Assessing the quality of services at an academic library

Abstract

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.

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