|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers, Second Edition
|
| Peter Hernon and Ellen Altman |
|
Item Number: 978-0-8389-1021-4 |
|
|
|
Publisher: ALA Editions |
|
Price: $65.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
215 pages
8.5” x 11”
Softcover
ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-1021-4
Year Published: 2010
AP Categories: A, C, I
Read an article by the authors from American Libraries and an excerpt from the book now!
Because of technology, the old measures of service quality no longer apply. If libraries are to succeed, they must see themselves in competition with other institutions and sources of information--especially the Web--and make customers feel welcome and valued. This classic book is brought fully up to date as Peter Hernon and Ellen Altman integrate the use of technology into the customer experience. They offer solid, practical ideas for developing a customer service plan that meets the library's customer-focused mission, vision, and goals, challenging librarians to think about customer service in new ways, including
- Distance education
- Use of library Web sites
- Partnerships and consortia for electronic collections
- Ways to effectively embrace change for continuous improvement
Senior librarians, library directors, and trustees will learn how to see the library as the customer does with the aid of dozens of tools to measure service quality--from mystery shoppers and benchmarking to surveys and group interviews.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Understanding Ends and Means
2. A Look in the Library Mirror
3. “Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It . . .”
4. Measuring and Evaluating the Components of Service Quality
5. What Can Go Wrong with Numbers
6. Managing the Three Cs (Comments, Complaints, and Compliments)
7. Listening to Customers through Surveys
8. Listening to Customers through Focus Group Interviews
9. Customer-Related Indicators and Requirements
10. Satisfaction and Service Quality: Separate but Intertwined
11. Interpreting Findings to Improve Customer Service
12. Embracing Change—Continuous Improvement
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors
Peter Hernon is a professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College in Boston; he previously taught at the University of Arizona and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). He is the coeditor of Library & Information Science Research, founding editor of Government Information Quarterly, and past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Academic Librarianship. Hernon is the author of more than 285 publications and has received a number of awards for his research and professional contributions, including the 2008 Association of College and Research Libraries’ award for Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. The first edition of this book, Assessing Service Quality, was the 1998 winner of the Highsmith award for outstanding contribution to the literature of library and information science.
Ellen Altman, now retired, was visiting professor in the Department of Library and Information Studies, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) until July 1997. She has been a faculty member at the Universities of Kentucky and Toronto and at Indiana University, professor and director of the Graduate Library School at the University of Arizona, and feature editor of Public Libraries, the official publication of the Public Library Association. Altman is coeditor of “The JAL Guide to the Professional Literature” in the Journal of Academic Librarianship, a member of Library Quarterly’s editorial board, and a coauthor of Performance Measures for Public Libraries. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies in 1983.
Reviews
"The great strength of the book lies with the recommended practical methods, grounded in well-explained theory, by which libraries can complement traditional assessment measures with a customer-centered framework. Highly recommended."
--Internet Reference Services Quarterly
"Having delivered a previous volume that established strong, consistent measures that librarians and managers could use to determine whether their customers were satisfied, Hernon and Altman address technological issues and reiterate the importance of customer loyalty .. Public, school, and academic library examples have been included in this very complete summary of using research to evaluate customer satisfaction."
--VOYA
"The authors have written a book for practitioners,
but soundly based it on research, as the extensive
bibliography demonstrates. This is an excellent
book that should be purchased by all library
managers, and then used to develop better
customer service."
--Australian Library Journal
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook
|
|
Item Number:
978-0-8389-1006-1
|
|
|
|
Including 66 focused snapshots of outreach in
action, this resource reflects the creative solutions
of librarians searching for new and innovative ways
to build programs that meet customer needs while
expanding the library’s scope into the community. |
|
|
|
Price: $55.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|