Technology and customer expectation in academic libraries: A special reference to technical/management libraries in Karnataka

Technology has transformed the way people live. Current day information seekers are empowered with multiple choices of information sources and libraries no longer remain the primary centre for information seekers. With diminishing time and geographical barriers the world has become a global village and information seekers are stressed with time constraints. It is the duty of library and information professionals to address these tech-savvy library users' needs and align their services to satisfy them.

Recently, the author of this paper conducted a research study on the “Impact of technology on quality of services in technical and management libraries in Karnataka” sponsored by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India, New Delhi. The study was approved in 2005 and the final report was submitted to the government in 2007. This paper carries some of the results of this research study conducted by the author in Karnataka state in Southern India.     

Factors affecting customer relationship management practices in Thai academic libraries

This study investigates and analyzes the factors affecting customer relationship management (CRM) practices in Thai academic libraries. The research conceptual framework focuses on factors affecting CRM practices was developed using Combe (2004)’s study on assessing CRM strategies. Mixed methods, qualitative, and quantitative approaches were used as a research methodology. Data was collected by using the interview and survey techniques with the administrators, staff and customers of six selected academic libraries in Thailand. Analysis of the data was done by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The results of the study show that factors that have statistically significant impact on CRM practices in Thai academic libraries at 0.05 level were: (1) the knowledge and understanding of CRM of library staff and leadership of library administrators (Beta = 0.762), (2) organizational culture and communication (Beta = 0.323), (3) customer management processes (Beta = 0.318), (4) technology for supporting customer management (Beta = 0.208), and (5) channels for library services and communications (Beta = 0.150). The knowledge and understanding of CRM of library staff and leadership of library administrators which include the perception and awareness of service quality focusing on customer relationship is a key to library success. Important factors also include the acceptance and support of the use of CRM in the library, the clear vision and mission about using CRM in the library strategic plan, the knowledge and understanding of library staff on CRM processes, customer characteristics, and behaviors. The organizational culture and communication factors involve the creation of the CRM cultures of working in the library, good teamwork, cooperative and clear working agreements, clear roles and responsibilities, good communication between library staff, cross library functional integration, and performance evaluation and development. The customer management processes factor includes recording and registration of customer profiles, customer analysis and classification, services to individual customers, services to expected customers, and continual customer interactions. The technology for supporting CRM factors includes communication technology, information technology, and operations support technology. The channels for library services and communications factors can be direct channels, such as a service counter and self-circulation service, and indirect channels such as telephone, call center, email, personal web, library web, and social networking technology. Suggestions for academic libraries on the development and implementation of CRM in libraries are: (1) CRM must be included in the library strategic plan; (2) CRM must be a key strategy for the improvement of library service quality; (3) library administrators must have strong leadership for achieving the effectiveness of CRM practices in the library; (4) library staff must have good knowledge and understanding of CRM and its link to the library service quality improvement; (5) the working cultures for CRM effectiveness such as teamwork, cross functional work, and good communication between staff must be encouraged and practiced in the library; and (6) technology must be fully supported for CRM in the library.     

Factors affecting customer relationship management practices in Thai academic libraries

