Library value through user satisfaction: The case of academic libraries in Ghana

In September 2010, the Association of College and Research Libraries released The Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report. The spread of the novel coronavirus and the resulting global pandemic has raised questions about the concept of value in academic libraries. How is value attributed? How does value function? What does it mean to demonstrate or prove our value? We begin with an overview and analysis of ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Initiative. We then provide a description and timeline of the spread of COVID-19 and the reaction of both institutions of higher education, academic libraries, professional library organizations, and individual librarians. The pandemic has created a new category of workers - “essential workers” - who provide vital services, perform maintenance work, and labor to keep infrastructures intact. The role of carework and careworkers in the pandemic helps illuminate the situation of academic librarians within regimes of neoliberal austerity. Ultimately we argue that although the discourse of library value seeks to prove library value rationally and empirically, through a lot of quantitative data, capitalism, the economy, and value are fundamentally irrational. Academic library value must be claimed politically; misrecognizing the nature of the problem and relying on commonsense understandings of value and the economic, which is what the discourse of library value has done for the past decade, goes nowhere.

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Towards an Understanding of User Satisfaction and Continuance Intention in Human-Mediated Services: An Investigation of Academic Libraries

Journal of Information Management ◽

10.1633/jim.2011.42.3.187 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 187-210 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bo-Ram Lee ◽

Ji-Hong Park

Keyword(s):

Academic Libraries ◽

User Satisfaction ◽

Continuance Intention

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Working together: library value at the University of Nottingham

Performance Measurement and Metrics ◽

10.1108/pmm-03-2014-0011 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 15 (1/2) ◽

pp. 41-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Claire Creaser ◽

Susanne Cullen ◽

Ruth Curtis ◽

Nicola Darlington ◽

Jane Maltby ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Academic Libraries ◽

Academic Staff ◽

Academic Librarians ◽

Library Services ◽

Research Staff ◽

Teaching And Research ◽

Content Type ◽

Working Together ◽

The University ◽

Library Value

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bring together the findings of two studies investigating the value of academic libraries to teaching and research staff in higher education institutions. The Working Together (WT) project was an international study, funded by SAGE Publishing, investigating the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff in the USA, UK and Scandinavia. The Raising Academic Impact (RAI) project was an initiative of the University of Nottingham (UoN) aimed at increasing the impact of academic librarians in departments across the university by assessing perception and awareness of current library services and future needs of academic staff. Design/methodology/approach – The WT project was conducted during Spring 2012, comprising a series of eight case studies and an online survey exploring the case study experiences and findings within their wider regional and academic context. One was conducted at the UoN, and included the RAI project. The RAI project was originally a four-phase initiative conducted by academic librarians at the UoN. The first phase, which is reported in this paper, consisted of a survey of teaching and research staff, distributed in summer 2012, investigating awareness, uptake and value of existing services, as well as demand for new library services. Findings – Determining the value of academic libraries is a challenging task as very little evidence (beyond the anecdotal) is collected. Perceptions of library value vary greatly between what librarians think the value of their library is to academic staff and how academic staff actually value their library. Information literacy and study skills teaching are greatly valued by academic staff. Despite current efforts, research support is still limited, owing to a cultural barrier hampering greater collaboration between libraries and academic staff in this area. Communication and marketing are keys to increase the value of academic libraries to teaching and research staff. Originality/value – This paper presents the key findings from the two studies in parallel. It is anticipated that these discoveries will be of interest to the wider library community to help libraries develop services which are closely linked to the needs of teaching and academic staff.

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Information Access Pattern of Faculty Members of Veterinary College and Research Institute in Chennai and Orathanad of Tamil Nadu, India: A Study

Asian Journal of Information Science and Technology ◽

10.51983/ajist-2019.9.1.2627 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 86-90

Author(s):

S. Karthikeyan ◽

K. Vijayakumar

Keyword(s):

Academic Libraries ◽

User Satisfaction ◽

Tamil Nadu ◽

Information Access ◽

Sampling Technique ◽

Faculty Members ◽

Library Services ◽

Full Time ◽

Electronic Environment ◽

Research Institute

Now a days the academic libraries are universally accepted as a central organ around which all academic activity revolve. It is probably for this reason that library is said to be the heart of an academic institution. Academic Libraries provide additional facilities for higher learning, research and dissemination of knowledge publications. There are great varieties of users, demanding different kinds of library services. All library services such as collection building, processing, stacking and display of the materials, organizing, managing by other related activities are entirely geared to use and the library users. This study analyses the Information Access by Faculty Members in Electronic Environment: A Study at Selected Veterinary Colleges in Tamil Nadu. This study analyses the accessibility of library collections, information and communication technology infrastructure facilities, the user satisfaction on electronic resources and database management, and the services provided to the user through the Internet. This study is to find out the information access by Faculty Members about library resources and services in the electronic environment. Totally 117 questionnaires were distributed and 102 were received. This study provides the information access by Faculty Members of Veterinary College and Research Institute in Chennai and Orathanad. The present study is focused on the Faculty Members from two Veterinary Colleges in Tamil Nadu. The population for this study consists of full time Faculty Members with different departments using the Simple Random Sampling technique was used to choose the sample.

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Influence of satisfaction and loyalty on Net Promoter Score (NPS) in academic libraries in Indonesia

Library Management ◽

10.1108/lm-06-2020-0090 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Dyah Puspitasari Srirahayu ◽

Esti Putri Anugrah ◽

Khoirotun Layyinah

Keyword(s):

Academic Libraries ◽

User Satisfaction ◽

Public Libraries ◽

Academic Library ◽

Public Higher Education ◽

State University ◽

Content Type ◽

User Expectations ◽

Higher Education Centers ◽

The Relationship

PurposeThis study aims to determine the NPS score of state academic libraries users in Indonesia, the relationship between user loyalty and NPS scores and the relationship between user satisfaction with NPS.Design/methodology/approachThe method used in this research is quantitative explanatory method, which surveyed the relationship between satisfaction, loyalty and NPS variables based on the development of previous studies and existing theories. The population in this study were students visiting the state university library in Surabaya, Indonesia, namely Library A, Library B, Library C and Library D. The total number of samples taken was 200 divided equally to each of the universities, with 50 respondents respectively. Data collection was done with a questionnaire.FindingsThe Result shows that NPS value for academic library in Indonesia was 8. (1) The probability value of satisfaction with NPS is 0.18 (greater than 0.01) so H1 is rejected, meaning that satisfaction has no significant effect on NPS, (2) The probability value of satisfaction with loyalty is < 0.01 so that H0 is accepted. This means that satisfaction has a significant effect on loyalty and (3) The probability value of loyalty to NPS is < 0.01 so that H0 is accepted. This indicates that loyalty has a significant effect on NPS.Research limitations/implicationsTo get user satisfaction, libraries need to improve facilities and services in accordance with the characteristics and needs of users, so that user expectations will be met and achieve satisfaction. When user satisfaction has been fulfilled, user loyalty to library products will be formed, so the NPS score will increase which is manifested by users recommending the library to others. This research has limitations, namely that the object of research is only in public higher education centers, so for generalization it is necessary to add research objects such as private college libraries, public libraries or school libraries.Originality/valueResearch on loyalty by using NPS has not been done much especially in Indonesia. This study also examines the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty on NPS scores.

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