Perceptions of Pakistani users about library service quality: libqual comments.
Rehman, Shafiq Ur
Introduction and Literature Review
There are at least eleven ways to listen the customers:
transactional surveys, mystery shopping, new declining and lost customer
surveys, focus group interviews, customer advisory panels, service
reviews, customer complaint, comment, inquiry capture, total market
surveys, employee field reporting, employee surveys and service
operating data capture (Parasuraman as cited in Cook, Heath, Thompson,
& Thompson, 2001).The French writer Francois de la Rochefoucauld
said that "Il est plus necessaire d'etudier les hommes que les
livres" (It is more important to study people than books).The
LibQUAL qualitative comments provide very rich information on
user's perception about library service quality. It gives unique
opportunity for participating libraries to compare the users'
perception through mix methods. Thompson, Kyrillidou, and Cook (2007)
noted that about 40% of the LibQUAL respondents provide open-ended
comments. These comments often indicate weak and strong areas of library
service quality and library administration can use these comments and
suggestions for improvement of their services.
Begay, Lee, Marti,n & Ray (2004) emphasized the use of
open-ended comments. These comments provide additional rich source of
information for future planning to meet the needs of user community. The
open-ended comments are also helpful for refinement of instrument and
increase in response rate. With these comments users can provide their
problem and concerns for all relevant issues. Different qualitative data
analysis software such as Atlas.ti, NU*DIST, Nvivo and Excel are
available to analyse the open ended comment. The University of Idaho
used Atlas.ti software (Jankowska, Hertel, & Young, 2006) and
University of Arizona used NU*DIST software to code comments (Begay, et
al., 2004). The LibQUAL website publication section
(http://www.libqual.org/publications) enlisted some articles, how
participating libraries analyzed their user s'comments.
The University of Arizona (Begay, et al., 2004) analyzed the 303
open ended comments provided by LibQUAL 2002 Survey participants. The
close examination of comments resulted in three broad categories: access
(n=290), services (n=161) and environment (n=156). The access comes up
as major and environment as a least concern to library users. The
comments related to access included: electronic access, suggestions for
access, access to journals, access to print collection and organization
of access. Most of comments were from graduates and undergraduate
students and only a few were from faculty.
The second largest category of comments were related to services
(n=161).The most of comments were related to staff services, competency
for services and interlibrary loan services. The lowest numbers of
comments were about environment category (156). The most of environment
related comments were about noise, hours and study rooms. The 77% of
comments were positive (related to staff competency) and 17% of the
comments were negative. The negative comments were mostly about
part-time student staff. Majority of comments were provided by graduate
students. There were correlation between users' perception of staff
competencies and satisfaction with services they received at their
university library. A relationship was also noted between users'
expectations and their perceptions of service quality. The University of
Arizona library used these open ended comments to gauge the users'
information need and planed new services, strategies to fulfill these
needs.
The analysis of users comments at Vanderbilt Library (Wilson, 2004)
revealed that out of 934 surveys completed, 380 respondents provided 650
discrete observations: 428 comments were critical and 232 were positive.
Of the 428 negative comments, 129 related to the library building and
162 to Information Control (IC). Out of 232 positive comments, 97 were
related to Affect of Service (AS) area. This qualitative data supported
previous concerns depicted through quantitative studies (mostly in North
America) that users considered information control as a critical area.
The W.E.B. Du Bois library of University of Massachusetts Amherst
(Rodriquez, 2007) analyzed the open ended comments of 2007 LibQUAL
survey through Nvivo software. Comments were made by graduate and
undergraduate students, library staff and faculty. Most of the comments
were related to staff and services, the catalog and learning commons.
The analysis of 600 comments revealed that all user groups admired the
library staff and services and learning commons. The major criticism was
about the online catalog. The most frequent suggestions were: less
noise, expand wireless internet connections, need more photocopiers and
catalog terminals, more space for quiet and group learning, more
electronic and print collection, easy process for acquisition and
information literacy.
The University of Southern California (2007) analyzed 249 open
ended comments provided by LibQUAL (2007) survey participants. Out of
249 comments nearly half (n=115) of comments were related to IC, 91 from
Library as Place (LP), 40 comments were from AS and only 13 comments
were from general satisfaction dimension. There were 41 negative
comments (mostly related to IC dimension), 28 positive and 112
suggestions comments. The most frequent comments on AS dimension were:
favorable services (n=16), poor or inconsistent services (n=10) and
personal assistance is important (n=2).The top concern issues for IC
dimension were: expand collection (n=53),electronic access concern
(n=13),favorable electronic resources (n=12) and missing material
(n=8).The most important concerns on library as place were: need more
space (n=28),need equipment (n=18), need longer library hours (n=11) and
too noisy (n=10).The study did not informed about correlations and
differences among various categories of comments.