This study investigates and analyzes the factors affecting customer relationship management (CRM) practices in Thai academic libraries. The research conceptual framework focuses on factors affecting CRM practices was developed using Combe (2004)’s study on assessing CRM strategies. Mixed methods, qualitative, and quantitative approaches were used as a research methodology. Data was collected by using the interview and survey techniques with the administrators, staff and customers of six selected academic libraries in Thailand. Analysis of the data was done by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The results of the study show that factors that have statistically significant impact on CRM practices in Thai academic libraries at 0.05 level were: (1) the knowledge and understanding of CRM of library staff and leadership of library administrators (Beta = 0.762), (2) organizational culture and communication (Beta = 0.323), (3) customer management processes (Beta = 0.318), (4) technology for supporting customer management (Beta = 0.208), and (5) channels for library services and communications (Beta = 0.150). The knowledge and understanding of CRM of library staff and leadership of library administrators which include the perception and awareness of service quality focusing on customer relationship is a key to library success. Important factors also include the acceptance and support of the use of CRM in the library, the clear vision and mission about using CRM in the library strategic plan, the knowledge and understanding of library staff on CRM processes, customer characteristics, and behaviors. The organizational culture and communication factors involve the creation of the CRM cultures of working in the library, good teamwork, cooperative and clear working agreements, clear roles and responsibilities, good communication between library staff, cross library functional integration, and performance evaluation and development. The customer management processes factor includes recording and registration of customer profiles, customer analysis and classification, services to individual customers, services to expected customers, and continual customer interactions. The technology for supporting CRM factors includes communication technology, information technology, and operations support technology. The channels for library services and communications factors can be direct channels, such as a service counter and self-circulation service, and indirect channels such as telephone, call center, email, personal web, library web, and social networking technology. Suggestions for academic libraries on the development and implementation of CRM in libraries are: (1) CRM must be included in the library strategic plan; (2) CRM must be a key strategy for the improvement of library service quality; (3) library administrators must have strong leadership for achieving the effectiveness of CRM practices in the library; (4) library staff must have good knowledge and understanding of CRM and its link to the library service quality improvement; (5) the working cultures for CRM effectiveness such as teamwork, cross functional work, and good communication between staff must be encouraged and practiced in the library; and (6) technology must be fully supported for CRM in the library.     

Assessment of customer knowledge management in academic libraries: Design and validation of a checklist

A review of the research background shows that despite the usability of customer knowledge for libraries, the concept of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) in libraries is rarely addressed. The purpose of this study was to identify the indicators, operational instances as well as the design and validation of an all-inclusive CKM implementation instrument in academic libraries. The study was conducted in two quantitative and qualitative phases. The final instrument was a CKM strategy that consisted of various indicators preliminary designed by drawing on literature review, and operational instances identified by qualitative interviews with 12 academic library managers. A Delphi study with 20 experts was used to assess the experts’ degrees of agreement on the retrieved indicators and instances. The result was a reliable and valid checklist consisting of 67 instances under 6 major and 12 minor indicators. This instrument would allow managers to assess the state of CKM in their academic libraries, improve their library performance by checking the strengths and weaknesses against the indicators, and also serve as a basis for training the academic library staff on how to successfully implement CKM. With objective instances, the instrument is expected to improve the quality of customer services, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.     

Gifts in academic and special libraries: a selected bibliography

From the time the Reverend John Harvard donated his collection of books in 1638 to start the library at the newly established Harvard University [1], gifts have played an important role in the development of collections in U.S. academic and special libraries. Today, gifts are still vital to most libraries as publication costs rise and book budgets shrink. Over the years, much has been written on material gifts to libraries, from their use in collection building to the practical points of handling gifts and donors in the technical services area. Culled from the pool of literature, this annotated bibliography is a collection of many of the most useful and informative sources written on the various aspects of gifts in libraries.     

Digital reference service: trends in academic health science libraries

Two years after the initial 2002 study, a greater number of academic health science libraries are offering digital reference chat services, and this number appears poised to grow in the coming years. This 2004 follow-up study found that 36 (27%) of the academic health science libraries examined provide digital chat reference services; this was an approximately 6% increase over the 25 libraries (21%) located in 2002. Trends in digital reference services in academic health science libraries were derived from the exploration of academic health science library Web sites and from digital correspondence with academic health science library personnel using e-mail and chat. This article presents an overview of the current state of digital reference service in academic health science libraries.     

Use of teams in technical services in academic libraries

A review of library literature shows a general trend of technical services in academic libraries to reorganize into teams. This paper analyzes the results of a survey conducted in 2010 in order to answer four research questions: how extensively technical services in academic libraries have moved into the use of teams in organizational structures; how extensively technical services in academic libraries have done training related to teams; what team characteristics are demonstrated by teams in technical services in academic libraries; and how the effectiveness of teams is perceived by staff and faculty who work in technical services in academic libraries.     

