The Forging of Consensus: A methodological approach tc service quality assessment in research libraries - the LibQUAL+~(TM) experience

摘要

This paper discusses the emergence and forging of consensus in relation to the LibQUAL+ project as it developed from the winter of 1999 to summer of 2001. A rich history of assessment in the service sector using the SERVQUAL instrument over the last twenty years, a fertile ground in the library field where various institutions including Texas A&M experimented with measuring service quality at the local level for a decade, and an increasing awareness that time for action has arrived as experienced by the leaders of the ARL New Measures initiative, and members of the ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee and the ARL Leadership and Management Committee, gave birth to the historical context that created LibQUAL+. LibQUAL+ is the first total market survey developed for libraries - a standardized protocol applied across institutions that encourages libraries to complement their resource metrics with much needed metrics of users' perceived quality.