Rehman,Muhmood, Arif & Rafiq (2009) in their survey of users
satisfaction of central library of University of Punjab (UOP) provided
the space for users suggestions. In response to open ended question, 238
users provided the suggestions for the improvement of UOP Library. The
most frequent suggestions were: increase in collection (n=53), free and
speedy internet facility should be provided (n=42), complaints about
different library rules (n=35), improvement in physical facilities
(n=36), complained about the attitude of library staff (n=25),
Organization of library material especially serial collection (n=8) and
library should arrange information literacy programs (n=6).
Arshad (2009) investigated significant user expectations (only
student user group) of departmental libraries of UOP(University of
Punjab) Lahore, Pakistan through one open ended question. The analysis
of 123 open ended comments discovered that users want better physical
facilities (air-conditioned, neat and clean libraries, more study
space), more collection (books, journal), modern equipment, Online
Public Access Catalog. In case of service problems they expected
courteous and cooperative library staff. They also wanted convenient
library working hours. The author did not explore users' perception
about actual service delivery, correlation and difference between
various types of comments.
Rehman, Shafiq & Mahmood (2011) in their study invited users
suggestions through open ended question. Out of 507 respondents, 274
(54%) provided their suggestions for the improvement of reference and
other library services. The frequent suggestions were:
Provision of more facilities and reference services (n=99),
acquisition of new and updated reference material for all subjects (n=
84), competency of reference staff and provision of good ICT facilities.
However these suggestions were limited to reference services and user
satisfaction with those services.
Shafique, Rehman & Mahmood (2011) in another study analyzed the
275 additional comments and suggestions (35.4%) provided by survey
respondents. The frequent suggestions and comments were: more library
facilities and services (n= 105); more collection (n= 89); competent and
courteous library staff (n= 61); need modern equipment (n= 58); library
environment should be conducive for research and study (n= 33); library
material should be processed and arranged properly (n= 26); more
print/e-journals should be subscribed by the library (n= 23);
Books' transaction (issue and return) should be according to the
rules (n= 16); OPAC should be provided (n= 13); more trained staff
should be appointed (n= 10); library timings should be increased (n=
10); user education programs should be started (n= 8).
Libraries are investing a large amount of budget on resources and
services to improve efficiency. There is high demand for fundraising on
the part of libraries to yield library service quality and user
satisfaction services. Library service quality helps to justify
resources and improve services. Library service quality is a very hot
topic in developed countries especially in North America. Many service
quality tools like SERVQUAL, LibQUAL and SERVPREF were developed there.
Library service quality based on user's perceptions and
expectations seems to have been largely ignored by library
administration in developing countries. In Pakistan service quality and
user satisfaction are unfamiliar topic. Assessment of library service
quality and conducting user satisfaction surveys is not a regular
practice in Pakistan. Some user studies, satisfaction survey and service
evaluation studies of individual libraries regarding their use touched
this topic. At present only a very few libraries collect user input
regarding library service quality through informal and unsolicited
channels as suggestion boxes, suggestion register and anecdotal comments
from service desks. These kinds of simple gate count, size of library
collection, circulation statistics, are not substitute for service
quality measures. The belief that numbers of volumes, physical
facilities and amount of library investment are indicator of higher
quality services no more exists in today high-tech and competitive
environment.
The current study is an attempt to address this gap by examining
the open ended comments. As best of knowledge to this author, current
study is first comprehensive effort in South Asia to investigate the
users' perception through LibQUAL open ended comments.In this
article we will analyze 1263 open ended comments, provided by 786 survey
participants. The purpose of this analysis is to determine what problem
users encounter, what are their concerns and suggestions for these
problems.
Methodology
Sample and Sampling (Study 1)
To investigate the present research problem, seven university
libraries were randomly selected from 43 universities of Punjab province
and federal capital of Pakistan (Islamabad) having central libraries. At
the second stage we conveniently selected 560 respondents from faculty,
graduate and undergraduate students.
