QUALITY IN INFORMATION-SERVICES - DO USERS AND LIBRARIANS DIFFER IN THEIR EXPECTATIONS

This article describes part of a project designed to develop a user-ba sed approach to measuring the quality of an information service, that is, the extent to which the service provided by the library meets or e xceeds the users' expectations for an excellent or superior service on a consistent basis. The main question investigated is whether there a re differences in the expectations that academics hold of information services provided by academic libraries, and librarians' perceptions o f these expectations. The results show that academics and librarians h ave similar expectations but there are differences in the emphasis eac h group places on aspects of service. Librarians, for example, underes timate the importance to academics of the responsiveness of a service and overestimate the importance of the characteristics of the staff wh o provide the service. Practical applications of the findings are disc ussed and theoretical implications explored.