An assessment of the applicability of SERVQUAL dimensions as customer-based criteria for evaluating quality of services in an academic library.

摘要

The SERVQUAL instrument, developed among various types of service industries by Parasuraman, Berry, and Zeithaml, is designed to be a diagnostic tool to measure customer criteria for service quality. Based on their Gaps Model of Service, the measure defines service quality as the difference between customer perceptions and expectations of service. This study examines the transferability to an academic library setting, of the SERVQUAL measures applied to three services: interlibrary loan, reference, and reserve. Eight general hypotheses address the transferability of the instrument to a library services setting in terms of (a) the scale's reliability and validity, (b) the relation of users' perceived service quality and four variables related to quality of library services (experienced problem, satisfactory problem resolution, information value, and willingness to recommend the service), and (c) the scale's potential to differentiate services.;The study was conducted at one large academic library. The data gathering instrument was a questionnaire, a slightly modified version of the SERVQUAL instrument. The questionnaire was mailed to 564 randomly selected persons who had used one of the three services; a total of 351 usable questionnaires were returned (63.6% response). Data analysis included use of descriptive frequency distributions, t-tests, factor analysis, and discriminant analysis.;The study concludes that the SERVQUAL is a reliable and valid instrument for application in the academic library setting, with the caution that this study's data suggest a three factor relationship among the 22 SERVQUAL items rather than the five dimensions which the scale's designers identify from other applications.