Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers, Third Edition

Peter Hernon Ellen Altman Robert E. Dugan

Price:

$75.00

ALA Member

$67.50

Item Number:

978-0-8389-1308-6

Published:

2015

Publisher:

ALA Editions

Pages:

232

Width:

8 ¹⁄₂"

Height:

11"

Format:

Softcover

AP Categories:

A, C, I

Samples

778.54 KB • pdf • Download

Description
About the Authors
Reviews

Academic and public libraries are continuing to transform as the information landscape changes, expanding their missions into new service roles that call for improved organizational performance and accountability. Since Assessing Service Quality premiered in 1998, receiving the prestigious Highsmith Library Literature Award, scores of library managers and administrators have trusted its guidance for applying a customer-centered approach to service quality and performance evaluation. This extensively revised and updated edition explores even further the ways technology influences both the experiences of library customers and the ways libraries themselves can assess those experiences. With a clear focus on real-world application, the authors

Challenge conventional thinking about the utility of input, output, and performance metrics by suggesting new ways to think about the evaluation and assessment of library services
Explain service quality and customer satisfaction, and demonstrate how they are separate but intertwined
Identify procedures for qualitatively and quantitatively measuring both service quality and satisfaction
Encourage libraries to take action by presenting concrete steps they can take to become more customer-centric
Offer a range of customer-related metrics that provide insights useful for library planning and decision making, such as surveys and focus groups

This book shows how to nurture an environment of continuous improvement through effective service quality assessment.

Peter Hernon

Peter Hernon is a professor emeritus at Simmons College, Boston, and was the principal (and founding) faculty member for the doctoral program, Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions. He received his PhD degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, and was the 2008 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries' award for Academic/Research Librarian of the Year, the founding editor of Government Information Quarterly, and past editor-in- chief of The Journal of Academic Librarianship. He is the coeditor of Library & Information Science Research and has taught, conducted workshops, and delivered addresses in eleven countries outside the United States. He is the author or co-author of 57 books, including the award-winning Federal Information Policies in the 1980s (1985) and Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives (2009).

Ellen Altman

Ellen Altman, now retired, was visiting professor in the Department of Library and Information Studies, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), 1996– 1997. She had 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 was coeditor of "The JAL Guide to the Professional Literature" in the Journal of Academic Librarianship, a member of the editorial board of Library Quarterly, and a co-author of Performance Measures for Public Libraries. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, in 1983.

Robert E. Dugan

Robert E. Dugan is director of the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University in Boston. He has worked in libraries for more than 27 years serving as associate university librarian, state librarian, public library director, and reference librarian. Dugan is the author of more than 40 articles on information policy and the use of technology and has coauthored two books, including U.S. Government on the Web.

"Throughout, figures provide straightforward model assessment forms and practical examples for the concepts being discussed … As the chair of my library's assessment committee, which incorporates assessment into all aspects of our operations, I believe that libraries of all types can benefit from the various assessment concepts and strategies presented and discussed. Librarians charged with doing assessment for their organizations will find the book valuable in both theory and practice."
— Technical Services Quarterly

"The third edition presents some major updates, reflecting the changing library landscape and technologies. The authors felt the need to make updates in the third edition to address these recent changes, primarily citing newer developments in the library culture at large. Additions in the new edition, such as incorporating and surveying social media, are examples of the new content ... the text is clearly written and presented, with many figures and illustrations to support the discussion points. The book would provide a good foundation for anyone looking to start an assessment or survey of their library and gives a solid framework for the process of initiating the work involved in such an endeavor."
— Reference Reviews

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