Managing and Enhancing Information: Cultures and Conflicts

1
Managing and Enhancing Information Cultures and
Conflicts

• Montreal
• February 11, 2005
• Presented by
• Colleen Cook, Dean of Libraries
• Texas AM University

2
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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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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LibQUAL Outcomes

• Securing information that contributes
  meaningfully to planning and improvement efforts
  at a local level
• Providing analytical frameworks that
  institutional staff can apply without extensive
  training or assistance
• Helping decision-makers understand success of
  investments
• Finding useful inter-institutional comparisons

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The LibQUAL Premise
PERCEPTIONS SERVICE

• .only customers judge quality
• all other judgments are essentially
• irrelevant

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

• York University
• University of Arizona
• Arizona State
• University of Connecticut
• University of Houston
• University of Kansas

• University of Minnesota
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Washington
• Smithsonian
• Northwestern Medical

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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

12
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

13
Library as Place

• I guess youd call them satisfiers. As long as
  they are not negatives, they wont be much of a
  factor. If they are negatives, they are a big
  factor.
• Faculty
  member

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Information Control

• 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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Information 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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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 methods

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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LibQUAL Resources

• An ARL/Texas AM University joint developmental
  effort based on SERVQUAL.
• LibQUAL initially supported by a 3-year grant
  from the U.S. Department of Educations Fund for
  the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education
  (FIPSE)
• Initial project established a expert team,
  re-grounded SERVQUAL concepts, and designed
  survey methodology
• Survey conducted at over 500 libraries resulting
  in a data base of over half a million user
  responses
• NSF funded project to refocus LibQUAL on the
  National Science Digital Library (NSDL)

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Dimensions ofLibrary Service Quality
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22 items
2000 2001 2002 2003
41-items 56-items 25-items 22-items
Affect of Service Affect of Service Service Affect Service Affect
Reliability Library as Place Library as Place Library as Place
Library as Place Reliability Personal Control Information Control
Provision of Physical Collections Self-Reliance Information Access
Access to Information Access to Information
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The Box

• Why the Box is so Important
• About 40 of participants provide open-ended
  comments, and these are linked to demographics
  and quantitative data.
• Users elaborate the details of their concerns.
• Users feel the need to be constructive in their
  criticisms, and offer specific suggestions for
  action.

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Survey Instrument
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alpha By Language
By Language Service Info. Lib as Group n
Affect Control Place TOTAL American
(all) 59,318 .95 .91 .88 .96 British (all)
6,773 .93 .87 .81 .94 French (all)
172 .95 .90 .89 .95
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alpha by University Type
By University Type Service Info. Lib as Group
n Affect Control Place TOTAL Comm Colleges
4,189 .96 .92 .89 .97 4 yr Not ARL 36,430 .95 .91
.88 .96 4 yr, ARL 14,080 .95 .90 .87 .96 Acad
Health 3,263 .95 .92 .90 .96  
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Validity Correlations
Validity Correlations
Serv_Aff Info_Con LibPlace TOTALper Serv_Aff 1.
0000 .7113 .5913 .9061 Info_Con .7113 1.0000
.6495 .9029 LibPlace .5913 .6495 1.0000 .8
053 TOTALper .9061 .9029 .8053 1.0000 ESAT_TO
T .7286 .6761 .5521 .7587 EOUT_TOT .5315 .6
155 .4917 .6250  
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2003 LibQUAL Survey Activity
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Mean Perceived Scores2001/2002 Trend (n34)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesAmerican English
(n 69,449)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryAcademic Law
InstitutionsAmerican English
(n 4,092)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryAcademic Health
SciencesAmerican English
(n 3,664)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryHospitalsAmerican English
(n 1,024)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesUndergraduates American English
(n 37,661)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesGraduates American English
(n 16,750)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesFaculty American English
(n 11,755)
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LibQUAL 2004 SummaryColleges or
UniversitiesStaff American English
(n 3,283)
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Score Norms

• Norm Conversion Tables facilitate the
  interpretation of observed scores using norms
  created for a large and representative sample.
• LibQUAL norms have been created at both the
  individual and institutional level

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Institutional Norms for PerceivedMeans on 25
Core Questions
Note Thompson, B. LibQUAL? Spring 2002 Selected
Norms, (2002).
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LibQUAL InteractiveInstitution Statistics
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LibQUAL InteractiveMulti-Variable Statistics
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Rapid Growth in Other Areas

• Languages
• American English
• British English
• French
• Dutch
• Swedish
• Consortia
• Each may create 5 local questions to add to their
  survey

• Types of Institutions
• Academic Health Sciences
• Academic Law
• Academic Military
• College or University
• Community College
• European Business
• Hospital
• Public
• State
• Countries
• U.S., U.K., Canada, the Netherlands, South
  Africa, Sweden, France, Australia, New Zealand,
  Malaysia

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LibQUAL Participants
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In Closing

• LibQUAL methodology focuses on success from the
  users point of view (outcomes)
• Demonstrates that a web-based survey can handle
  large numbers users are willing to fill it out
  and survey can be executed quickly with minimal
  expense
• LibQUAL requires limited local survey expertise
  and resources
• Analysis available at local and
  inter-institutional levels
• Many opportunities for using demographics to
  discern user behaviors

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LibQUAL Resources

• LibQUAL Website http//www.libqual.org
• Publications http//www.libqual.org/publication
  s
• Events and Training http//www.libqual.org/even
  ts
• LibQUAL Bibliography http//www.coe.tamu.edu/
  bthompson/servqbib
• LibQUAL Procedures Manual http//www.libqual.o
  rg/Information/Manual/index.cfm

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LibQUAL ContactInformation

• Martha Kyrillidou
• Senior Program for Office of Statistics and
  Measurement
• martha_at_arl.org
• Consuella Askew
• LibQUAL Program Specialist
• consuella_at_arl.org
• Amy Hoseth
• LibQUAL Project Assistant
• amyh_at_arl.org
• Jonathan D. Sousa
• Technical Applications Development Manager
• jonathan_at_arl.org