Users' hierarchical perspectives on library service quality: a 'LibQUAL+' study

摘要

In the history of many professions, careful research and rigorous design have produced standards of measurement that permit specialist and layman alike to achieve a perspective on performance. In baseball, the most statistically driven of allprofessional sports, batting average (BA) and earned run average (ERA) provide a benchmarking overview on all batters and pitchers in the history of the game. A .400 batting average is extraordinary; a career ERA below 2.00 will certainly earn the achiever a niche in the Hall of Fame. And although underlying variables contribute to performance measures (bat speed, perhaps, and pitch velocity), those factors are not part of the common baseball parlance. BA and ERA suffice as measures of excellence in the sport. Human health also has its overarching higher-order measures. Since Stephen Hale's publication in 1733, blood pressure measurement has been a fundamental indicator of human health. Although methods have improved in the aftermath of Hale's rather invasive methods of measurement, pressure scores expressed as millimeters of mercury have become recognizable standards. A score of 120/70 expresses a desirable human condition the world over. Conversely, a score of 190/100 would be a measurement of considerable concern, although the search for causal factors could span a broad spectrum of possible contributors.(FN1) As is the case with baseball, many underlying lower-order health factors may contribute to an individual's blood pressure reading, but from a health maintenance view, the single higher-order factor often serves as a decision point as to whether more serious intervention may be required. Just as scientific measurement is used to benchmark observable phenomena such as batting averages and blood pressures, careful statistical procedures are utilized to measure and rank based on passive human activities such as "watching" or as imprecise a precept as "perceiving.