LibQUAL Service Quality Assessment

LibQUAL+ is a standardized survey method for measuring library service quality from the user's point of view, built on the gap-analysis logic of the SERVQUAL instrument from marketing. For each survey item, users supply three ratings, the minimum service they would find acceptable, the service they desire, and the service they actually perceive, and the method computes gap scores from these: an adequacy gap (perceived minus minimum) and a superiority gap (perceived minus desired). The space between minimum and desired defines a zone of tolerance, and the analysis reveals which services fall below it, sit within it, or exceed it. Developed by Colleen Cook, Fred Heath, and Bruce Thompson under the Association of Research Libraries and validated across hundreds of institutions, LibQUAL+ organizes items into dimensions such as Affect of Service, Information Control, and Library as Place.