Assessment of Service Quality using LibQUAL+ Three ...

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Vision 2020: Sustainable Growth, Economic Development, and Global Competitiveness

Assessment of Service Quality using LibQUAL+ Three Key Dimensions Tool at Public Libraries in Klang Valley, Malaysia Nadiah Akmal Kamaruddin, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Malaysia, [email protected] Mohammad Fazli Baharuddin, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Malaysia, [email protected] Mohd Yusof Mustaffar, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Malaysia, [email protected]

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to measure the library service quality dimensions based on user's perceptions and expectations at public libraries in Klang Valley, Malaysia. This paper uses the survey method in order to collect quantitative data and then, the LibQUAL+ dimensions used to identify the user perceptions and user expectation on service quality in Public Library in Klang Valley area. Referred to the open ended question, most of the respondents were requested library to have more on reference collections, up-to-date collections, expanding the reading area and extending library hours. The result shows the librarian less understands the user needs. Therefore, it is important for the librarian to understand what the user needs is so that the desired needs will be met. This paper contributes towards the service provided by the libraries which focus on the overall significant of the study including help the management to identify its strengths and weaknesses of the organization. It can also identify its position whether user perceptions and user expectations meet and fulfill the user needs and satisfy in what they want. Keywords: User Perception, User Expectation, Service Quality, Public Library, LibQUAL+, SERVQUAL

Introduction A public library plays an important role as center of education, information and knowledge. As a result, a public library must serve the community’s good quality service in order to improve the user satisfaction in the library. To achieve a good quality of service therefore researcher attempt to measured the library services by using LibQUAL+ instrument in a public library, by reviewing research literature written by other researchers that could helps to seek evidence into this current study. According to Hernon and Whitman (2001) service quality is typically defined in term of gap analysis, or the gap between customers' expectations in general (for an ideal library and its services) and those perceptions relating to the particular library and its services. The primary focus on a library is its services. In other words of service quality is the gap between customer expectations towards services of public library in general and those perceptions of the services offered by a particular public library. The library goal in any libraries is to maximize user satisfaction and to exceed expectations. According to Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1998), user-based approach to conceptualize and measure service quality suggest intriguing alternative to view and measure the quality of library services. They identified five dimensions with which user judge services based on the work of Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2000) which are reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. The dimensions are known as SERVQUAL whereby it is widely used by many of organizations. According to Ladhari and Morales (2008) this is measurement instrument based on SERVQUAL, a service quality assessment instrument widely used by researchers and practitioners since 1988. Although there are other dimensions which are more focus to the library service quality known as LibQUAL+. The LibQUAL+ was developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in collaboration with the Texas A&M University Libraries (TAMU). It measure library users'


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perceptions of service quality and identifies gaps between desired, perceived and minimum expectations of service. There are three dimensions of LibQUAL+ 2004 are affect of services, information control and library as place. Thus, this study aim to measure the library service quality dimensions (affect of service, information control, library as place) on user's perceptions and expectations at the public libraries in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

Statement of the Problem The most important aspect in business or organization is quality. According to Lidia et al. (2005) the quality of a library is defined and assessed from a perspective of different groups of people. Quality need to be measured in the library in order to evaluate the service performance of each individual. One of good examples to measuring the service quality is from Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1998) conceptual model reducing gap between customer expectations and perceptions and a measurement instrument SERVQUAL based on five service quality dimensions such tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Nitecki 1995, Hernon 2002, Nitecki 1996). SERVQUAL was widely adapted among many libraries in different countries. In year 2004, there are one instrument called LibQUAL+ project and Web-based survey to define and measure library service quality across institutions and to create useful quality-assessment tools for the library evaluation from the user’s point of view. Thus, the study attempted to use LibQUAL+ survey instruments tool as an indicator to measure the library service quality in public libraries at Klang Valley, Malaysia. The reason researcher select this instrument is to assess the various aspects of library’s service quality on their performance. The LibQUAL+ involves three key dimensions which are focusing in the library sector. The services that were provided by the public libraries still need to be improved in order to meet the user perceived the service and help to determine the user’s satisfaction for quality library service. The finding of the study would contributes towards the service provided by the library which focus on the overall significant of the study includes the three dimensions of LibQUAL+ which are affect of service, information control and library as place.

