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  • 标题:Perceptions of Pakistani users about library service quality: libqual comments.
  • 作者:Rehman, Shafiq Ur
  • 期刊名称:Library Philosophy and Practice
  • 印刷版ISSN:1522-0222
  • 出版年度:2012
  • 期号:March
  • 语种:English
  • 出版社:University of Idaho Library
  • 关键词:Consumer complaints;Consumer research;Customer relations;Employee attitudes;Employees;Libraries and readers;Library use;Library use studies;Marketing research;Public services (Libraries);Workers

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.

References

Arshad, A. (2009). User's perceptions and expectations of quality Punjab University Libraries' services. M.Phil thesis University of the Punjab, Lahore.

Begay, W., Lee, D. R., Martin, J., & Ray, M. (2004). Quantifying qualitative data: Using LibQUAL+: Comments for library-wide planning activities at the University of Arizona. Journal of Library Administration, 40(3/4), 111-120.

Cook, C., Heath, F., Thompson, B., & Thompson, R. (2001). LibQUAL+: Service quality assessment in research libraries. IFLA Journal, 27(4), 264.

Jankowska, M. A., Hertel, K., & Young, N. J. (2006). Improving library service quality to graduate students: LibQual+ survey results in a practical setting. Portal, 6(1), 59-77.

Rehman, S. U., Muhmood, K., Arif, M., & Rafiq, M. (2009). Are users satisfied with library services: The case of Punjab University Library. Pakistan Library and Information Science Journal, 40(1), 22-28.

Rehman, S. U., Shafiq, F., & Mahmood, K. (2011). Users' perception and satisfaction with reference services in university libraries of Punjab, Pakistan: A survey. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2011.

Rodriquez, J. (2007). Summary analysis of qualitative comments from LibQual survey, Spring 2007. Retrieved from http://www.library.umass.edu/assets/aboutus/assessment/attachments/SADRIreport.pdf

Shafique, F., Rehman, S. U., & Mahmood, K. (n.d.). Probing users' needs, satisfaction and library performance: A survey of university libraries in Punjab. In Press.

USC Libraries. (2007). LibQual User Survey Report, from http://www.usc.edu/libraries/about/libqual/documents/2007LibQualReport.pdf

Wilson, F. (2004). LibQUAL+ 2002 at Vanderbilt University. Journal of Library Administration, 40(3), 197 - 240.

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)

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