A New Approach in the Studies of Quality Measurement of Library Services

The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the quality of Shahid Chamran University (SCU) central library services using the LibQual model. 358 SCU library users participated in the survey in which the degree of precision of “repeated measure” and “zone of tolerance” were also examined and compared initiatively by the researchers in addition to the main research problem. The results of the repeated measure test indicated that users in general, evaluated the quality of library services in the three LibQual indices as minimum, and there was no significant difference between users’ minimum level of expectations and received level of services in terms of service quality. Testing hypotheses for LibQual single indices indicated that in the two indices of “user’s perception of service” and “library as a place”, the difference between minimum level of expectations and received level the difference was not significant; while in “information control” index, there was a significant difference between minimum level of expectations and received level. Also, repeated measure tests indicated that there was a significant difference between minimum level of expectations and received level in three LibQual indices. The results of the study of “zone of tolerance” illustrated, however, that there was difference between minimum level of expectations and received level as well as maximum level of expectations and received level in all LibQual indices. Results of the study revealed that applying “repeated measure” test can increase the precision of quality studies, and play an important role in managerial decisions concerning library services. The same results also indicated that the library studied is not strong in “information control” as well.