Objectives There are four objectives in this study as follows: 1.

To identify the user's perceptions and expectations on the affect of service in Klang Valley public libraries.

2.

To identify the user's perceptions and expectations on the information control in Klang Valley public libraries.

3.

To identify the user's perceptions and expectations on the library as place in Klang Valley public libraries.

To measure user's perceptions and expectations on service quality in Klang Valley public libraries.

Theoretical Framework Many studies were conducted on the topic on service quality in any libraries. The services that were provided by the public libraries still need to be improved to fulfill the user’s satisfaction. Based on the previous studies on the library service quality, LibQUAL+ survey have been used as the indicator to measure the library performance on service quality. According to Nadjla and Farideh (2008), LibQUAL+ has been developed through a partnership between the Association of Research Libraries (ALA) and the Texas A&M University (TAMU) for assessing service quality from the library user

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perspective. The instrument is adapted from an instrument called SERVQUAL which is developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1991, 1994) in the gap theory of service quality. There are three key dimensions involves in LibQUAL+: affect of service, information control, and library as place.

Figure 1: Theoretical Framework Based on the diagram, it provides a greater and clear view of flow of the study which there are includes three library service quality dimensions such affect of service, information control, and library as place as suggested by the Association of Research Libraries (ALA) and the Texas A&M University (TAMU). This dimensions known as an independent variables and be the main indicators in measuring the library survey. Each of dimensions provides different specific criteria of services. The discrepancy of the user expectations (prior to service delivery) for a service offering by the library and the user perceptions of the service that they had received known as results. A positive relationship results between three dimensions affects the user perceptions and expectations as dependent variables. It is the best model to evaluate the user perceptions and expectations in library. It is generally agreed that expectations are consumer defined probabilities of the occurrence of positive and negative events if the consumer engages in some behavior. In contrast, expectations are viewed as desires or wants of users such example what they feel a service should offer rather than would offer. Understanding exactly what customers expect is the most crucial step in defining and delivering high quality service (Parasuraman et al., 1990, 1996). Perceived service quality is a widely studied construct (Parasuraman et al., 1988 Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Asubonteng et al., 1996). Perceived service quality is defined as the customer’s assessment of the overall superiority or excellence of the service (Parasuraman, 1988). According to Parasuraman et al. (1985) the customer’s assessment of overall service quality depends on the gap between expectations and perceptions of actual performance levels. Service quality is therefore as a function of the gap between perceived service and expected service. Parasuraman et al. (1988) found perceive service quality and perceived value play important roles in industries with high customer involvement. Therefore, it is important to identify dimensions to constructs correctly and to find out how the constructs are perceived by customers (Parasuraman et al., 1990). The results of what is the user expect and percept towards the service offerings can be used as evidence in compelling case to the upper-level administrators in order to improve the usage and performance of library. Therefore, the upper-level should think strategically to make the library become more functional, interesting and attractive for the user.


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Elements of the Dimensions in LibQUAL+ LibQUAL+ is a survey instrument for the library context that assesses service quality across the dimensions. Thus, the elements of each dimension include are: First, Affect of Service consists of three service dimensions which have been identified by SERVQUAL. Assurance; the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey confidence and trust; Empathy, the caring, individualized attention provided to customers by employees; and Responsiveness, the ready willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. It concerned with the human dimension of service quality. How well users are served and treated by library staff. Such as: employees instilling confidence in users, employees giving users individual attention, employees being consistently courteous, employees being ready to respond to users’ questions, employees having the knowledge to answer users’ questions, employees dealing with users in a caring fashion and others. Second, Information Control is where the collections are enough to serve the users. There must be no barrier for the user to access for information when they needs. A rich array of full-text deliverable to the desktop, strong local collections available in easy-to-reach physical locations, and timely access to distant resources through effective document delivery are all components to the Access to Information Dimension. It concerned with the ability to navigate the information universe. How well the collections; both, print and electronic, support learning, teaching and research; and how easy it is to locate and access the needed materials. Such as: a library web site enabling user to locate information on his/her own, modern equipment that lets user easily access needed information, easyto-use access tools that allow user to find things on his/her own, making information easily accessible for independent use. Lastly, Library as Place is reflecting of a concept of the Tangibles dimension in SERVQUAL. The original concept had defined the appearance of physical facilities, equipment personnel and communication materials. The concept of Library as Place assesses the ability to meet community requirement. It focuses on how well a library meets the individual needs of users who look for a place to do research and study. Such as: quiet space for individual activities, library space that inspires study and learning, a comfortable and inviting location, community space for study and need for collaboration or communicate with others. Table 1: Elements of Dimensions No

