and Global Affairs.
National Research Council of the National
Academies. Washington D.C. The National
Academies Press, 2002, p. 23.
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the unprecedented technology-driven challenges
currently being faced by higher education, and by
the research university in particular are
sufficiently great that even the worst-case
scenariothe end of the university, an
institution that has existed for a
millenniumappears to some to be a distinct
possibility. The reason behind such an extreme
prediction is that although the university has
survived earlier periods of technology-driven
social change with its basic role and structure
more or less intact, the changes being induced by
information technology are different because they
alter the fundamental relationship between people
and knowledge. Thus the technology could
profoundly reshape the activities of all
institutions, such as the university, whose
central function is the creation, preservation,
integration, transmission, or application of
knowledge.  
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How to respond?

• Is there evidence that the impact of IT upon
  higher education apply to research libraries as
  well?
• If so, how does a research library respond to
  deficits identified by the community?
• How can (increasingly scarce) resources be
  allocated to redress those deficits and
  contribute (even more effectively) to teaching,
  learning, and research?

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Total Circulation
Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2002). ARL
Statistics 2000-01. Washington, D.C. ARL, p.8.
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In House Use of Materials
Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2002). ARL
Statistics 2000-01. Washington, D.C. ARL, p.8.
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Reference Transactions
Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2002). ARL
Statistics 2000-01. Washington, D.C. ARL, p.8.
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Information Seeking Behaviors are Changing

• Only 15.7 agreed with the statement The
  Internet has not changed the way I use the
  library

Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on
Library and Information Resources. (2002).
Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information
Environment.
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Dimensions of Service in Transformation

• Library as Place
• Collections/Access to Information
• Self-Reliance
• Affect of Service

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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
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Library as Place

• Its beyond the ease with which you can find
  information, just because the library experience
  is something like Greece or Athens
  (Undergraduate)
• the library needs to welcome them in. It needs
  to make them feel like this is a place where they
  can be in almost a haven, a refuge (Business
  professor)
• writing an undergraduate thesis with this big
  dome over his headhe felt really like a scholar
  (Linguistics professor)
• Writing a dissertation in a particular library
  for another scholar was an emotional experience
  (Faculty member)

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Library as PlaceShifting Perspective?

• A number of the questions asked to rate the
  library from low to high, with n/a if it doesnt
  apply to me. The latter wasnt clear, but there
  were a number of questions which implied what a
  library should be that I dont agree with. For
  example, a number of questions asked whether the
  library was a contemplative place or a center
  for intellectual stimulation. I dont think our
  library is, but I dont want it to be, and I
  certainly wouldnt want any scarce resources to
  be devoted to this.
• Communication to LibQUAL web-master 2002

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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

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Affect of Service A Cultural Perspective

• as users have metamorphosed from penitents to
  self-reliant information surfers, the rules of
  engagement have changed. Service is not
  something dispensed rather, it is enacted as an
  elaborate cultural ritual, the texture and fabric
  of which is changing in front of us.
• Yvonna Lincoln. Insights into library
  services and users from qualitative research.
  Library Information Science Research 24(2002),
  p. 16

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Access to Collections

• I think one of the things I love about academic
  life in the United States is that as a culture,
  we tend to appreciate the extraordinary
  importance of libraries in the life of the mind.
• Faculty
  member

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CollectionsShifting Perspective?
The primary access to the latest findings in a
growing number of fields is through the Web,
then through classic preprints and conferences
and lastly through refereed archival papers.
Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through
Cyberinfrastructure Report of the National
Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on
Cyberinfrastructure January 2003
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CollectionsShifting Perspective?
Crucial data collections in the
social, biological, and physical sciences are
now online and remotely accessiblemodern genome
research would be impossible without such
databases, and soon astronomical research will be
similarly redefined through the National Virtual
Observatory.
Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through
Cyberinfrastructure Report of the National
Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on
Cyberinfrastructure January 2003
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Self Control

• By habit, I usually try to be self-sufficient.
  And Ive found that I am actually fairly
  proficient. I usually find what Im looking for
  eventually. So I personally tend to ask a
  librarian only as a last resort.
• Graduate student

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Self ControlCultural Perspective

• If Foucault is correct that we in the West live
  in surveilled societies, then what function does
  self-reliance serve? the library user who wishes
  to navigate resources with as little help as
  possible seeks a kind of privacy from the
  surveillance of librarian help Having found the
  relative anonymity of cyberspace and a virtual
  world, this self-reliant user now seeks the same
  independence and lack of surveillance in the
  text-based and digitized universe of information
  resources known as the library
• Yvonna Lincoln. Insights into library
  services and users from qualitative research.
  Library Information Science Research 24(2002),
  3-16

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Self Control A Shifting Perspective?

• 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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Finding Print Journals for Research

• Only 13.9 ask a librarian
• Only 3.2 consider consulting a librarian a
  preferred way of identifying information

Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on
Library and Information Resources. (2002).
Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information
Environment.
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Finding Electronic Journalsfor Research

• 92.7 find out about e-journals on-line
• 21.7 report using print resources to find
• 16.5 would ask a person for assistance
• Only 2.5 would prefer to ask a librarian

Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on
Library and Information Resources. (2002).
Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information
Environment.
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Promoting Self Control

• Library Portal
• Virtual Space
• EZ-Proxy
• deliverEdocs
• Virtual reference

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Lessons at the end of the print millennium

• I want what I want when I want it--on my
  terms
• We no longer set the rules
• The continuing importance of print
• The growing impact of delivery to the desktop
• The evolving nature of
• scholarly communication

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Future External Challenges

• The Changing Face of Scholarly Communication
• SPARC
• Global Resources Project
• Institutional Repositories

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When desired outcomes become the focus of
customer research, innovation becomes a
manageable, predictable discipline.
Anthony W. Ulwick, Harvard Business Review,
January 2002
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In a time of change and uncertainty, it is
possible to sustain our indispensable rolein
the academic community
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The End

• Although good infrastructure is often taken for
  granted and noticed only when it stops
  functioning, it is among the most complex and
  expensive things that society creates.
• Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through
  Cyberinfrastructure Report of the National
  Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on
  Cyberinfrastructure
• January 2003

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