The New Library User in Sweden: a LibQUAL+™ study

6th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measures in Libraries and Information Services

Durham22 - 25 August 2005

Martha KyrillidouAnn-Christin Persson

old.libqual.org

LibQUAL+™

old.libqual.org

Focus of the Paper• 1.how is the Information Control dimension depicted in

the results of the Swedish participants;

• 2.how does the Information Control dimension compare between the Swedish implementation and other libraries;

• • 3. the 'new user' as he emerges from the comments that

support the notion of the self-sufficient, independent, and autonomous information seeker at Lund University; and,

• 4. the new users as reflected in the linguistic translation issues of the LibQUAL+™ survey instrument in Swedish

old.libqual.org

The ‘new library user’

• Kruse

• Nagata

• Calvert

• Cook and Thompson

• Cook and Heath

• Lincoln

old.libqual.org

The ‘wild’ library user

A user “who is self-reliant and who views library control of resources as an obstruction to the creation of his or her own cognitive skills”.

Lincoln (2002)

old.libqual.org

LibQUAL+™ in Sweden 2004

Table 3. Swedish Institutions participating in 2004

Frequency Percent

Lund Institute of Tech--Swedish 987 40.62

Kliniska centralbiblioteket SU/Sahlgrenska 485 19.96

Göteborg U. Library, Economics Library 333 13.70

Medicinska biblioteket SU/Östra 396 16.30

Medicinska biblioteket SU/Mölndal 229 9.42

Total 2430 100.00

old.libqual.org

Descriptive Statistics for LibQUAL+™ in 2004Perceived Minimum Desired Service Adequacy Service Superiority

American English

Affect of Service 7.04 6.4 7.81 0.63 -0.77

Library as Place 6.69 6.14 7.6 0.55 -0.92

Information Control 7.02 6.74 8.15 0.28 -1.14

Total (n = 50,741) 6.98 6.5 7.93 0.48 -0.95

British English

Affect of Service 6.6 6.04 7.53 0.55 -0.93

Library as Place 5.88 5.89 7.48 -0.01 -1.6

Information Control 6.6 6.46 7.99 0.14 -1.4

Total (n = 15,807) 6.44 6.18 7.71 0.27 -1.26

Swedish

Affect of Service 6.68 6.08 7.71 0.6 -1.02

Library as Place 5.55 5.37 7.15 0.18 -1.59

Information Control 6.09 6.3 7.95 -0.21 -1.86

Total (n = 2,430) 6.26 6.06 7.74 0.2 -1.47

Lund Institute of Technology

Affect of Service 6.01 5.55 7.37 0.46 -1.36

Library as Place 5.3 5.09 7.11 0.21 -1.81

Information Control 5.84 6.08 7.95 -0.24 -2.11

Total (n = 1,034) 5.79 5.67 7.56 0.12 -1.76

old.libqual.org

Information Control in 2004

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

Perceived Minimum Desired Service Adequacy Service Superiority

Scale

Sco

res

American English

British English

Swedish

LTH

old.libqual.org

LTH Staff & Students

• Undergraduate students 5842• Postgraduate students 540• Professors* 192• Lecturers* 219• Other Teachers & researchers* 280• Technical & administrative staff* 230

• * Equivalent to fulltime

old.libqual.org

Zones of tolerance

Zones of tolerance

4

5

6

7

8

9

Affect of service Information control Library as place Overall

old.libqual.org

The five most desired items overall

Item Average stdv n

IC-1 Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office

8,14 1,4 983

IC-6 Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my own

8,132 1,34 998

IC-2 A library Web site enabling me to locate information on my own

8,04 1,45 1006

IC-7 Making information easily accessible for independent use

8 1,38 977

IC-8 Print and/or electronic journal collections I require for my work

7,92 1,52 920

old.libqual.org

The five largest Adequacy gaps overall

Item Average stdv n

IC-2 A library Web site enabling me to locate information on my own

-0,57 2,21 1006

IC-1 Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office

-0,38 2,26 983

IC-6 Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my own

-0,37 2,09 998

IC-7 Making information easily accessible for independent use

-0,23 2,04 977

LP-5 Community space for group learning and group study

-0,2 2,71 871

old.libqual.org

All comments divided into subjects Subjects positive negative neutral total

Affect of service 35 15 0 50

Control of information

26 132 36 194

Library as place 16 88 21 125

Other: 90

The survey 46

Non users 35

Library reorganization

5

User education 4

Total 459

old.libqual.org

Comments on the importance of self-sufficiency

• Phase-out the whole service and build a new digital library!

• The access to electronic journals is the absolutely most important for my work

• To be able to compete with search engines on the net the information needs to be more easily accessible. The possibility to search and find information fast must increase extremely strong

old.libqual.org

Translation

(Employees who are consistently courteous)

• Att alltid få ett tillmötesgående bemötande av personalen

• Personal som alltid är tillmötesgående

old.libqual.org

LIFE BEFORE THE COMPUTER Memory was something you lost with age An application was for employmentA program was a TV show    A cursor used profanity A keyboard was a pianoA web was a spider's homeA virus was the flu    A CD was a bank accountA hard drive was a long trip on the road    A mouse pad was where a mouse lived   

And if you had a 3-1/2 inch floppy ..

    ... you just hoped nobody ever found out   

old.libqual.org

September 2006

Charlottesville, VA, USA