Dimensions

1

Affect of Service

2

Information Control

3

Library as Place

Elements • The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey confidence and trust. • The caring, individualized attention provided to customers by employees. • The ready willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. • The collections are enough to serve the users. • A rich array of full-text deliverable to the desktop, strong local collections available in easy-to-reach physical locations, and timely access to distant resources through effective document delivery. • The appearance of physical facilities, equipment personnel and communication materials. • The ability to meet community requirements space for study and need for collaboration or communicate with others.

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Significance of the Study This study has its significance to these groups such as the library organization, other types of libraries, researcher, students and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). As for the library organization, this study is very important and beneficial to the management of the public libraries in Klang Valley. It may help the management to identify its strengths and weaknesses of the organization. The public libraries are able to make some changes and improvements toward the organization in the future. It can also identify its position whether user perceptions and user expectations meet and fulfill the user needs and satisfy in what they want. Other types of libraries such as school, academic and special library get benefit by using this study as a reference and as an indicator. This study may help those libraries to develop and improve user satisfaction and provide better service to the user. In directly, it gives information regarding on the public library’s current issues that it faced.

Methodology In this study, the data has been collected among users of the public libraries in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In order to get the data, there are two libraries being selected which are Petaling Jaya Community Library (PJCL) and Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library (SJHL). In this study used the survey method in order to collect quantitative data. Therefore, questionnaire has been used to obtain the information by questioning a few questions to the respondents. Respondents has been asked about variety of questions including about their demographic and the LibQUAL+ dimensions to identify the user's perceptions and expectations on the dimension of library service quality. The questionnaire was distributed direct to the user who used the Petaling Jaya Community Library (PJCL) and Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library (SJHL) at that particular time. This situation called accidental sampling which the researcher has used it. It is type of non-probability sampling which attempts to obtain a sample that accidentally distributed. A total sample of 200 questionnaires has been distributed to library users in the selected library. Each library received a total of 100 questionnaires. Besides, in order to avoid ambiguity among the questions, instructions were given to every part on how to complete the questionnaire. It contains 22 closed-ended questions referring to different aspects of LibQUAL+ dimensions in public library and one open-ended question to identify the user expectation for the future library development. In this study, researcher adapted all the 22 closed-ended questions to be put in the questionnaire. The questions are designed to solicit responses on a five-point Likert scale to identify the respondents’ perception and expectation on library service quality. Respondents replying to these questions was indicate in the scale from 1 (“very low”), 2 (“low”), 3 (“fair”), 4 (“good”) and 5 (“very good”) for assessing their perception and expectation of each service indicator. The questionnaires were pre-tested and a pilot study was conducted by distributing the questionnaires to 44 library users at Petaling Jaya Community Library (PJCL) before they were distributed to the total population of 200 (N = 200). The actual respondents of this research were selected among library users from two public libraries in Klang Valley of Malaysia. The response rate was 80.5% with 161 returns (n = 161). Data Analysis After distribute questionnaire, the collection of data need to be collect from the respondents. The data has been gathered and analyzed. To gathered the data, first researcher need to check the accuracy of the questionnaire before the data be analyzed. Finally, once the data are organized, the researcher interpreting the findings and converting the data into information. Data analysis involved in this study was used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. There are three fundamental purposes to analyzed data such as cross-tabulation, descriptive statistics and pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the users’ perceptions and expectations on public libraries in Klang Valley, Malaysia.


