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The purpose of this paper is to develop a service quality assessment model for academic libraries using SERVQUAL and validate the model surveying teachers, students and researchers.

A model was developed, including 28 statements of five dimensions using the SERVQUAL instrument. It incorporated three segments, i.e. minimum service expectation, desired service expectation and actual service performance with a seven-point Likert scale. The minimum service expectation and desired service expectation appear at both ends of the tolerance zone, which represents the range of satisfactory service performance. A performance level upper tolerance zone could delight users, or service performance below the tolerance zone would cause dissatisfaction. A survey was conducted among 552 respondents from ten private university libraries of Bangladesh to validate the model.

Several statistical methods like Cronbach’s alpha (0.986), Bartlett’s test (0.001), rotation sums of squared loadings (74.26) in factor analysis, item loading (0.671‐0.839), commonalities (0.579‐0.859), Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value (0.971), construct reliability (0.862‐0.910) and AVE value (0.510‐0.660) supported reliability and validity of the model. The actual service performance of all dimensions existed within the tolerance zone of the respective dimensions. Besides, the overall service performance (5.11) resided within the tolerance zone (4.73‐5.84), indicating the users were satisfied with the service provided by their libraries.

The model was developed in the current context of university libraries, which produced appropriate results. It will prompt further research on service quality assessment in academic libraries globally.

This paper aims to explain how the integrity or trustworthiness of library service quality assessment data can be evaluated. Using the metaphor of a bathroom scale, the paper also aims to present the ideas underlying score reliability and score validity in an accessible manner.

The use of the software, SPSS, to compute the related statistics is illustrated. LibQUAL+® data are used in heuristic examples, to make the discussion concrete, but the illustrations apply to both new and other measures of library service quality.

The paper suggests that assumptions about the quality of data should always be empirically checked whenever an attempt is made to characterize service quality.

This user‐friendly, conversational paper explains some of the more critical elements of service quality assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore from a number of points of view the perceptions of mainly undergraduate students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) about the value they derive from visiting the physical library.

Data from different investigations were assembled to derive a composite view of undergraduates’ perceptions of the value of the library. LibQUAL+® data reflecting the “Library as Place” dimension of the survey which was completed in 2014 were scrutinized; data from two surveys conducted in the information commons and the 24/7 venue of the main library at UCT were compiled and data from gate counts during the past three years showed different aspects of undergraduates’ opinions and behaviour.

The combination of data from difference sources provided convincing evidence that undergraduate students value the library as a physical space and that they believe their working in the library enables them to get better marks for their university work.

The originality of this paper lies in the combination of different data sets to focus on one particular issue, the value of the physical library.

LibQUAL+® allows users to rate their minimum, perceived, and desired levels of service for 22 items in three dimensions: information control, library as place, and service affect. Using the results from the 2005 survey at the University of Texas at Austin, this paper aims to examine how well the service priorities of library staff are aligned with the priorities of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.

The paper has re‐scaled the “desired” score for each item to reflect the degree to which the item is above or below the average desired level for that individual. The rescaled scores (termed “priority” scores) for the 22 items were then compared between the four groups using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).

Preliminary results indicate that service priorities for library staff align more closely with those of undergraduates than with those of graduate students and faculty.

This analysis is a first step in identifying service priority gaps between library staff and the users they serve. The intention is to promote discussion among library staff about users' needs and how closely staff service priorities align with those needs. In addition, the findings may prove useful as management information by allowing the analysis of users' service priorities and integrating the results of this analysis into organizational decision making and planning processes.

This paper describes a development of LibQUAL+® that enables a greater depth of understanding of service priorities.

While academic libraries have often purchased proprietary software to assess patron satisfaction, the open source movement has generated high-quality software available free of charge. These tools are useful alternatives in an era marked by tremendous budget cuts familiar to many academic libraries. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ability of open source software to effectively and affordably measure the quality of service at academic libraries.

The author's experience with using the open source tool LimeSurvey to administer a library survey over a three-year period serves as a case study for other institutions. A literature review contextualizes the history of patron satisfaction surveys within academic libraries and questions the lack of an open source presence. Popular proprietary survey software is reported as a viable but expensive option, leading to a detailed case study of Sarah Lawrence College's successful addition of open source software to its assessment procedures.

LimeSurvey is a flexible, customizable, and cost-effective tool for a small college library investing in querying its patrons for constructive feedback as a means of improving user experience.

This paper will be of value to any library on a fixed budget looking to assess patron satisfaction with resources and services. Very little literature currently exists on this topic, but as the open source movement continues to flourish this software can play an integral role in allowing libraries to cut costs but not indispensable patron feedback.

