Journal of Information and Knowledge (Formerly SRELS Journal of Information Management)

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Customer Satisfaction in Libraries


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1 Library and Documentation, ISRO Satellite Centre, Old Airport Road, Bangaluru – 560017, India
     

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The paper points out certain quantitative methods largely ignored by library service providers; Highlights the importance of customer participation in service delivery process; Examines the concepts ‘service quality’ and ‘customer satisfaction’; emphasizes the need for appropriately handling waiting lines in service organizations; presents briefly the theory of waiting lines (queueing theory), psychology of customers in waiting lines with illustrations from library situations; Discusses ways and means of reducing delays in waiting lines and increasing service quality and customer satisfaction and concludes by stressing the need for appropriate studies on these lines in Librarianship.

Keywords

Customer Satisfaction, Library Services, Library Research, Queuing Theory, Quantitative Approaches, Service Quality, Waiting Lines.
User
About The Author

M. S. Sridhar
Library and Documentation, ISRO Satellite Centre, Old Airport Road, Bangaluru – 560017
India


Notifications

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  • Chase, R. B. (1978 Nov.-Dec.). Where does the customer fit in a service operation? Harvard Business Review, 1035-1050.

  • Chase, R. B. (1981). The customer contact approach to services: Theoretical bases and practical extensions. Operations Research, 29(4), 698-706. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.29.4.698.

  • Chase, R. B. and Tansik, D. A. (1983). The customer contact model for organisational design. Management Science, 29, 1037-1050. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.29.9.1037.

  • Chase, R. B. and Dasu, S. (June 2001). Want to perfect your company’s service? Use behavioural Science. Harvard Business Review, 79-84.

  • Czepiel, J. A., et al., Eds. (1985). The Service Encounter. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

  • Ellis, D. and Norton, B. (1993). Implementing BS5750 / ISO9000 in libraries. London: Aslib.

  • Iivari, J. (1997). User Information Satisfaction: A Critical Review. In: Kent, Allen, ed. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. New York: Marcel Dekker; v.60, Supplement 23, p. 341-364.

  • Jones, T. O. (Fall 1998). Why satisfied customers defect. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 26(3), 16-26.

  • Lovelock, C. H. (1988). Managing Services: Marketing, Operations and Human Resources. New Delhi: Prentice Hall.

  • Murphy, J. A. and Farmer, T. (1993). Service Quality in Practice: A Handbook for Practitioners. Golden Bridge, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (September 1983). User participation in collection building in a special library: A case study. IASLIC Bulletin, 28(3), 117-122.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (1989). Patterns of user-visit, movement and length of stay in a special library: A case study. Annals of Library Science and Documentation, 36(4), 134-138.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (September 1994). Non-users and non-use of libraries. Library Science with a slant to Documentation and Information Studies, 31(3), 115-128.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (September 1998). Customer participation in service production and delivery system, Library Science with a slant to Documentation and Information Studies, 35(3), 157-163.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (June 2001). Waiting lines and customer satisfaction. SRELS Journal of Information Management, 38(2), 99-112.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (28-31 January 1985). Book Procurement Delay: A De-Motivator to user Participation in Collection Development. In: Building Library Collections and National Policy for Library and Information Services: Seminar Papers Presented in XXX All India Library Conference, Rajasthan University, Jaipur, Ed. by P.B. Mangla. Delhi: ILA; p. 329-334.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (1988). Library-use Index and Library-Interaction Index as Measures of Effectiveness of a Special Library: A Case Study. In: Proceedings of XXXIV All India Library Conference on Library and Information Services: Assessment and Effectiveness. Calcutta: ILA; p. 449-465.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (1988). Customer-Characteristics as Criteria for Market-Segmentation in Libraries. In: Marketing of Library and Information Services in India: Papers Presented at the 13th National Seminar of IASLIC, Calcutta, December 20-23, 1988, Ed. by S.K. Kapoor and Amitabha Chatterjee. IASLIC Special Publication No. 28. Calcutta: IASLIC; p. 43-52.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (2002). Library use and user Research: With Twenty Case Studies. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (1990). User-research: A Review of Information-behaviour Studies in Science and Technology. Bangalore: BIBLIO INFON Service.

  • Sridhar, M. S. (1995). Managerial Quality and Leadership. In: Management of Library and Information Centres. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University, MLIS-05, Unit 3; p. 43-68.

  • Wills, M. R. (1999). Dealing with Difficult People in the Library. Chicago: ALA.

  • Wilson, A. B. (1995). New Directions in Marketing: Business-to-Business Strategies in 1990s. New Delhi: Excel Books. https://doi.org/10.1002/dir.4000090406.

  • Wilson, T. D. (2000). Recent trends in user studies: Action research and qualitative methods. Information Research, 5(3).


Abstract Views: 344

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  • Customer Satisfaction in Libraries

Abstract Views: 344  |  PDF Views: 3

Authors

M. S. Sridhar
Library and Documentation, ISRO Satellite Centre, Old Airport Road, Bangaluru – 560017, India

Abstract


The paper points out certain quantitative methods largely ignored by library service providers; Highlights the importance of customer participation in service delivery process; Examines the concepts ‘service quality’ and ‘customer satisfaction’; emphasizes the need for appropriately handling waiting lines in service organizations; presents briefly the theory of waiting lines (queueing theory), psychology of customers in waiting lines with illustrations from library situations; Discusses ways and means of reducing delays in waiting lines and increasing service quality and customer satisfaction and concludes by stressing the need for appropriate studies on these lines in Librarianship.

Keywords


Customer Satisfaction, Library Services, Library Research, Queuing Theory, Quantitative Approaches, Service Quality, Waiting Lines.

References