1. Assessment with LibQUAL+ ™ at the University of Vermont
Vermont Library Association
College and Special Libraries Section Conference
April 7, 2006
Selene Colburn
Asst. to Dean for External Relations
University of Vermont Libraries

2. What is LibQUAL+?
A “rigorously tested Web-based survey…that helps libraries assess and improve library services.”
Developed by Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and based on SERVQUAL, a business-sector tool.
Over 200 institutions signed up last spring.

3. The Philosophy
“…only customers judge quality, all other judgments are essentially irrelevant.”
Zeithaml, Parasuraman, Berry. (1999).
Delivering quality service. NY: The Free Press

4. The Instrument
LibQUAL+ survey contains 22 standardized questions and a comment box.
An additional 5 questions can be selected from a list of 100+.
Questions are grounded in the language and concerns of users.

5. Service Dimensions Questions fall into one of three categories:
Affect of service.
Library as place.
Information control (formerly Access to Information & Personal Control).

6. The Measurements
For each question, respondents are asked to list their minimum, desired, and perceived levels of service.
This creates:
The zone of tolerance.
The adequacy gap.

7. The Results: The Radar Chart

8. The Results: The Bar Chart

9. The Products Results notebook (PDF file) and Excel raw data.
SPSS files.
User comments.
Interactive website.

10. UVM Summary Results: Library Use

11. UVM Summary Results: Bar Chart

12. UVM Summary Results: Radar Chart

13. UVM Graduate Student Results

14. Sorting comments