- What is the LibQUAL+® survey?
- What does the survey measure?
- How has the survey been promoted?
- How will this survey benefit the University of Lethbridge?
- How and when is the survey being conducted?
- Are the responses confidential?
- What survey instrument is being used?
- What other libraries are participating in LibQUAL+®?
- Do all libraries use the same questions?
- How can I get more information about LibQUAL+®?
1. What is the LibQUAL+® survey?
Service quality has always been a focus of libraries; LibQUAL+® is intended to provide a measure of the value of library service quality across multiple academic and research libraries. The current LibQUAL+® instrument measures library users' perceptions of their libraries' service quality and identifies gaps between minimal, desired, and perceived levels of service.
LibQUAL+® is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality. These services are offered to the library community by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The program's centerpiece is a rigorously tested Web-based survey bundled with training that helps libraries assess and improve library services, change organizational culture, and market the survey. More than 1200 institutions have participated in LibQUAL+®, including colleges and universities, community colleges, health sciences libraries, law libraries, and public libraries—some through various consortia, others as independent participants. LibQUAL+® has also expanded internationally, with participating institutions in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Europe. The growing community of participants and its extensive dataset are rich resources for improving library services.
This is the first time we will be using the LibQUAL+® Lite protocol. The Lite protocol has each respondent answering a sample of the full set of questions in an effort to reduce completion time and increase response rate. For more information on the Lite protocol, visit the ARL LibQUAL+® Project Website.
2. What does the survey measure?
The survey instrument addresses three service quality dimensions that have been found to be valid in previous assessments of library services: Affect of Service, Library as Place, and Information Control. Each question has three parts that ask respondents to indicate:
- the minimum level of service they will accept
- desired level of service they expect
- perceived level of service currently offered
This design will permit analysis of gaps between expectations, perception, and the minimum acceptable level of service.
3. How has the survey been promoted?
The Library has been active in promoting our LibQUAL+® survey on library service quality. In addition to the survey invitations and reminders sent via email, we have displayed posters throughout the Library advertising the survey, published screensavers across the Library's distributed workstations, displayed digital signage across campus, included a brief article in Library Lore (the Library's semiannual newsletter), and posted a notice to the Notice Board and UWeekly. We have also made announcements at faculty councils, sent communications to the ULSU and GSA, and promoted the survey through the Library's social media accounts. If you have other ideas for promoting this survey, please contact the Library Assessment Team.
4. How will this survey benefit the University of Lethbridge?
As a participant in LibQUAL+® 2020, the University of Lethbridge Library will implement the measurement tool, analyze results, identify both service strengths and areas needing improvement, and utilize this information in future planning for library services to ensure that our services are closely aligned with user expectations. LibQUAL+® results will enable comparison of service quality with peer institutions, development of performance indicators, and understanding of best practices across institutions. In addition to the broad aggregated results for the University as a whole, the Library will be reviewing the results by disciplinary area for the information and use of the different subject liaison librarians, the objective being to understand more clearly the differing needs of the University by discipline.
5. How and when is the survey being conducted?
We have selected a random sample of undergraduate email addresses and have gathered all of the email addresses for faculty and graduate students. On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, these individuals will receive an invitation from Chris Nicol, University Librarian, explaining why this is a university initiative and inviting them to complete the survey. Reminders will be sent periodically during the survey period to encourage maximum participation.
The data for participating libraries will be collected on secure servers located at the Texas A&M University Library. Each response will be stored separately as it reaches the server. Survey results will ultimately be reported back to the participating institutions as aggregated mean score data.
6. Are the responses confidential?
Yes. The LibQUAL+® approach to confidentiality is guided by the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association (see: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html). Although some information is captured from respondents, such as network and email address, privacy is protected in two ways. First, only very indirect information is captured, which would be difficult to trace back to an individual. Second, everything possible is done to separate personal information from survey responses. Email addresses submitted are saved separately from the survey responses; there is no way to link an individual's response to their email address, assuring confidentiality when entering the incentive draw. After the draw, the email and network addresses are discarded.
The survey is straightforward and involves no deception or coercion. Potential respondents may elect not to proceed with the survey after reading the guarantees of confidentiality and privacy.
7. What survey instrument is being used?
The LibQUAL+® survey evolved from a conceptual model based on the ServQUAL instrument, a popular tool for assessing service quality in the private sector and one grounded in the "Gap Theory of Service Quality." It was developed by Leonard L. Berry (Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University), A. Parasuraman, and Valarie A. Zeithaml. The Texas A&M University Libraries and other libraries used the modified ServQUAL instrument for several years. Those applications revealed the need for a newly adapted tool that would serve the particular requirements of libraries. From 1999, 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 U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).
8. What other libraries are participating in LibQUAL+®?
9. Do all libraries use the same questions?
All libraries participating in the 2020 LibQUAL+® survey on library service quality will use the same 22 core questions and demographic questions. In addition, each library may select 5 questions from a list of optional questions. The University of Lethbridge has selected optional questions pertaining to users’ perceptions of information literacy efforts, safety, inclusivity, and the provision of innovative technologies.
10. How can I get more information about LibQUAL+®?
For more detailed information, visit the Association of Research Libraries' LibQUAL+® Project Website or contact the Library Assessment Team.