A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Customer satisfaction and the strategic role of university libraries




AuthorsHakala U, Nygren U

PublisherWILEY-BLACKWELL

Publication year2010

JournalInternational Journal of Consumer Studies

Journal name in sourceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES

Journal acronymINT J CONSUM STUD

Volume34

Issue2

First page 204

Last page211

Number of pages8

ISSN1470-6423

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2009.00834.x(external)


Abstract
The paper stresses the importance of listening to customers at university libraries and the need to move from a library-based view to a customer-based view. Largely on account of their public nature, academic libraries in Finland - where the study was conducted - have until recently, based their operations and development mainly on conventional procedures and library-based perspectives. However, in order to better serve their own clientele, as well as their parent organizations, they need to listen to the voices of their customers, the library users. One way of 'listening' is through a customer survey, in this case LibQUAL - a survey instrument developed in the US for libraries. It collects data on the quality of the services, thus enabling libraries to identify areas in which service levels should be improved.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 16:45