TY - JOUR
T1 - LibQUAL in Ireland
T2 - Performance assessment and service improvement in Irish university libraries
AU - McCaffrey, Ciara
PY - 2013/7
Y1 - 2013/7
N2 - This article reviews the Irish university experience of LibQUAL, drawing from interviews with administrators and library directors in the seven Irish universities together with data from the Irish LibQUAL notebooks generated from 2009 to 2012. Of the seven Irish universities, three find it very useful, run it regularly and have integrated it into their planning activities. Two found LibQUAL to be very useful in an occasional sense and two found LibQUAL to be less useful for their needs. The results from all LibQUAL notebooks indicate common poor perceptions about library buildings among users. However Irish users' expectations of library buildings appear to be higher than elsewhere. The approaches to analysis, interpretation and response to the results varied from library to library. While most institutions reported implementing changes as part of their LibQUAL action plans, attitudes around whether LibQUAL was a catalyst for change in their libraries varied. The majority of those interviewed described themselves as somewhat satisfied, as opposed to very satisfied, with the tool. At a national level, LibQUAL has repositioned the importance of the physical library environment within strategic planning and has placed the customer firmly at the centre of Irish university library development.
AB - This article reviews the Irish university experience of LibQUAL, drawing from interviews with administrators and library directors in the seven Irish universities together with data from the Irish LibQUAL notebooks generated from 2009 to 2012. Of the seven Irish universities, three find it very useful, run it regularly and have integrated it into their planning activities. Two found LibQUAL to be very useful in an occasional sense and two found LibQUAL to be less useful for their needs. The results from all LibQUAL notebooks indicate common poor perceptions about library buildings among users. However Irish users' expectations of library buildings appear to be higher than elsewhere. The approaches to analysis, interpretation and response to the results varied from library to library. While most institutions reported implementing changes as part of their LibQUAL action plans, attitudes around whether LibQUAL was a catalyst for change in their libraries varied. The majority of those interviewed described themselves as somewhat satisfied, as opposed to very satisfied, with the tool. At a national level, LibQUAL has repositioned the importance of the physical library environment within strategic planning and has placed the customer firmly at the centre of Irish university library development.
KW - Assessment
KW - Ireland
KW - LibQUAL
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84883280303&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.11.036
DO - 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.11.036
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84883280303
SN - 0099-1333
VL - 39
SP - 347
EP - 350
JO - Journal of Academic Librarianship
JF - Journal of Academic Librarianship
IS - 4
ER -