LibQUAL+^TM at Rhodes University Library: An overview of the first South African implementation

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how LibQUAL+™, as a “turn‐key” survey instrument, can provide the type of benchmarking information that can facilitate targeted service improvements.

This paper focuses on the Rhodes Library's implementation of the 2005 LibQUAL+™ survey. Results are looked at within the broader context of aggregate scores and score norms from the South African cohort. The library's first efforts to address areas where perceptions of service quality differed from users' expectations are described and plans for future efforts are indicated. The paper also details some lessons learnt by other LibQUAL+™ participants, as documented in published case studies.

The paper found that all groups of library users at Rhodes were very dissatisfied with their library building. Rhodes performed very well in the “Information Control” dimension but less well in the “Affect of Service” dimension.

The paper shows that other libraries implementing LibQUAL+™ for the first time could benefit by focusing on the lessons Rhodes learnt during the survey implementation.