Sample and Sampling (Study 2)
Sampling was done on two stages for study two. In first stage
random sampling was made from 43 universities of Punjab province and
federal capital of Pakistan having central libraries. In the second
stage from each of the 22 selected universities (excluding the
one's selected in first study), 25 undergraduates, 25 graduates and
25 teachers of different age, experience, department, gender and
qualification groups were conveniently selected to administer the
questionnaires for data collection. The convenient sampling method was
selected due to non availability of complete list of population. However
researchers made every possible effort to collect the data from
representative user groups. The sample fairly represents various types
of users (faculty, graduate, and undergraduates students),
public/private sector, geographical location, age, academic disciplines,
gender and qualification.
Research Design
We used cross sectional design in this empirical study and survey
method was used to collect the data on a self reporting questionnaire.
This study is a part of a larger research project. The data used in this
research were collected in the context of that project, where a wider
range of variables were obtained. That project is a work in progress.
Data were collected by the first author through personal visits of the
sites of relevant universities of Pakistan.
Measure
We measured users' opinion through LibQUAL instrument. The
modification and adaptability of the latest LibQUAL English version into
Pakistani context was made through a nine member's focus group. The
slightly modified version of LibQUAL (American English) was translated
in Urdu using standard procedure of forwardbackward translation. The
psychometric properties of instrument were established through
exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The final protocol
consists of 22 core survey items and one open ended comment box. Users
rated all items on three columns side by side on 1-9 scale for minimum,
desire and perception scores. We will analyze only user open ended
comments. The detail of quantitative analysis and psychometric
investigation has provided elsewhere and are beyond the scope of this
paper.
Coding Methodology
We used Nvivo (version 8) software to analyze user comments. First
we separated all cases, which have qualitative comments. We carefully
read and examined these comments. All readable and relevant comments
were typed in Microsoft word program. We created new project in Nvivo
software with title "user comments" and imported the word file
(containing all typed comments) into our project. We used grounded
theory method of Glaser and Strauss for open coding. All typed comments
were assigned specific node (sub category or specific code) keeping in
view of the themes. We assigned the same node to all similar comments
and new nodes in case of different themes. We tried to assign the codes
which respondents used in their statements. Many users talked about
multiple issues in their open ended comments. For example within one
comment, a user started with collection and then moved to staff related
issues. So we coded this twice, one for collection and other for staff.
After coding all comments through different nodes then we created four
tree nodes (broad categories). The tree nodes were created to introduce
hierarchy to our nodes. Most comments labels were related to LibQUAL
items.
Data Analysis
Demographic Characteristics of Users
Out of a total of 1473 respondents, 786 users (52%) commented or
replied the open ended question. This was above the 40% normal range of
the LibQUAL respondents (Thompson, Kyrillidou & Cook, 2007). An
analysis of comments revealed that 534 respondents were male and 252
were female, 186 respondents were faculty members, 298 were graduate
students and 302 were undergraduate students. Four hundred seventy seven
(477) respondents were from public and 309 were from private
universities, 252 were from the management disciplines, 157 from
engineering and technology, 131 from the social sciences, 77 from
sciences, 48 from health sciences, 44 from education and 37 mentioned
"others".
After assigning relevant node (code), we set different advance
inquiries to our data to find patterns and ideas for data analysis. The
total readable and relevant comments were 1283. These comments fall into
four broad categories: Staff ability, skill and attitude (n=358),
collection and access (n=611), physical facilities, space and
environment (n=207) and general satisfaction & others (n=87) (see
figure 1).
The close examination of comments revealed that the majority of
users made suggestions (n=829) in their comments. They also showed their
positive expression (n=218) as well as criticism (n=204) on library
services (see figure 2).
Staff Ability, Skill and Attitude
The 358 comments in this category were related to staff ability,
skill and attitudes for delivery of services to users. After examination
of their text, all staff related comments were further subcategorized as
positive comments (n=83), negative comments (n=64) and suggestions for
further improvements (n=211). Most of the comments were related to
suggestions and recommendations for their concerns.
Positive Comments Regarding Staff Ability, Skill and Attitude
The detailed examination of positive comments revealed that few
users appreciated the staff skill, knowledge, behavior, and their
services. There were only few examples (n=36) when users appreciated the
dealing of library staff. However a reasonable number of users were
partially satisfied with staff services (n=47) but they were not totally
happy with dealing of library staff. We will illustrate different
examples of positive comments. For example, one graduate student
commented: "I am satisfied with the service of university library.
