Item sampling in service quality assessment surveys to improve response rates and reduce respondent burden

Purpose – Survey researchers sometimes develop large pools of items about which they seek participants’ views. As a general proposition, library participants cannot reasonably be expected to respond to 100 þ items on a given service quality assessment protocol. This paper seeks to describe the use of matrix sampling to reduce that burden on the participant. Design/methodology/approach – Matrix sampling is a survey method that can be used to collect data on all survey items without requiring every participant to react to every survey question. Here the features of data are investigated from one such survey, the LibQUAL þ w Lite protocol, and the participation rates, completion times, and result comparisons across the two administration protocols – the traditional LibQUAL þ w protocol and the LibQUAL þ w Lite protocol – at each of the four institutions are explored. Findings – Greater completion rates were realized with the LibQUAL þ w Lite protocol. Originality/value – The data from the Lite protocol might be the most accurate representation of the views of all the library users in a given community.