The dimensions that
construct the evaluation
of service quality in
academic libraries
Haruki Nagata
Yoshinori Satoh
Sarah Gerrard and
Pa
¨
ivi Kyto
¨
ma
¨
ki
The authors
Haruki Nagata is a Professor at the Research Center for
Knowledge Community, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
Yoshinori Satoh is an Associate Professor at the Social and
Information Science Department, Yonezawa Women’s Junior
College, Yonezawa, Japan.
Sarah Gerrard is a Librarian and Deputy Director of Information
Services at the Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK.
Pa
¨
ivi Kyto
¨
ma
¨
ki is the Director at the Library, University of Oulu,
Oulu, Finland.
Keywords
Performance measures, SERVQUAL, University libraries
Abstract
The objective of this study is to identify the dimensions that
determine the customers’ evaluation of service quality in
academic libraries. One university library each in England and
Finland and two in Japan were selected to conduct a
questionnaire survey based on the GAP theory of SERVQUAL that
has led discussions on the assessment of service quality in
marketing theory and practice. Since the actual delivery of
information as a service outcome is as important as the service
process in libraries, attributes inherent to libraries were
incorporated into the survey. Subjecting data obtained to
exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that library
service quality consists of four dimensions: effect of service
(personal), library as ba (place), collections and access, and
effect of service (organizational), which are different from the
five SERVQUAL dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance, and empathy.
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Introduction
Only the customer/user can judge quality,
butonwhatcriteriahe/shejudgesit,or
which aspect he/she values has not been
made clear. The SERVQUAL instrument,
designed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and
Berry (hereafter referred to as PZB), has been
playing a central role in the evaluation of service
quality in marketing research and practice
(Grapentine, 1998). The questionnaire items of
SERVQUAL,however,focusmainlyonthe
service process (service encounter) while
outcomes (contents) obtained through the
service are hardly taken into consideration.
For this reason, the items pertaining to the
technical quality (quality of the deliverable
the customer receives from the service
organization) were added to the SERVQUAL
items in our survey. Based on the data acquired
from it, we aim to identify the dimensions that
determine the evaluation of service quality in
university libraries. In order to gain a more
accurate and representative result, the survey
was executed in four university libraries in
England, Finland and Japan, under conditions
which were as similar as possible with regard to
timing and method.
The SERVQUAL items and dimensions
Before the analysis of the data collected from
our survey, a brief examination of the
SERVQUAL development is necessary in order
to evaluate the significance and problems of its
dimensions.
The 22 pairs of SERVQUAL questionnaire
items measure customer expectations and
perceptions of service delivered on a seven- or
nine-point Likert scale (Parasuraman et al., 1994),
and evaluate the service quality by measuring the
gaps between the two scores (Parasuraman et al.,
1988). The working presupposition is that the
service is good if perceptions meet or exceed
expectations and problematic if perceptions fall
below expectations.
Design of the SERVQUAL instrument started
with the establishment of the aspects that the
customer values in assessing the service. PZB, in
addition to a comprehensive review of literature on
Performance Measurement and Metrics
Volume 5 · Number 2 · 2004 · pp. 53-65
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 1467-8047
DOI 10.1108/14678040410546073
The authors wish to express their gratitude to all the
respondents to their surveys. Ms Nicky Sugar,
Archivist of Royal Holloway of University of London,
read the manuscript and this collaborative research
was partially supported by the JSPS Grant-in-Aid
Scientific Research.
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