Perceptions of Pakistani Users about Library Service Quality: LibQUAL Comments, Shafiq Ur Rehman, Widad Mustafa El Hadi

There are at least eleven ways to listen the customers: transactional surveys, mystery shopping, new declining and lost customer surveys, focus group interviews, customer advisory panels, service reviews, customer complaint, comment, inquiry capture, total market surveys, employee field reporting, employee surveys and service operating data capture (Parasuraman as cited in Cook, Heath, Thompson, & Thompson, 2001).The French writer François de la Rochefoucauld said that "Il est plus nécessaire d'étudier les hommes que les livres" (It is more important to study people than books).The LibQUAL qualitative comments provide very rich information on user's perception about library service quality. It gives unique opportunity for participating libraries to compare the users' perception through mix methods. Thompson, Kyrillidou, and Cook (2007) noted that about 40% of the LibQUAL respondents provide open-ended comments. These comments often indicate weak and strong areas of library service quality and library administration can use these comments and suggestions for improvement of their services.