The management of the library is proactive and they inform the reader
well in time". A few also appreciated the behavior and dealing of
library staff. One undergraduate shared his opinion: "A very nice
library with well arranged collection and relevant content. Staff is
courteous and knows how to manage the library operations". A few
users also acknowledged the staff cooperation to solve their problems;
for example, a female master student expressed: "Our library
services are very good and our library staff provides good information
to solve the problems". This was further supported by a male M.phil
student of management sciences: "The library is providing very good
services to students. Behavior of staff is also good. Library is up
to-date with recent books and materials". One undergraduate student
demonstrated very high opinion and considered his university library
services among the best in the country: "My university library is
one of the finest libraries in our country. It helps us a lot in our
difficulties regarding studies". One other user points out staff
cooperation: "Library services are very good and we often take
benefit from them, staff provides best guide lines to the readers".
Some faculty members recognized the role of library in their academic
progress. One faculty member from private sector university admired:
"My university library is marvelous. It provides all sorts of
information and help. This library has proved very useful in my
educational career". The other was glad and applauded:
"Library services at our library are excellent. The staff and
officers of library are very kind and humble". Another user
acknowledges the equal treatment and courteous behavior of library
staff: "library services are very good. They treated students
equally and their behavior with the students is very polite" (see
table 1)
Negative Comments
Table 1. Comments Related To Staff Ability, Skill and Attitude
Types of Comments Frequency
Need cooperative & courteous staff 81
Favorable services 47
Need knowledgeable staff 44
Poor staff behavior 39
Favorable library staff 36
Need willing staff 31
Need longer library hours 24
Poor and non- user friendly library rules 20
Need staff training 13
Need adequate borrowing facility 11
Poor staff knowledge 5
Need resource sharing 4
Need inclusion of user input in library decisions 3
Total 358
Some users expressed very strong concern about behavior, attitude,
cooperation, and dealing of library staff. They made many disliking,
opposite and negative remarks. Some remarks like rude, ill-manner and
illiterate were very severe and expressed strong displeasure of library
patrons. In total, we received 64 such comments. These comments were
related to staff behavior and knowledge and uncomfortable library rules
(see table 1).
Concern about Staff Courtesy
The largest numbers of negative comments (n=39) were related to
staff behavior and dealing (see table 1). Most users considered them
non- user friendly, rude, strict and non cooperative. One female student
remarked: "Library staffs are mostly ill mannered and rural people.
They are not cooperative; they come just to pass the time". This
was endorsed by another student who said: "Staff is very rude. They
need to improve the ways of guidance for students to give them knowledge
and to help them". Some male users perceived that library staff
treats female users better than male and complained that "staff
made gender discrimination".
Sometimes, users were satisfied with library services but had
concerns about library staff behavior; for example: "The rest is ok
but the attitude of library staff is often very impolite,"
"Everything is available but staff is not as friendly as they
should be", "Although library has well organized resources yet
its employees are unpleasant".
Even sometimes users were satisfied and pleased with library
services and facilities but they were not happy with library staff. We
noted one comment from senior student: "Library does help a lot but
its employees are impolite. We are student of MS level and it's not
the right way to behave like such bitterness".
Library users demand courteous, cooperative and welcoming behavior.
The non cooperative and strict dealing with library users may sometimes
offends users or even reduces their onsite visits. One undergraduate
observed this strictness and complained:
Strict and non cooperative dealing of staff divert our intention to
visit library so we want humbleness from them, they are a bit rude and
impolite. Change the female staff. Madam is very strict and always
disturbs everyone who is sitting in the library.
Some users observed the absence and non accessibility of staff in
following words:
I don't find library staff ever available on their seats when
I need their support. The staff is not much dutiful and I often found
books under wrong tags. Our library is good but not so perfect. The main
problem is the attitude of staff members, Library management is very
strict, Library staff is not so helpful and they do not cooperate with
students
Staff are not knowledgeable
An efficient, skillful and knowledgeable staff are very important
for high quality services. It is very much essential that library staff,
especially frontline staff, have good communication and professional
skills. If staff does not have sufficient knowledge or skill then users
will not find solutions of their problems. This will result in negative
image of library and its staff. The examination of open ended comments
revealed that there were only five comments which showed patron concern
and displeasure regarding knowledge and skills of library staff. For
example, one faculty member from a public sector university stated that:
Staff is unable to provide good services. Library should hire
qualified staff because present library does not concentrate on
improvement of its services and skills. Staff is not well educated
and well equipped. They do not know modern method. Library
administration is very poor and does not have knowledge of how to
handle our queries. They neither have good communication skills nor
professional knowledge.