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Findings In this part, collected data was first considered from a descriptive statistics point of view and then analyzed by statistical tests. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed among the users at the Petaling Jaya Community Library (PJCL) and Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library (SJHL). Out of 200 (N = 200) questionnaires, each of libraries received 100 questionnaires.

Table 2: Distribution and Response Rate

Number of questionnaires Public Library

Response rate Distributed

Returned

Petaling Jaya Community Library

100

97

97%

Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library

100

64

64%

Total

200

161

80.5%

There are 161 (n = 161) responses were returned the questionnaire as illustrated in Table 2. This represents an effective response rate of around 80.5% of the total sample. Researcher received 97 responses from users in Petaling Jaya Community Library (rate of around 97%) and 64 responses from users in Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library (rate of around 64%) out of the total 100 questionnaires in each library.

Table 3: Mean Scores on Affect of Service Dimension Descriptive Statistics Petaling Jaya Community Library Dimen sion

Affect of Servic e

Perception

Item N


Expectation

N

Mea n

SD

Res ult

Me an

SD

Resul t

Perception

Expectation

Mea n

SD

Res ult

Mea n

SD

Resul t

Staff instill confidence

9 7

3.36

0.7 7

Goo d

3.9 6

0.8 2

Good

64

3.44

0.94

Goo d

4.14

0.8 7

Very Good

Staff readiness to respond

9 7

3.32

1.0 5

Goo d

3.9 4

1.0 2

Good

64

3.64

0.93

Goo d

4.17

0.8 8

Very Good

Staff willingness to help

9 7

3.46

1.0 0

Goo d

3.9 7

1.0 6

Good

64

3.70

0.90

Goo d

4.17

0.8 7

Very Good

9 7

3.32

0.9 4

Goo d

3.9 2

0.8 9

Good

64

3.42

1.02

Goo d

4.02

1.0 5

Very Good

Staff handling

286


problems Staff giving attention

9 7

3.18

1.0 1

Goo d

3.9 1

0.9 1

Good

64

3.17

1.06

Goo d

3.98

0.9 7

Good

Staff have knowledge

9 7

3.12

0.9 5

Goo d

3.9 6

1.0 6

Good

64

3.31

0.97

Goo d

4.12

0.9 5

Very Good

Staff courteous

9 7

3.39

0.9 6

Goo d

4.0 7

1.0 1

Very Good

64

3.78

0.90

Goo d

4.28

0.8 8

Very Good

Staff deal in caring fashion

9 7

3.28

1.0 9

Goo d

4.0 0

1.0 2

Very Good

64

3.67

0.93

Goo d

4.25

0.9 3

Very Good

Staff understand user needs

9 7

3.08

0.9 7

Goo d

3.9 3

0.9 8

Good

64

3.28

1.02

Goo d

3.98

0.9 5

Good

Table 3 shows the users' perceptions and expectations at both libraries for Affect of Service dimension survey results. The highest mean rate scores for users' perceptions at Petaling Jaya Community Library were 3.46 with rate 1.00 standard deviation where this result inclined to Good result. The item for this result is shown as "Staff willingness to help". The lowest result shown in the same library was rating 3.08 in the item "Staff understands user needs". However, the high score for users' expectations toward this library and Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library was indicated 4.07 inclined to Very Good and 3.78 inclined to Good respectively for the item "Staff courteous". The low expectations for Petaling Jaya Community Library was 3.91 "Staff giving attention" therefore same as in the Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library indicated 3.98 and the perceptions was 3.17 which it is the lowest in rating. The lowest rating in expectation 3.98 has indicated two results which the other result stated in item "Staff understands user needs". Finally, large proportion users rated for both libraries at Klang Valley on affect of service as a Good in their perceptions. Table 4: Mean Scores on Information Control Dimension Descriptive Statistics Petaling Jaya Community Library Dimensio n

