Questioning LibQUAL+: Critiquing its Assessment of Academic Library Effectiveness

Edgar, Bill Questioning LibQUAL+: Critiquing its Assessment of Academic Library Effectiveness., 2006 . In 69th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), Austin (US), 3-8 November 2006. [Conference paper]

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English abstract

Advertised as a total market survey of an academic library’s users, LibQUAL+ has risen to prominence in recent years as a means of assessing academic library effectiveness. In light of this, this conceptual paper raises and addresses four questions arising from its survey instrument. Doing so reveals that LibQUAL+ only partially conceptualizes a library’s operations. Furthermore, it emphasizes users’ eventual outcomes, such as improved grades, but does not explicitly conceptualize users’ more immediate need for epistemological value in the form of information, education, or persuasion. Finally, LibQUAL+’s survey correctly emphasizes the role of user self-reliance and satisfaction, but it unduly deemphasizes users’ need for professional information assistance and their actual experience of quality library service.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: library surveys ; user surveys ; library effectiveness ; library assessment
Subjects: A. Theoretical and general aspects of libraries and information.
C. Users, literacy and reading. > CB. User studies.
Depositing user: Norm Medeiros
Date deposited: 19 Dec 2006
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:05
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/8648

References

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