Using Servqual for Public Library Service Quality Assessment
Using Servqual for Public Library Service Quality Assessment

Summary/Abstract: The mission and the dynamics of libraries change in line with the technological and social development. Public libraries are dynamic educational, cultural and social centres of their respective local communities. It is noted that public libraries are service-oriented organisations based on librarians, who seek to provide users with quality services, who like working with people and want to be helpful. Library services are actions, operations, or activities, or a set of a large number of activities, that are more or less intangible, that come to existence as part of the interaction between library users and library employees, its material resources and systems, and are designed to meet the needs of users, which represents their value added. Library services are economic activities that create value by providing users with benefits at a given time and a given place, thereby producing the desired change to the benefit of the recipients of the services in question. Measuring customer/users satisfaction has become one of the most popular marketing strategies in all service industries, as well as in public libraries, and it is an approach that infiltrates many academic disciplines, such as service management, psychology, service marketing, library and information science. The purpose of the study is to examine users’ expectation and perceptions of service quality in Slovenian public libraries. The aim is to assess the expected and perceived service quality of library. A modified SERVQUAL scale was used to assess service quality expectations and perceptions from the perspective of users of services in public library. Questionnaire in Slovenian language was prepared by a modified version of the SERVQUAL questionnaire. Data were collected via electronic mails to library users in five public libraries. Descriptive Statistic and Dependent Samples t-test were conducted, as well as Importance-Performance Analysis. The results of the quantitative assessment of perceived service quality may provide some insights on how users rate the service quality of Slovenian libraries. Thus, the findings can be used as a guide for library management to improve the crucial quality attributes and enhance service quality and performance of the library.

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