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

ALA Member
$67.50
Price
$75.00
Item Number
978-0-8389-1308-6
Published
2015
Publisher
ALA Editions
Pages
232
Width
8 12"
Height
11"
Format
Softcover
AP Categories
A
C
I
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  • Description
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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 was a retired faculty member of the library schools at University of Kentucky in Lexington, University of Toronto in Ontario, and Indiana University Bloomington. Altman was director of the library school at University of Arizona in Tucson from 1979 to 1985. She served as feature editor of Public Libraries from 1993 to 1999 and coauthored eight books, including Assessing Service Quality, which won the Highsmith Library Literature Award in 1999. She also served as ALA councilor from 1980 to 1984, and held numerous ALA committee assignments. 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