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Quantitative representation of perception and evaluation method for service quality in university library under 4-D space

Jingyi Wang (Library, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China)
Run Yuan (Library, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China)
Hongwei Shi (Facility Division, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China)

Library Hi Tech

ISSN: 0737-8831

Article publication date: 6 December 2019

Issue publication date: 14 February 2022

573

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the service quality of university library more accurately and dynamically and improve the service efficiency of library. The paper realizes quantified representation of library service quality and overcomes the shortcoming of the traditional library evaluation system, which does not consider reader’s identity and cannot be evaluated separately. In addition, according to the function configuration of each department of library, a relation between library evaluation parameter and its organization structure is built. According to the evaluation results and the chain of relations, some suggestions for improving library service can be put forward; thus, it can improve the quality of library service and management efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, a four-dimensional (4-D) representation method is put forward to express four kinds of parameters, namely, the category of participants, the number of people evaluated, the rating level and the weight of parameters, which is expressed by chromaticity and a three-dimensional column coordinate space. Considering the existing evaluation methods such as LibQUAL+TM, the content of evaluation parameters, the grade of evaluation parameters and the weight of evaluation parameters are modified. Using the volume and the equivalent number of people under this evaluation system, the evaluation grade can be quantified and the total results can be evaluated quantitatively.

Findings

The evaluation model proposed in this paper is a 4-D system that is based on content parameters to evaluate the number of participants, score segments, evaluation content weights and reader information. It gives full consideration to the good advice of many scholars and combines the actual operation of domestic libraries. The situation effectively integrates successful experience abroad. Both the undergraduate and teacher sampling evaluation results and their analysis in this paper show the accuracy and credibility of the method.

Originality/value

Although the satisfaction index model has a good effect in foreign countries, taking into account that readers of university libraries in China are different from those in foreign countries in the evaluation methods of the tutorial, professional multi-level evaluation will produce greater errors in practical applications. The traditional four-level method based on Chinese education evaluation (excellent, good, pass and fail) has reached consensus among teachers and students in practical application, and it is easy to achieve consistency. Therefore, this paper also adopts four-level evaluation, that is, very satisfied, satisfied, generally satisfied and very dissatisfied. The embedded application will be able to perform dynamic evaluation and thus can be used in China. The evaluation of service quality in university libraries provides an effective new method.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science in China (No. 14BTQ018), and Jjiangsu University Philosophy and Social Science Research Project (No. 2018SJA1051). This paper forms part of a special section “Informetrics on Social Network Mining: Research, Policy and Practice challenges - Part 2”, guest edited by Mu-Yen Chen, Chien-Hsiang Liao, Edwin David Lughofer and Erol Egrioglu.

Citation

Wang, J., Yuan, R. and Shi, H. (2022), "Quantitative representation of perception and evaluation method for service quality in university library under 4-D space", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-09-2018-0121

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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