高校图书馆信息咨询服务的SWOT分析

用SWOT分析法分析了高校图书馆信息咨询服务的优势、劣势、机会和威胁,探讨了高校图书馆如何把握机遇．拓展发展空间,更好地为教学科研和地方经济建设服务。     

Online work tools: A look at 20 academic libraries technical services Web pages

The 21st century technical services librarian has access to a plethora of electronic and online work tools from which to choose to complete daily tasks. An assessment of the Western Kentucky University Libraries (WKUL) 19 benchmark institutions shows a great disparity of online work tools made available through university libraries technical services departmental Web sites. Four areas (technical services, cataloging, serials, and acquisitions) are discussed. Outcomes indicate that (1) few of these institutions list online work tools and (2) of those that do, there is very little overlap. This paper investigates this phenomenon of inconsistent technical services online work tools.     

高校图书馆参考咨询方式的整合

传统参考咨询与数字参考咨询各有优劣,网络化环境中图书馆参考咨询的发展趋势是这两种服务的整合。文章从信息资源、人力资源、咨询机构、服务手段、服务费用五个方面论述了传统参考咨询与数字参考咨询的整合。     

国内高校图书馆数字化参考咨询服务调查

论文通过对国内120所高校图书馆数字化参考咨询服务的调查，揭示了我国高校图书馆数字化参考咨询服务的开展情况，并提出了一些建议。     

高校图书馆与院系资料室融合的具体对策

论文以湖南科技大学图书馆与院系资料室的融合工作为例，探讨了融合过程中遇到的具体问题及对策。     

Collection management in Australian academic libraries: An American perspective

This paper discusses collection management in Australian academic libraries. The author's sabbatical project was interviewing over 30 academic librarians in October/November of 1992 in eight of the largest research university libraries in Australia. These librarians gave their opinions on selection, acquisition, assessment, budget allocation, cooperative arrangements, and resource sharing. This paper also explores the recent changes in the higher education system in Australia and its impact on Australian universities and libraries, as well as the part Australia's distance from suppliers plays in procurement of materials.     

高校图书馆赠书宣传与管理

探讨了如何加强高校图书馆赠书宣传和管理,提出了对教职工和学生开展赠书宣传、加强赠书管理、建立健全赠书制度和赠书奖励机制、设立爱心书架自助取阅和专门的陈列室等建议,以保证赠书能得到更充分的利用。     

我国高校图书馆数字参考咨询服务开展情况调查

论文通过对教育科研网上教育资源下的我国高校图书馆开展数字参考咨询服务的调查，揭示了我国高校图书馆DRS的开展情况．并提出了一些建议。     

网络环境下高校图书馆的参考咨询工作

论述网络环境对高校图书馆参考咨询工作的影响,提出网络环境下参考咨询工作应采取的一系列对策。     

高校图书馆绩效管理之小议

文章阐述了如何在高校图书馆运用绩效管理手段以改善其效率的过程和方法,并指出绩效管理在图书馆工作开展过程中的重要性和应避免的误区.     

Adoption of electronic reference materials in academic libraries of Iran

Libraries have experienced a great deal of change in communication networks and information technology. The Iranian academic libraries, like other libraries, attempted to adopt the new information technology. It should be realized that although new information technologies and electronic resources are collected on a large scale by academic libraries they are not always used in the same scale. There are some factors, which affect the rate of adoption of each new technology. Rogers in his theory introduced these factors in five categories as relative advantage, observability, trial- ability, complexity and compatibility. This paper investigates the effects of different features of electronic reference materials on the rate of their adoption. Results show that the most effective factors in adoption of electronic reference materials are the ability of electronic reference materials to facilitate information retrieval, shortening the time of searching and fair cost of resources. In addition, it seems that the most problematic factors, which slow down the adoption of electronic reference materials, stem from unfamiliarity of academic librarians and users with computers and searching of databases.     

Employers' expectations for head of technical services positions in academic libraries

In the past 10 years, technical services experienced tremendous changes due to advances in technology, scholarly communication, research, information retrieval and higher education. Have the employers' expectations for the head of technical services positions changed in the past 10 years or so? This paper compares employers' expectations for head of technical services positions in 1996–1998 to those in 2006–2008 to track changes through job ad content analysis.     

高校图书馆收入经费的管理建议

文章就目前国内高校图书馆经费的现状和名目较多的各类收费项目,针对高校对图书馆经费使用的控制政策,提出了图书馆应在不断提高服务质量和服务水平的基础上,积极有效地利用好收入经费的一些建议.