7th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services, 13 - 16 August 2007, SPIER HOTEL AND CONFERENCE CENTRE, South Africa

1. Quality measurement of
Croatian public and academic
libraries: methodology
Kornelija Petr, Osijek University,
Croatia
kpetr@ffos.hr

2. 2
Project
 project
 Evaluation of library and information
services: academic and public libraries
 funded and approved by Croatian
Ministry of Education, Science and
Sport (www.mzos.hr)
 PI: Kornelija Petr
 builds on:
 K. Petr’s doctoral thesis on Croatian
academic library quality

3. 3
Project’s objectives
 look into the views and ability of
Croatian public and academic library
staff;
 single out dimensions of their
effectiveness;
 identify measures of quality for
public and academic libraries

4. 4
Hypothesis
 Croatian libraries do not give
enough attention to processes of
quality measurement;
 librarians unprepared to conduct
any sort of evaluation at their
library;
 insufficient awareness of library
service quality affects all library
processes.

5. 5
Project outcomes
 collection of statistical data on state-of-
the-art in libraries;
 defined dimensions of effectiveness
(academic vs public libraries);
 demonstrate the evidence of differences
in views between library management
and staff;
 encourage more positive attitude of
library staff toward evaluation activities.

6. 6
Library scene in Croatia*
 Public libraries (2004)
 256
 staff: 1062
 Academic (+ national and
university) libraries
 HE – 131, national – 1, university – 2
 staff: HE – 239, national – 193,
university – 53 (TOTAL: 485)
*Statistical yearbook of the
Republic of Croatia, 2006

7. 7
Geographic distribution of libraries

8. 8
Methodology
 Questionnaire
 Interviews
 Analysis of library documentation

9. 9
Questionnaire 1/1
 based on questionnaire created by
McDonald-Micikas (1994)
 two versions:
 public libraries
 academic libraries
 subversions
 library staff
 library directors

10. 10
Questionnaire 1/2
 Topics:
 general information on a library,
 elements important for library
environment,
 library in general,
 library vs faculty/University
management/founder,
 library and new managerialism,
 library vs users

11. 11
Questionnaire 1/3
 additional topics for library
directors:
 related to education, CPD, attitudes
toward work and quality issues of
director’s co-workers
 anonimous – no feed back
 mail

12. 12
Questionnaire 1/4
 1547 questionnaires
 response rate:
 50% - 774 question. (Van House, Weil,
McClure)
 (expected) 1100-1200 question.
(between 70%-80%)

13. 13
Interviews 1/1
 semi-structured
 20-30 interviews
 20 – public library directors
 10 – academic, national and university
library directors
 256 public, 131 academic, 1 national, 2
university libraries =390 libraries
 66% - public libraries

14. 14
Interviews 1/2
 tentative topics:
 satisfaction with library services,
 'strong' and 'weak' sides of the library,
 the feeling of being privileged to work
in a particular library,
 familiarization with user perspective of
library and librarians,
 user expectations,
 competition,

15. 15
Interviews 1/3
 …
 relationship with (faculty, University)
management or founder (local
community),
 satisfaction with a status (only academic
libraries),
 monitoring of user expectations and
opinions, monitoring of performance
quality,
 dedication to continuous quality
improvement, etc.

16. 16
Library documentation
 collection of statistical and annual
reports
 analysis

17. 17
Time table 1/1
 Months 1-7:
 literature review, defining the sample, designin and
testing of the questionnaire, designing the interview
questions
 Months 8-9:
 copying and mailing of the questionnaire, contacting
the interviewees and making arrangements for the
interviews
 Months 10-12:
 distribution of the questionnaire, collecting of filled-
in questionnaires, reminding letters to libraries that
failed to return the questionnaires, collection of
library documentation

18. 18
Time table 1/2
 Months 13-18:
 interviews, collection of library
documentation
 Months 19-20:
 input and data processing (data
collected through questionnaires),
interpretation of results
 Months 21-24:
 transcribing of interviews

19. 19
Time table 1/3
 Months 25-27:
 semantic analysis of the interviews,
intepretation of results
 Months 28-29:
 analysis of library documentation,
interpretation of results
 Months 30-31:
 defining of dimensions of effectiveness
for academic and public libraries

20. 20
Time table 1/4
 Months 32-34:
 benchmarking of the results with other
relevant similar research projects in the
world
 Months 35-37:
 taxonomy of views and opinions of
Croatian librarians