Measuring
Service Quality
|
 The Law
Library, along with other members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges
and Universities Law Libraries, is participating in the LibQUAL+
program. LibQUAL+(TM) is a suite of services that libraries use to
solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service
quality. These services are offered to the library community by the
Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The program's centerpiece is a
rigorously tested Web-based survey bundled with training that helps
libraries assess and improve library services, change organizational
culture, and market the library. The goals of LibQUAL+(TM) are to:
-Foster a culture of
excellence in providing library service
-Help libraries better
understand user perceptions of library service quality
-Collect and interpret
library user feedback systematically over time
-Provide libraries with
comparable assessment information from peer institutions
-Identify best practices
in library service
-Enhance library staff
members' analytical skills for interpreting and acting on data
As of spring 2003, LibQUAL+(TM) has more than 400 participating
institutions, including colleges and universities, community colleges,
health sciences libraries, law libraries, and public libraries -- some
through various consortia, others as independent participants.
LibQUAL+(TM) has expanded internationally, with participating
institutions in Canada, the U.K., and Europe. The growing LibQUAL+(TM)
community of participants and its extensive dataset are rich resources
for improving library services.
The LibQUAL+ survey instrument is adapted from an instrument called
SERVQUAL, which is grounded in the "Gap Theory of Service Quality" and
was developed by the marketing research team of A. Parasuraman, V.A.
Zeithaml, and L.L. Berry. The Texas A&M University Libraries and
other libraries have been using modified SERVQUAL instruments for
several years. These applications showed the need for a newly adapted
SERVQUAL protocol that serves the needs of libraries; thus LibQUAL+ was
born. The original SERVQUAL instrument was regrounded based on a series
of interviews with library users.
Later this spring, you will be asked to take the online survey, which
can be completed in less than fifteen minutes. Your participation will
assist us in assessing and improving library services.
More announcements on the LibQUAL+ program will appear prior to the
actual implementation of the survey.
"Money makes the world go
around,” sings the emcee in Cabaret. Although the songwriter was not
referring to the online world, the sentiment is perfectly accurate.
Money is the reason that information appears on the web, and money is
the reason that information does not appear on the web.
Search engines,
databases, and catalogs are not built and maintained by
philanthropists. (In fact, early university library catalogs were
compiled and sold by entrepreneurs directly to students.) Economic
feasibility dictates the collection, storage, and management of
information. The student should keep this in mind when composing and
executing a search strategy.
Search engines sell
advertising space. Results found on the first page may not be the
“best” results, or even something that you want. The next time you are
using your favorite search engine, take a look at the "About” pages and
the “Advertising Information” pages. You may be surprised.
If something is popular,
there will be a market for that item, and that item will be available
for purchase, despite changing technology. For example, Ozzy Osbourne’s
Paranoid was originally released as an LP; it was subsequently made
available on 8-track, cassette, and CD. Finally, it became available
online. An old state law, however, may not be found online. It may have
never even been reprinted. The market is too limited to justify the
cost of placing it online.
Old newspaper articles
which were once available online have been disappearing. After the New
York Times Co. v. Tasini decision, which held that authors of existing
print stories had to be paid again when the same stories were added to
online databases, companies began to simply remove material from their
databases, rather than pay the authors again. The stories are just not
there to find.
Sometimes licensing
problems can impede access to information. Databases like Westlaw
contain materials via licensing agreements with other companies. A
library might have to have a contract with Vendor Baker in order to get
information from Vendor Able. If not, there is no access.
The Library’s own catalog
is not what many students expect. When the library receives an update
to a serial, the technical service staff will process the update,
notate the existing catalog record, and place it on the shelf. If it is
a journal or magazine, they do not create new catalog records for
each article and author contained within. That effort would require a
huge staff, both for this library, and for all libraries. Instead,
libraries subscribe to commercial databases that do have that
information.
"A
mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound”; that is the “clinking clanking” sound
to think of when searching for information, not the clinking of the
computer keys.
The Reference Desk is now staffed on Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. until
6:00 p.m. On Sundays, the hours have changed slightly, and are also
from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. For Monday through Thursday evenings,
the hours are now 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
When you hear a librarian or an editor say “ILL,” she is not discussing
health concerns. ILL is the acronym for Inter-Library Loan. And what is
that?
This library belongs to the Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
(OCLC), which began in the 1960's as a group of Ohio academic libraries
seeking a cooperative processing center. OCLC introduced an online
shared cataloging system for libraries in 1971, and introduced the
Interlibrary Loan service in 1979. Today OCLC is a nonprofit membership
organization serving 43,559 libraries in 86 countries and territories
around the world.
If you need an article or book that this library does not have, it may
be possible to get a copy through ILL. Our ILL person, Margaret
Johnson, can request materials from participating OCLC libraries which
have them. However, please remember that a library may, and often will,
refuse to send material to another library. Also, the “turn around”
time for an average request will be two weeks or more.
If you are working on an article or research paper, please take
advantage of this library service. But remember, plan ahead, as
last-minute requests only rarely yield results.
What’s brand new in the library? Why, serials and books, of course.
Right by the second floor entrance to the elevator, under the reference
office windows, stands the bookshelf for recent arrivals. This shelf is
a convenient way for you to peruse new legal material before it is
placed on the regular shelves.
New issues of law reviews are changed weekly. (Then they go up to the
third floor.)
A selection of interesting books are also placed on the shelf. These
may last for several weeks, or until an intrigued patron checks them
out at the circulation desk.
Please help us by complying with the Law Library food and drink
policy. You may drink beverages from spill-proof containers
anywhere in the Law Library. Covered containers such as those
from Starbucks do not qualify. We will be giving a spill-proof
mug to all first-year students as well as returning upperclass
students. Ask about your mug at the Circulation and Reserve Desk.
There should be no food on the second or third floors of the Law
Library. In the first floor reading room, you may consume
non-microwavable vending machine snacks such as potato chips, corn
chips, and candy. Please dispose of wrappers appropriately.
Please cooperate with this food and drink policy. It is designed
to protect the Law Library from an invasion of little creatures that
not only feed on any leftovers but on paper, bindings, and glue in
books. It will also serve to protect the new furniture from any
inadvertent spills.
Last fall, the reference librarians served up something new for lunch:
knowledge. It may not have been as much fun as Sunday brunch at
Brennan’s, but it was practical. Besides, Eggs Sardou and Bananas
Foster are simply not permitted in the library.
On select Tuesdays and Thursdays, the librarians taught refresher
classes on research skills. The topics covered were Case law, Statutes,
Secondary Resources, and Foreign & International. Each lunchtime
class was approximately 50 minutes long.
If there is sufficient interest, the librarians will teach these
refresher classes again. The classes are a great way for you to brush
up on your legal research skills, or perhaps even to learn what you
missed your first year. All students would be welcome to attend. If you
would be interested in one or more of the classes, please notify
Etheldra Scoggin.
Please call the Circulation Department at 861-5545 if you have any
questions regarding the hours of operation.
Regular Schedule:
August 15, 2003 - April 29, 2004
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Monday - Thursday: 7:30 a.m. - 12:00 midnight
Friday: 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Reference Desk:
Monday - Thursday: 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Friday: 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Saturday: 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday: 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
|
|
