Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Spanish version of LibQUAL+™

Abstract

Purpose

LibQUAL is a service‐quality assessment instrument developed by the Association of Research Libraries in partnership with Texas A&M University Library and has been used in numerous institutions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a Spanish version of the scale in terms of its structure, reliability, and validity.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected among students at a well‐known Mexican university. A total of 374 completed questionnaires were used in the analyses. Library service quality was measured using 22 items taken directly from the 2004 version of the LibQUAL scale. The back‐translation method was used to translate the original English version of LibQUAL into Spanish. Data were analysed using SPSS 16.0 and EQS 6.1 in the exploratory and confirmatory stages, respectively.

Findings

The study findings show that the Spanish version of the LibQUAL instrument actually consists of four dimensions: “affect of service”; “information access”; “personal control”; and “library as place”. The results support the reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity of the proposed Spanish version of the scale.

Originality/value

This is the first study to empirically evaluate and find support for the convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of a Spanish version of the LibQUAL scale.

Citation

Morales, M., Ladhari, R., Reynoso, J., Toro, R. and Sepulveda, C. (2011), "Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Spanish version of LibQUAL+™", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 23-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/14678041111124270