Reliability and validity of a modified LibQUAL+® survey in Pakistan: An Urdu language experience

Abstract

Rehman, S. U., Kyrillidou, M., & Hameed, I. (2014). Reliability and validity of a modified LibQUAL+® survey in Pakistan: An Urdu language experience. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, Vol.19, no. 2: 83-102.

LibQUAL+® is a well-known and widely used tool to measure library service quality. This tool has been developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in partnership with Texas A&M University. The present study aims to present the implementation of a locally modified LibQUAL+® survey in Pakistan; its Urdu translation experience, and the reliability and validity analysis of the data collected in Urdu. The data was collected using two separate studies conducted on graduate and undergraduate students and faculty members of 29 universities in Pakistan. Users rated 22 core items on 1 (low) to 9 (high) scales for minimum, desired and perceived performance scores as defined in both the SERVQUAL and LibQUAL+® protocols. A total of 514 and 1,473 survey questionnaires were collected respectively from these two studies. Both studies found that the Urdu version of LibQUAL+® is reliable and valid in the Pakistani context. The factor analysis through Exploratory factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory factor Analysis (CFA) confirmed the wellestablished three factor structure of library service quality: affect of service, information control and library as place. The current research focused on examining the psychometric integrity of LibQUAL+® in South Asia, a region representing one fifth of the worlds’ population, yet there has not been any documented use of the web-based LibQUAL+® protocol. The current study is the first in South Asia to investigate the psychometric properties of LibQUAL+®.