[Evaluation of the quality of library services from the viewpoints of users and librarians using libQual scale at Tehran University of Medical Sciences]

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, LibQual scale as a new tool, measures expectations more efficiently than the traditional ones. The present study aims to compare the viewpoints of students and librarians at Tehran University of Medical Sciences to determine the quality of library services with LibQual model. The present study was an analytical survey. Method. LibQual questionnaire was used for data collection. In this study 231 users and 30 were selected through simple random sampling of the questionnaire was measured by Cranach's Alpha test was used to ensure the reliability of the data gathering tool. Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests were used. The results showed that the users evaluate the current quality of services lower than what the librarians did. This difference of opinion is much more drastic when evaluating the information control subscale. Service superiority gap was estimated to be 2.8 for the overall library services and the said libraries fall fairly short of providing users with the desired level of services. From the users' point of view, the three subscales of LibQual do not have an equal effect on the quality of the provided services whereas the librarians disagree with an equal effectiveness of the subscales. The librarians have a correct understanding of the users' expectations and the gap between the users' expectations and the librarians' perceptions of their needs and demands was very small [0.18]. This study showed that LibQual as a model of evaluating the quality of services could help in providing information that facilitates the improvement of planned services at Tehran University of Medical Scien ces libraries. By providing the necessary facilities and services to users, librarians can offer services to users with known expectations and needs. Therefore, if there are shortcomings in the quality of services, it is not because librarians are unaware of the users' needs, but rather lack of necessary facilities might be the reason