Library Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the user's assessment of the level of quality of the library services of the Portuguese University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) in order to identify its potential improvement.

Design/methodology/approach – Following a literature review on library service quality assessment focusing on the ServQual, Lib Qual, or Biqual conceptual tools, a survey was designed and applied to a sample of the UTAD library's users, and then subjected to statistical analysis.

Findings – The literature review on library quality service assessment points out an array of dimensions that must be taken into account. The conceptual tools recently developed for that assessment showed that the services provided by the UTAD library needed to be redefined in order to enhance its user's autonomy. The results of the survey follow the findings of the literature review and, in particular, show that for the UTAD case study: gender is an important variable to take into account; the access to new technologies and to its convenient use is of the outmost importance; and face to face relation between users and service providers must be deepened.

Practical implications – The data survey clearly indicates the areas in which UTAD library has to direct its efforts in order to improve the quality of its services and meet users' expectations.

Originality/value – The results opened up the way to future comparative investigations with other services provided by other university libraries.