Inappropriate and Inconvenient Library Rules
Library policies and rules are made to take full advantage of the
library resources, services and facilities. Libraries implement
different kind of rules to operate its services. These rules are
normally related to: borrowing of material, behave in a courteous
manner, keep silence and personal belonging. Mostly users are also asked
to keep their personal belonging outside the library and avoid using
drinks, food inside the library. These rules are devised for ease and
convenience of library users. Sometimes a library enforces rules which
are not suitable and useful for library users. Library users feel
discomfort and anger with certain rules. We observed 20 comments
complaining and disagreeing with some current library rules. The major
concerns were: borrowing rules, acquisition rules and personal belonging
outside the library. For example, one user showed his concern with the
borrowing rule:
Issue and return procedure should be easy. We cannot borrow more
than three books. Some students renew books again and again during
semester, which in not helpful for other students.
Another user was not happy with acquisition procedure: "very
lengthy process for the book buying on behalf of library". Users
also expressed the problems in use of reference material "If we
need some text from any book, we can't borrow it, even we cannot
take prints, photocopy etc".
Suggestions for Staff Ability, Skill and Attitude
We received 211 suggestions regarding the improvements of staff
behavior, skill and knowledge. The five most frequent suggestions were:
"There should be cooperative & courteous staff" (n=81),
"need knowledgeable staff" (n=44), "need willing
staff" (n=31), "need longer library hours" (n=24),
"need staff training" (n=13) and 11 comments for "need
adequate borrowing facility" (see table 1).
Collections and Access
The comments under this category are related to print and online
collection (journals, books etc,) easy, convenient and unlimited access,
organization of information sources, modern equipment and self-reliance.
We coded them as collections and access. Users' opinion about
library collections and access can help the libraries in understanding
to what extent libraries are meeting users' collections and access
related needs. It can also be helpful to determine strong as well as
weak areas of library collections and access. These comments can be used
for future planning, improvements of collection, access facility and to
justify the resources incurred on material. We received 611 comments
related to collections and access. These comments were related to three
broad categories: positive comments (n=11), negative comments (n=115)
and suggestion for further improvements (n=485). The 11 positive
comments were: favorable collection (n=6) and easy access tools (n=5).
There were 115 negative comments. Top negative comments were: poor print
and electronic collections (n=39), poor modern equipment (36), poor
library website services (n=32).These comments demonstrated that
collection and access is a weak area of library and demands immediate
attention (see table 2).
Table 2. Comments Related to Library Collection and Access
Comments Frequency
Need books 104
Need modern equipment 87
Need more print and electronic journals 64
Need electronic resources 63
Need services through library website 54
Need remote access of databases 52
Poor print and electronic collection 39
Poor modern equipment 36
Need Information literacy 36
Poor web services 32
Need better organization of material 25
poor organization of material 8
Favorable collection and access 6
Favorable easy access tool 5
Total 611
Suggestions for Collections and Access
There were huge numbers of suggestions related to collections and
access. The 485 suggestions touched almost every area of library
collections and access. The most frequent comments were: need more
material (books, journals, and electronic resources), modern equipment,
active library website, user training and remote access of databases.
The five most frequent suggestions were: need books (n=104), need modern
equipments (n=87), need more print and electronic journals (n=64), need
services through library websites (n=54) and remote access of library
databases. These comments clearly showed that our libraries were far
from meeting users' requirement regarding collection and easy
access (see table 2).
Physical Facilities, Space and Environment of Library
The comments under this category covered library environment,
facilities, pleasant and adequate individual and group space,
comfortable and inviting location and physical place for learning and
teaching. Library as Place is still very important and it plays a role
as a knowledge gateway. Users' remarks for onsite library will
provide guidance for future investment and changing role of the physical
library. We received 207 comments concerning physical facilities, space
and environment of library. These comments were related to three broad
categories: positive comments (n=53), negative comments (n=21) and
suggestions for further improvements (n=133). The analysis of the 53
positive comments showed that mostly users were happy and comfortable
with this area of library service. The only important problem was
"non- availability and poor space facility for group study"
(n=14). The other worry was "poor environment (n=7).
The users also provided some suggestions (n=133) for improvement.
These suggestions are presented in table 3. The top three demanding
suggestions were: "need more group study space" (n=103),
"need pleasant environment (n=14), "need overall better
facilities" (n=7) and lastly two users provided a very interesting
suggestion: "need coffee machine inside the library" (see
table 3).
