Measuring Library Services Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Leadership Symposium San Antonio, TX January 21, 2006 Martha Kyrillidou Director, ARL Statistics and Measurement Program

Today is Tomorrow - Peter Melinchok expressing dismay at his parents’ distorted sense of time

Bangor University considers removing librarians posted by Blake on Thursday January -753 hits Ms Information writes "News from the University of Wales Bangor in the UK. senior management no longer feel that subject librarians / academic liaison librarians are needed in the modern academic library. They have made restructuring proposals which include removing all bar one of the subject librarians and a tier of the library management, including the Head of Bibliographic Services. The university management thinks that technology has 'deskilled' literature searching. As far as I know, this proposal is unprecedented in the United Kingdom. In essence, there will remain 4 professional librarians serving a 'research-led' university of 8,000 plus FTEs and with 8 library sites. These will be the university librarian, cataloguing librarian, acquisitions librarian and Law librarian. Has anything like this happened anywhere that you know of? If so, what have been the effects? Blake Ms Information

Total Circulation Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2003). ARL Statistics Washington, D.C.: ARL, p.8.

Reference Transactions Note. M. Kyrillidou and M. Young. (2003). ARL Statistics Washington, D.C.: ARL, p.8.

ARL Overall

ARL Undergraduate

ARL Graduate

ARL Faculty

Libraries Remain a Credible Resource in 21 st Century 98% agree with statement, “My … library contains information from credible and known sources.” Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information Resources. (2002). Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment.

Changing Behaviors Recent Survey: Only 15.7% agreed with the statement “The Internet has not changed the way I use the library.” Note. Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information Resources. (2002). Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment.

The Internet Goes to College Early data from ethnographic interviews –“I use Google because I heard it searches for more things” (than other sources). –“I believe I can find anything on the Internet. There hasn’t been anything I haven’t been able to find.” –“Because I’m lazy.” –Books have “so much information that no one can go through it all.” –I use “the Internet first is because it is more convenient.” –I go to the library “because that’s what teachers like.” –“Google has gotten me through college.” Source: Steve Jones, The Internet Goes to College, ARL Talk

Partnership among ARL Texas A&M hundreds of libraries thousands of users old.libqual.org

Texas A&M Research Team Fred Heath, University of Texas Colleen Cook, Texas A&M Bruce Thompson, Texas A&M Yvonna Lincoln, Texas A&M

Multiple Methods of Listening to Customers Transactional surveys* Mystery shopping New, declining, and lost-customer surveys Focus group interviews Customer advisory panels Service reviews Customer complaint, comment, and inquiry capture Total market surveys* Employee field reporting Employee surveys Service operating data capture *A SERVQUAL-type instrument is most suitable for these methods A. Parasuraman. The SERVQUAL Model: Its Evolution And Current Status. (2000). Paper presented at ARL Symposium on Measuring Service Quality, Washington, D.C.

Dimensions items56 items25 items22 items Affect of Service Service Affect Library as Place Reliability Personal Control Information Control Provision of Physical Collections Self-Reliance Information Access Access to Information

13 Libraries English LibQUAL+™ Version 4000 Respondents QUAL QUAN QUAL QUAN QUAL PURPOSE DATA ANALYSIS PRODUCT/RESULT Describe library environment; build theory of library service quality from user perspective Test LibQUAL+™ instrument Refine theory of service quality Refine LibQUAL+™ instrument Test LibQUAL+™ instrument Refine theory Unstructured interviews at 8 ARL institutions Web-delivered survey Unstructured interviews at Health Sciences and the Smithsonian libraries to survey administrators Web-delivered survey Focus groups Content analysis: (cards & Atlas TI) Reliability/validity analyses: Cronbachs Alpha, factor analysis, SEM, descriptive statistics Content analysis Reliability/validity analyses including Cronbachs Alpha, factor analysis, SEM, descriptive statistics Content analysis Vignette Re-tooling Iterative Emergent Libraries English, Dutch, Swedish, German LibQUAL+™ Versions 160,000 anticipated respondents LibQUAL+™ Project Case studies 1 Valid LibQUAL+™ protocol Scalable process Enhanced understanding of user-centered views of service quality in the library environment 2 Cultural perspective 3 Refined survey delivery process and theory of service quality 4 Refined LibQUAL+™ instrument 5 Local contextual understanding of LibQUAL+™ survey responses 6

Session 1 surveys only

Survey Structure – Page 2 (Detail View)

First Year participation as % of total (as of 10/19)

Participating Libraries World LibQUAL+™ Survey

LibQUAL+ ™ Resources LibQUAL+™ Website: Publications: Events and Training: Gap Theory/Radargraph Introduction: LibQUAL+™ Procedures Manual:

In Summary LibQUAL+™ methodology focuses on success from the user’s point of view (outcomes) Demonstrates that a Web-based survey can handle large numbers; users are willing to fill it out; and survey can be executed quickly with minimal expense LibQUAL+™ requires limited local survey expertise and resources Analysis available at local and inter-institutional levels Many opportunities for using demographics to discern user behaviors

Into the future … StatsQUAL+™ –LibQUAL+™ –DigiQUAL+™ –MINES for Libraries™ –ARL Statistics

… a revolution in making Il est plus nécessaire d'étudier les hommes que les livres —FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613–1680)