Informati on Control

Perception

Item N


Expectation

Perception

Me an

SD

Res ult

Mea n

SD

Resul t

N

Expectation

Mea n

SD

Res ult

Me an

SD

Resul t

Availabilit y printed/ele ctronic journal

9 7

3.5 2

1.0 4

Go od

4.23

0.87

Very Good

64

3.11

1.1 0

Goo d

3.9 8

0.9 7

Good

Availabilit y printed collections

9 7

3.4 8

1.0 3

Go od

4.27

0.81

Very Good

64

3.08

1.0 3

Goo d

4.0 2

0.8 6

Very Good


287

Availabilit y electronic collections

9 7

3.3 6

0.8 4

Go od

4.08

0.89

Very Good

64

3.16

1.1 0

Goo d

4.1 4

0.9 4

Very Good

Easy use access tools

9 7

3.6 1

1.0 2

Go od

4.24

0.86

Very Good

64

3.36

1.1 9

Goo d

4.2 0

0.9 1

Very Good

Library website have informatio n needed

9 7

3.4 5

0.9 9

Go od

4.18

0.90

Very Good

64

3.05

1.2 0

Goo d

3.9 2

1.0 3

Good

Library have modern equipment

9 7

3.3 6

0.9 5

Go od

4.10

0.91

Very Good

64

3.28

1.2 3

Goo d

4.0 5

0.9 7

Very Good

Informatio n easily accessible

9 7

3.4 3

0.9 1

Go od

4.04

0.84

Very Good

64

3.25

1.0 7

Goo d

4.1 3

0.9 7

Very Good

Electronic resources accessible

9 7

3.2 4

1.0 0

Go od

4.02

0.94

Very Good

64

3.06

1.2 5

Goo d

4.0 8

1.0 0

Very Good

Table 4 illustrated the highest users' perceptions mean for Information Control dimension at Petaling Jaya Community Library and Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library are in the same item "Easy use access tools" which indicated 3.61 and 3.36 inclined into Good result respectively. However, high score in the users' expectations stated in the same item which indicated 4.20 inclined to Very Good. The low perceptions rated by the users in the Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library is in item "Availability printed collections" indicated rating score was 3.08 and low in expectation being rated as 4.02. Differ from Petaling Jaya Community Library where the users rated the high score in the expectation on the same item, 4.27 which is inclined to Very Good. In other results, there are low rated in users' perceptions and expectations toward the Petaling Jaya Community Library for the item "Electronic resources accessible" in rating score being 3.24 and 4.02. Finally, overall number of users' perceptions rated on Information Control as Good but high in their expectations on this dimension.

288


Table 5: Mean Scores on Library as Place Dimension Descriptive Statistics Petaling Jaya Community Library Dimensi on

Perception

Item N


Expectation

Me an

SD

Resu lt

Me an

97

3.7 0

1.0 9

Goo d

4.4 1

97

3.9 3

0.8 9

Goo d

4.4 8

97

4.2 5

0.8 9

Very Goo d

97

4.1 3

0.8 9

97

4.0 0

0.9 7

Perception N

SD

Resul t

Me an

0.84

Very Good

6 4

4.1 9

0.78

Very Good

6 4

4.2 2

SD

Res ult

Mea n

SD

Result

0.85

Ver y Goo d

4.44

0.85

Very Good

0.85

Ver y Goo d

4.44

0.83

Very Good

4.5 7

0.79

Very Good

6 4

4.0 5

0.81

Ver y Goo d

4.44

0.79

Very Good

Very Goo d

4.5 4

0.82

Very Good

6 4

3.9 4

0.94

Goo d

4.34

0.88

Very Good

Very Goo d

4.4 8

0.81

Very Good

6 4

3.8 4

1.00

Goo d

4.38

0.81

Very Good

Quite space

Comfortable space Library as Place Inspires study Community space Gateway study

for

Expectation

Table 5 shows the mean scores for Library as Place dimension. In Petaling Jaya Community Library, the lowest users' perceptions and expectations rated was 3.70 and 4.41 for the item "Quite space" however, the highest users' perceptions and expectations indicated for the item "Inspires study" was 4.25 and 4.57 inclined to Very Good in its results. Item for "Comfortable space" has been rated by the users at Subang Jaya Hypermedia Library with the highest score in their perceptions and expectations toward the library, 4.22 and 4.44 which are inclined to Very Good results. The same score results in the users expectations rating was 4.44 for the items "Quite space" and "Inspires study". While for the lowest rating was 3.84 in users’ perception at the item “Gateway for study” and 4.34 is users expectations rated at the item "Community space". Finally, most of the users at both libraries indicated as Very Good results on the Library as Place dimension.