Table 3. Comments Related to physical facilities, space and
environment of library
Comments Frequency
Need space for group study 103
Favorable learning space 53
Poor or no space for group study 14
Need pleasant environment 14
Need better facilities (overall) 11
Poor environment 7
Need good temperature 3
Need coffee machine inside the library 2
Poor funding 4
Neutral comments 12
Total 207
General Satisfaction and Other Comments
We also found some comments which showed overall satisfaction not
with specific dimension or element but generally with the library. These
comments described users' pleasant experience with library. Some
users have a satisfactory image of library service and resources. In
total, we received 87 comments about general satisfaction and other
areas. Examination of these comments revealed that mostly users are
satisfied with the overall condition but they also pinpoint some
weaknesses of the library. We found only two comments where users were
totally satisfied and expressed very high opinion about library:
I am fully satisfied with the library services. It is a peaceful
space for study and research. Overall I am satisfied with library
services. They are providing me with what I need in my studies.
One user was aware of library resources and showed his positive
opinion in the following words:
The library provides all information. I am very satisfied with the
services provided by the library keeping in view of limited library
resources. The staff and officers of library are very kind and
humble. I am highly satisfied from my library.
One user expressed his level of satisfaction with library services
in the following words:
The services of the library are satisfactory. The library provided
knowledge regarding our desires. A decent service, but still have to
improve growing needs of this university.
Discussion and Conclusion
The qualitative comments highlighted that ULP were weak and far
from meets users' desired expectations and information needed,
especially attributes related to collections and access. This is also in
line with previous research studied (Begay, et al., 2004; Rehman, et
al., 2009; Rehman, et al., 2011; Rodriquez, 2007; Shafique, et al.,
2011; USC Libraries, 2007; Wilson, 2004) that information control
dimension is most critical dimension. On the other hand library is
meeting users' essential requirements in physical facilities, space
(except space for group discussion) and environment of library and some
area of staff service. Different studies (Begay, et al., 2004; Rehman,
et al., 2009; Shafique, et al., 2011)supported that library as place
(physical facilities, environment, space) was least problematic and
users normally happy with this dimension. Some research studies (Arshad,
2009; Wilson, 2004) also showed concerns with physical facilities. The
possible reason is that they define library as place differently and mix
some items of information control dimension in library as place
dimension in their measurement scale.
The users were not satisfied with library collection and access,
attitude of library staff, library space for group learning. The
analysis of comments showed that IC dimension of service quality needs
immediate attention. Users want comprehensive collection (book, journals
electronic resources) in print and electronic format. They also expect
tools and modern equipment for easy and remote access through library
websites. The faculty user group was more vocal and stressed
dissatisfaction with electronic resources and their remote access.
Moreover users want comfortable space for individual and group learning,
research and study. Additionally users showed concern about knowledge
and attitude of library staff. In their suggestions they indicated that
whenever they will encounter service problem they need Knowledgeable,
cooperative and courteous staff. The comments about library as place
showed that users generally happy with library environment and
facilities but some areas like space for group learning and group
discussion need attention and improvement.
Implications for Practitioners and Academicians
The practitioners of university libraries of Pakistan can use these
comments to understand user's perceptions regarding library
services. Findings of the study can also helpful to determine strong as
well as week areas of services. These comments can be used for future
planning, improvements of service and to justify the resources incurred
on services. The researchers and academicians can use this framework for
further research in other types of libraries. In Pakistan, there is no
strong tradition of qualitative assessment of library service quality
from users' perceptive. So qualitative software and coding scheme
used in current study can be helpful for future researchers.
Limitations of Study and Future Research Directions
The study, however, has few limitations. First, it has common
method bias as both student's and teacher's perceptions of
library service quality are obtained from a single source
(questionnaire). So, future research can be conducted by using other
sources like focus group and interviews. Secondly, data reported in this
study were collected at one point in time, making it impossible to draw
inferences of causality. Further longitudinal research is needed after
few periods for confirmation. Thirdly, the study focused only on one
sector i.e. university libraries of Punjab and federal capital of
Pakistan (Islamabad). The results of the study, therefore, may be
applied with caution to other types of libraries i.e. public, special,
national and college. The future research may be conducted in other
types of libraries (Public, Special) and other geographical area of
Pakistan. Finally we measure the library service quality through one
open ended question so future research may be conducted through asking
variety of questions under this area.
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Shafiq Ur Rehman PhD Scholar at GERiiCO Universite
Charles-de-Gaulle - Lille 3 (France) Senior Librarian University of the
Punjab, Pakistan.
Widad Mustafa El Hadi Professor at GERiiCO (Groupe d'Etudes et
de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Information et Communication)
Universite Charles-de-Gaulle Lille 3 (France)