- Title
- Factors affecting the delivery of service quality in academic libraries
- Description
- A SERVQUAL analysis of four New Zealand university libraries to determine if there was any correlation between Gap 1 and Gap 3, and comparison of quality and evaluation procedures in the libraries, that might lead to better Gap 3 scores.
- Status
- complete
- Start date
- January 2002
- Completion date
- June 2003
- Abstract
- The quality service model of Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry defines five gaps or discrepancies which may impinge on service quality: Gap 1, the discrepancy between customers’ expectations and management’s perceptions of these expectations; Gap 2, the discrepancy between management’s perceptions of customers’ expectations and service quality specifications; Gap 3, the discrepancy between service quality specifications and actual service delivery; Gap 4, the discrepancy between actual service delivery and what is communicated to customers about it; and Gap 5, the discrepancy between customer’s expected service and perceived service delivered. The study investigates the discrepancy between the perceptions of library staff about the expectations of customers and the actual expectations of their customers (a formal Gap 1 analysis), and explores a range of factors which might influence an organisation’s ability to respond to and reduce and apparent discrepancies as identified in Gap 1 and Gap 5. These factors include: organisational culture; a culture of assessment in the organization; orientation of the organisation on the Focus/Value/Purpose focus matrix (Cullen, 1997). The investigation was carried out in four New Zealand university libraries by means of two surveys, and subsequent interviews with library managers. The first survey asked library staff about their perceptions of customer expectations of their service, and of their own expectations, questions about the culture of assessment in their library, and their perceptions of the library’s performance on the Focus/Value/Purpose axes. The second survey was a random sample of library users asking them about their expectations of service and perceptions of service delivery, and their perceptions of the library’s performance on the Focus/Value/Purpose axes. Results show considerable differences in results of the Gap 1 and Gap 5 analysis in the various institutions, and between organisational focus on inputs/outputs, and external relations. The hypothesis that institutions with both a stronger customer focus as shown in these organisational factors, and a better Gap 1 result will have a closer fit between customer expectations and perceptions of service delivery (Gap 5) is supported.
- Key Words
- « Electronic Library Service Quality 2004 | Academic Libraries | »,
« Research Register 2003 | Service Quality | »,
« | Management Factors | »,
« | Focus Value Purpose Matrix | »,
« Digitisation Survey 2001 | Survey | Web Site Evaluation 2002 ».
- Publications
- 5th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries; Library and Information Science Research
- Researcher(s)
- Rowena Cullen
Senior Lecturer
Victoria University of Wellington
