Library service quality in a higher education library from a user's perspective

Pikić, Aleksandra. (2015). Library service quality in a higher education library from a user's perspective. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Information Science. [mentor Horvat, Aleksandra and Kufrin, Krešimir].

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Abstract

The goal of the research was to explore which elements of the service quality model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml i Berry, 1985) best explained service satisfaction, and which could be declared surplus guided by a principle of parsimony. Previous studies had shown that scores on expectation levels poorly predicted service satisfaction in regards to perceived performance ratings. The research was conducted using the questionnaire method on a sample of 479 students and faculties of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb. The library service quality was examined using LibQUAL+™ instrument which investigated percieved library service quality, and the minimum and maximum expectations of the library service, while service satisfaction was tested using two variables: satisfaction with the staff treatment and satisfaction with work needs support. Statistical analyses that were used in the research were: analysis of variance, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. The satisfaction with work needs support was explained with all three factors: affect of service, library as place and information control at the perceived level, while satisfaction with staff treatment was explained with affect of service at the perceived level and library as place at the superiority gap scale. These results confirm that the most useful part of the instrument is perceived level of the service quality and to a lesser extent, superiority gap. The theoretical implications of the research is therefore, guided by the principle of parsimony, consideration of the removal of minimum service quality expectation from the concept of service quality. The practical significance of the study is that the Croatian version of the instrument LIBQUAL + ™ was tested for its validity and reliability, together with proposed deletion of the minimum service expectation scale from the instrument.

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