LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Conceptual definition, perspectives, justification for, and historical perspective of service quality assessment in
3.1.3 Justification for academic library service quality assessment
Academic libraries are faced with challenges caused by the global digital environment and an increasingly competitive environment (Nimsomboon and Nagata 2003) which have necessitated the improvement of their quality of service in order to survive (Cullen 2000). As noted, traditional measurements of academic library service quality which focus on collection size and various counts of collection use are considered inadequate for assessing quality of service (Nitecki 1996:181). Furthermore, the traditional measures of quality of library service do not indicate whether the service is good, indifferent or bad (Hernon and Altman 1998:9). The need to understand what the academic library users expect with respect to quality of service has resulted in a new culture of assessment of service quality in academic libraries (Kyrillidou and Heath 2000).
Griffiths (2003:504) gives a brief but cogent summary of the justification of library assessment regardless of library type as "to support planning, communication of services performed and improvements achieved, decision making, monitoring of progress and resource allocation". Evans, Ward and Rugaas (2000:242), Wood (1998), and Wallace and Van Fleet (2000:xx) reason that accountability to the funders, parent institution and
other bodies necessitate that academic libraries make an assessment of service quality to produce information that will indicate their performance to justify their existence.
Assessment of libraries leads to enhanced efficiency and helps libraries to avoid possible errors (Wallace and Van Fleet 2000). Wallace and Van Fleet give examples of errors that have been the result of failure to assess the libraries or improper or infrequent assessment of libraries. These errors include inappropriate policies, processes, tools and techniques that are promulgated for protracted periods of time. One may extend the list of errors to include individual services that were not assessed and have become useless or unavailable for users; understaffing the library that may increase the workload of library staff and deprive the users of the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of required services to them. Assessment does not only help avoid errors but also identifies possible sources of errors or failures and inefficiency (Wood 1998).
Assessment is a management activity (Crawford 2000 and Wallace and Van Fleet 2000:
xxi) which makes planning successful. Bakewell (1996:217) provides a useful summary in this regard:
The evaluation of library and information services is an essential management activity. In a rapidly changing environment it is necessary to look closely at both systems and services in order to determine levels of use and the degree to which the services are meeting users' needs. In a user-centred environment it is necessary to use predefined measures in a systematic way to analyse the impact and quality of a service, as perceived by its users, and to be able to translate the result into action options which will ensure that services are meeting users' needs consistently.
Crawford (2000:14) states that assessment, as a management activity, involves users in management. He notes that regular assessment of library services allows the users to rediscover a voice in library management and air their opinions about service priorities.
Calvert (2001:732) also acknowledges that "the need to understand what library customers expect in terms of service quality is now necessary for good management".
Jankowska, Hartel and Young (2006) provide fundamental reasons for assessing service quality in academic libraries which some studies overlook. According to the authors, assessment is the only way that academic libraries will better understand user expectations or needs of library service quality and so keep up with user expectations. It is through assessment that libraries will be able to effectively exploit user feedback and act upon it for effective service delivery (Crawford 2000:13). Library assessment helps shape and influence user expectations. All these reasons point to the need for user based assessment. It is through this type of assessment that one gets user feedback, expectations and perceptions.
Assessment can be precipitated by formal or informal complaints from the recipients of the library services. In the private university libraries in Tanzania, for example, where users of the library are paying into the university coffers from their own pockets or via loans for their education, which of course includes library services, users are increasingly vocal in commenting on library services and criticising them. The presence of formal mechanisms for comments and complaints in universities has facilitated this trend. In order for the libraries to contain this situation, assessment of the library quality of service in order to identify areas of failure and improve the situation has become necessary (Crawford 2000:7-8).
To recap, reasons for academic library service quality assessment have been much discussed in the literature. Academic library assessment has become a necessity which cannot be avoided if academic libraries want to provide the best possible service. For the academic library to improve, grow, and provide essentially better services and products to its actual and potential users, assessment on a continual basis is a prerequisite.
It should be noted that academic libraries exist because of the parent institution's existence. This means that the parent institution's objectives which may include the
provision of training, learning and research cannot be realized without having in place a library facility which is furnished with sufficient qualified personnel to operate and maintain it. Furthermore, the objectives cannot be realized without adequate equipment (mechanical and electronic devices), quality, current and adequate collections, policies and procedures that enhance better services, adequate opening hours per day, sufficient space for group and individual study, and more importantly, an adequate annual budget to take care of library needs and implement these objectives (Opaleke 2002:102). The library which offers a quality service is necessary for the parent institution to excel in performing its operational and strategic goals and objectives of training and research.
3.1.4 Academic library service quality assessment in historical