What is the basis for the LibQUAL survey instrument?
The LibQUAL+™ survey is adapted from an instrument called SERVQUAL, a popular tool for assessing service quality in the private sector. SERVQUAL, 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. Texas A&M University Libraries and other libraries used 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. The LibQUAL project was supported in part by a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).
