The LibQUAL+ Survey protocol
LibQUAL+ is a rigorously tested web-based survey that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality. LibQUAL+ is offered to the library community by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
The LibQUAL+ survey evolved from a conceptual model based on the SERVQUAL instrument, a popular tool for assessing service quality in the private sector. The Texas A&M University Libraries and other libraries used modified SERVQUAL instruments for several years; those applications revealed the need for a newly adapted tool that would serve the particular requirements of libraries. ARL, representing the largest research libraries in North America, partnered with Texas A&M University Libraries to develop, test, and refine LibQUAL+. This effort was supported in part by a three-year grant from the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).
What LibQUAL+ measures
The LibQUAL+ survey consists of '35 questions and a box'. It measures users' minimum, perceived and desired levels of service quality and identifies the gaps between them. It also incorporates a comments box that is a rich source of qualitative feedback.
The core 22 survey questions address three service quality dimensions:
- Service attitude of staff (eg responsiveness, understanding, courtesy)
- Library as a place (eg environment, quiet study space, group study space)
- Access to information (eg books, journals, electronic resources)
Each question has three parts that ask respondents to indicate on a scale of 1 to 9:
- The number that represents the minimum level of service that they would find acceptable.
- The number that represents the desired level of service that they personally want.
- The number that represents the level of service that they believe the library currently provides.
Thus LibQUAL helps us see where our services are below the minimum acceptable level, where they are better than the minimum, but less than the desired level, and where they match or exceed desired levels of service.
The survey contains additional items that address information literacy outcomes, library use, and general satisfaction.
How long the survey takes
We are using the LibQUAL Lite protocol. This uses item sampling methods to gather data on all LibQUAL+ questions, while only requiring a given individual user to respond to a subset of the questions. This means that the survey takes, on average, less than 10 minutes to complete.
Why we are using the LibQUAL+ protocol for our Reader Survey
More than 1,200 libraries have participated in LibQUAL+, with participating institutions in Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe. The growing LibQUAL+ community of participants and its extensive dataset are rich resources for improving library services.
Using the LibQUAL+ survey tool allows us to compare our service quality with other peer institutions, to develop benchmarks, and to see how our performance has changed over time.
