Quality Assessment of the Library Services at the AJA University of Medical Sciences Libraries Using LibQUAL Model

Abstract

Introduction : Academic and research libraries are currently trying to define new criteria that describe their services they are moving towards more outcome-based assessment instead of relying merely on input, output, or resource metrics. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the quality of services provided by the libraries of AJA University of Medical Sciences using the LibQUAL model. Methods : This study is a survey research, for which data were collected through the LibQUAL questionnaire. This questionnaire (in Persian) was used in a study conducted by Ghaffari and Korani in 2011, with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.95. Reliability and validity had to be assessed again after minor changes were made in the questionnaire by the researchers. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed and Cronbach’s alpha for the questionnaire was determined to be 0.85. The statistical tests applied in this research included paired samples t-test and the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Using the stratified random sampling method and Cochran’s formula, 261 students were selected from lists of students in each department in the academic year 2013 - 2014. A total of 190, 53, and 12 users from the medical school library, library of nursing school, and library of dentistry school respectively participated in this study. Statistics indices were calculated using the SPSS 16.0 software. P values less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results : The results showed that there were statistically significant differences between the mean of users’ maximum expectations levels and the services actually received in libraries, based on a comprehensive evaluation of the libraries in AJA University of Medical Sciences (P < 0.001). In the dimension of ‘library as a place’, the mean of services received is higher than the mean of the users’ minimum expectations in all three libraries. P-values between the mean of services received and the minimum expectations in the medical school library, the library of the school of nursing, and the library of the school of dentistry were less than 0.001, 0.009, and 0.008 respectively. Conclusions : The mean of services received in the three libraries of AJA University of Medical Sciences was approximately equal to the users’ minimum expectations and the quality of services in these libraries is acceptable.