Discussion and Conclusion The study attempt to measure the library service quality on user's perceptions and expectations in selected public libraries at Klang Valley, Malaysia using the LibQUAL+ three dimensions: affect of service, information control, and library as place.


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Affect of Service In this study was found the lowest rate on user’s perception at the PJCL is on item "Library staff who understands the needs of their users" which the mean score was indicated 3.08 and the same level of minimum results for the SJHL. In fact, at the overall results shows this is the lowest item rated. Referred to the open ended question for the PJCL, most of the respondents requested to have more on reference collections, up-to-date collections, expanding the reading area and extending library hours. The result shows the librarian less understands the user needs. These responds reflected to the others dimensions as well. Therefore, it is important for the librarian to understand what the user needs is so that the desired needs will be met. Other overall items that near to the lowest level are "Giving users individual attention" and "Library staff who have the knowledge to answer user questions" which indicated 3.17 and 3.20 respectively. The highest rate on users perceptions can be seen at the item "Willingness to help users" was 3.56. This shows that the librarians are in good rated merely to very good results. Further, both libraries get the high expectation on public libraries at Klang Valley from the respondents for the item "Staff courteous" and the SJHL performed well with rated 3.78 where the highest rate is referred to this item although there are two out of 112 negative comments found in this item but this is not reflected the results. It shows the staff attitude is good.

Information Control The result in this study is due to the increasing of the international phenomenon, users preferred to access the information outside the library. Both libraries have their own website where they state the basic information about the library but they does not provided electronic resources services in the website such as electronic journal, online database and electronic book. Therefore, the ability of library to provide electronic resources through website is needed. This finding supported by Kayongo and Jones (2008), considering the growing importance of electronic resources to today’s library users and the clear call from users for more journals in electronic format. Other researchers found by Kyrillidou and Persson (2006), the information control dimension which is the most important to the users and that Lund Institute of Technology (LTH) libraries are not fulfilling their users’ needs in this dimension. This dimension shows the highest rate of users perceptions and expectations in items "Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my own". This result indicated that what the user perceived and expected is high mean that users in both libraries provide the good access tools such OPAC and clear sign to the collections.

Library as Place In this study, this is the highest and strong dimension. Pearson correlation coefficient has been used to test the dimension indicated 0.441. In overall mean shows on the highest user perceptions and expectations on item "Library space that inspires study and learning", the result was 4.17 and 4.52. Meaning that, the libraries are allowed the users to use their place in their learning process. Both libraries actively educate the users by organizing the activities such in the PJCL, every week they had schedule their movie shows and every month they had planned the library activities such as story telling, selling sand art, colouring contest and others. This is the ways for the library to allowed and encourage the users to come to the library continuously. In the SJHL, every Sunday the library had scheduled the interval programs which are story telling and craft class for the children. These programs really educate the users especially for the young children in their learning process and at the same time having a fun. Although, the lowest result was found in the users perceptions and expectations which is on item "Quite space for individual activities" and the rating was indicated 3.89. Five over 167 negative comments found in open ended question, where both libraries are too noisy. After the morning school hour session, there are a lot of students coming to the PJCL and they made a noise. While in the

290


SJHL, the library building is shared with the primary private school. The students volume can be hear inside the library and this disturbed the user’s concentration on their reading. Based on the results of three dimensions can be concluded that the quality of a service that is not only depends on the service provided, but it also depends on other factors as discussed above. Information control and information as place also play important factors in order to increase service quality in a library. Based on the study, libraries need to improve in many things especially in providing library collection. This is because based on the result, library users responded that the most library collection is outdated and it will give some difficulties to the users to find updated information. Furthermore, it will create a bad perception on quality service of the library.

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