This research study is conducted to thoroughly investigate the users' expectations for excellent library service quality (LSQ) from college libraries. It will also identify whether there is any difference in the desired library service quality among different type of users, gender and academic discipline.

A survey method was used, and the data were collected from 998 respondents, which included faculty members, masters, bachelor's and intermediate students. In order to conduct the study, LibQUAL + instrument were adapted.

The results demonstrated that the users expected a higher level of services from the college libraries of Pakistan. The highest desired expectation of the users were related to “library as a place (LP)” dimension, while the lowest expectation was with regards to the “information control (IC)” dimension. The results indicated a significant difference among the various types of users and academic disciplines regarding their expectations with library services.

The appointment of college librarians against nearly 500 vacant posts would significantly improve the LSQ in these libraries. The result of the study would indeed be useful for the college administration, librarians the Government of the Punjab and the Punjab Higher Education Commission (HEC) for future planning, improvement of services and allocation of resources.

This study is the first in-depth effort into investigating the LSQ of the college libraries of the Punjab, Pakistan. This study will be helpful to understand the LSQ from developing countries’ perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to serve as a reminder to all managers that they must understand their customers, from the customers' perspective, and not make assumptions about customer needs.

Customer value discovery workshops are held with undergraduate on‐campus students and academic staff at Nottingham Trent University to identify customer values and irritations. Library staff participate in the workshops and vote as they expect their customers to vote. The gaps identified between staff assumptions of customer perceptions of service importance and performance serve as a catalyst for staff engagement in the change process that is necessary to deliver on the value propositions and reduce customer irritations.

Library staff assumptions of customer perceptions are not always accurate. The gaps identified help to engage staff in the change process that is necessary to improve perceptions of value and to reduce irritations. By explicitly addressing the value propositions with the aims of adding value and reducing irritation, student satisfaction with library services, as measured by two independent satisfaction surveys, improves considerably.

The research is based on two customer segments of one university library. The research should be repeated after a gap of three‐four years to check if the value propositions and irritations have changed in that time. If so, the goals of the library's operational plan would have to change to reflect the new value propositions.

A comparison of the Customer Value Discovery methodology with LibQUAL+™, which is used internationally, and the Rodski Research Group's method, used in Australia and New Zealand, is given.

The Customer Value Discovery methodology is most often used in the commercial sector. This paper explores its potential in the not‐for‐profit sector in the context of a university library service.

This paper aims to urge the new culture of assessment of the quality of library services among Iran academic libraries and to assess the overall services quality of libraries from the users' perspectives based on the LibQUAL model.

In this survey researchers used the LibQUAL model to assess service quality in the central libraries in engineering and technical governmental universities in Tehran city. For gathering data of libraries users, researchers used the LibQUAL questionnaire in a non‐electronic format and translated into Farsi.

It was found that library users were dissatisfied with their library building. But these libraries performed very well in the information control dimension. Furthermore, the examination of users' expectations showed that the proposition “Employees who are consistently courteous” was most important, and “Employees who instill confidence in users” had less importance.

Using the LibQUAL Survey has helped the university libraries in Iran to better serve their main user groups, and for the first time researchers used the non‐electronic format of LibQUAL questionnaire in the survey.

The main aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which the major public university libraries in Bangladesh are meeting students' service expectations through analyzing LibQUAL+ core items.

The survey data were obtained from students using a paper version of the questionnaire consisting of LibQUAL+ core 22 service items at four top-ranked public universities in Bangladesh. Students rated the items on three service levels each using a nine-point scale: Minimum level, Desired level and Perceived Level. Descriptive statistics, i.e. mean and SD were obtained and service adequacy gap (SAG) scores between perceived and minimum levels were computed to see whether the libraries are meeting students' minimum expectation. Non-parametric Wilcoxon sign rank test was conducted to examine the differences between minimum and perceived scores. Finally, Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to see the effect of students' demographic variables on their ratings on minimum and perceived scores.

The findings revealed that the service performances of major university libraries are lagging far behind from students' minimum expectation (minimum > perceived). There are significant differences between minimum and perceived scores. Significant differences are also found in students' gender, age and enrolment level concerning their ratings on minimum and perceived service levels.

The result of this study analyzes the service quality of major university libraries in Bangladesh. These findings can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the library services.

LibQUAL+ has been used mostly in academic libraries in developed countries but this is for the first time a paper-version of the instrument was used in university libraries in Bangladesh.