Library Quality Assessment NCES Summer Data Conference July 25, 2002 Martha Kyrillidou, Julia Blixrud, Consuella Askew Waller Project web site

Opportunities and Pressures Increasing demand for libraries to demonstrate outcomes/impacts in areas of importance to institution Increasing pressure to maximize use of resources through benchmarking resulting in: –Cost savings –Reallocation

Antecedents Effective service delivery –“every unit … is valued in proportion to its contribution to the quality success of the campus” Danuta Nitecki

Why New Measures  Increased customer and stakeholder expectations  Greater demands for accountability  Exploding growth in use and applications of technology  Increasing competition for resources  Need for reliable and valid data –Benchmarking and best practice –Trends over time

ARL New Measures Initiative  Collaboration among member leaders with strong interest in this area  Specific projects developed with different models for exploration  Projects self-funded by interested members  Intent to make resulting tools and methodologies available to full membership and wider community  Freeze modifications to existing descriptive measures

LibQUAL+™ Description LibQUAL+ TM is a research and development project undertaken to define and measure library service quality across institutions and to create useful quality-assessment tools for local planning.

 To fill a knowledge void in modeling the dimensions of library service quality from a user perspective  Based upon the model, to develop a web- delivered, effective total market survey instrument equivalent for service quality assessment in academic libraries  Using the derived instrument to recommend a process for an ongoing program of comparative outcome measurement for academic libraries The Purpose of the Research

Project Resources LibQUAL+ TM is an ARL/Texas A&M University joint effort. The project is supported in part by a 3-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).

Relationships: Perceptions, Service Quality and Satisfaction ….only customers judge quality; all other judgments are essentially irrelevant” Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry. (1999). Delivering quality service. NY: The Free Press.

LibQUAL+™ Project Goals Establishment of a library service quality assessment program at ARL Development of web-based tools for assessing library service quality Development of mechanisms and protocols for evaluating libraries Identification of best practices in providing library service

Process Overview

Dimensions of Library Service Quality

Survey Dimensions Access to Information Information AccessSelf RelianceProvision of Physical Collections Personal ControlReliabilityLibrary as Place Reliability Service AffectAffect of Service Spring 2002 (25-Item Survey) Spring 2001 (56-Item Survey) Spring 2000 (41-Item Survey)

LibQUAL+ TM Participants Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Spring 2001Spring 2000 Spring Participants 43 Participants 164 Participants

Process Timeline August 2002 Gather information about LibQUAL+ TM survey Determine if have appropriate resources Identify budgetary requirements if any September 2002 Register for LibQUAL+ TM related workshops Identify and initiate steps to obtain human subjects research approval from IRB October – December 2002June/July 2002 Register for Spring 2003 survey Subscribe to ARL- QUALITY listserv Designate survey liaison/committee/project team Identify sample groups Identify best data source to obtain valid addresses for sample groups Meet with person(s) who will be drawing addresses to determine process feasibility Register for LibQUAL+ TM related workshops

Process Timeline January 2003 Need to have IRB approval by mid- January January 27-28, orientation session for participating libraries held during ALA Midwinter, Phildelphia, PA Attendance is required! Complete online demographics questionnaire Preview survey turned on Draw final address samples Spring 2003 survey open to public. Send out survey announcements Spring 2003 survey closed to public Participants complete online post hoc survey February 2003March-April 2003May 2003June 2003 Survey results distributed July 2003 LibQUAL+ TM evaluation questionnaire sent to participants

Sample Survey

Sample Survey…continued

Project Deliverables Print and web-based results include: –Aggregate Summaries –Demographics by Library –Item Summaries –Dimension Summaries –A copy of the survey instrument –Dimensions measured for survey implementation

Surveys Completed Spring 2002

LibQUAL+ Assessment Survey Aggregate (All Ranks) (All) Aggregate (All Ranks) Texas A&M University

Interpretation Frameworks Zone of tolerance Score norms

Technology Approach Reduced HTML requirements 2 load-balanced web/application server connected to 1 database Software use: ColdFusion, IIS webserver, SQL server, and Windows Advanced Server 2000

The Future: LibQUAL+

LibQUAL+ TM Brief History Experience with SERVQUAL in many libraries over the last 15 years Texas A&M SERVQUAL assessment New Measures Initiative called a meeting of interested ARL libraries (ALA Midwinter 2000) External funding through FIPSE, U.S. Department of Education (September 2000) Consortia and related associations participation Expressed interest by another 150 institutions for spring 2003 International Interest Other sectors outside higher education

Emergence of Consensus Antecedents Credibility Collaboration Tangibility Dissemination Evaluation External Validation Looking Forward: Maintenance of Consensus

Maintenance of Consensus Balance central control with local autonomy Issues of confidentiality/anonymity vs. desires for longitudinal study Normative issues/Best practices vs. “ranking” Long-term sustainability

Additional Information Visit the LibQUAL+ TM Web Page: old.libqual.org