LibQUAL+®: The SCONUL Experience

LibQUAL+® is a library customer satisfaction survey developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in association with Texas A&M University (Association of Research Libraries, 2011). The survey consists of 22 questions on library services across three dimensions: Affect of Service, containing questions relating to the library staff; Information Control, covering the library resources and access to them; and Library as Place, assessing the physical environment. One of the key strengths of LibQUAL+® is its use of gap theory to evaluate customer expectations as well as perceptions. For each of the 22 questions respondents are asked their minimum and desired expectations along with their current perceived level of service on a nine-point scoring scale. The standardised survey enables participating institutions to benchmark their scores against one another, and against an aggregated score for their consortium

LibQUAL+ in the UK: a brief report on the SCONUL Pilot.

Reports on the pilot year of LibQUAL+ in the UK adopted for trial by SCONUL Libraries. Discusses the implementation of LibQUAL+ and presents feedback from the UK participants. Concludes that the trial was a success and further iterations of the survey should be encouraged and supported

Using LibQUAL+ to measure, compare and improve library quality

LibQUAL+ est une suite logicielle proposée par l\u27Association of Research Libraries (ARL) utilisée par quelque 850 institutions dans le monde. Présentation d\u27utilisation dans des établissements européens et études de cas quant à la mesure de la qualité dans les établissements

Sound Localization of World and Head-Centered Space in Ferrets

The location of sounds can be described in multiple coordinate systems that are defined relative to ourselves, or the world around us. Evidence from neural recordings in animals point towards the existence of both head-centered and world-centered representations of sound location in the brain; however, it is unclear whether such neural representations have perceptual correlates in the sound localization abilities of non-human listeners. Here, we establish novel behavioral tests to determine the coordinate systems in which ferrets can localize sounds. We found that ferrets could learn to discriminate between sound locations that were fixed in either world-centered or head-centered space, across wide variations in sound location in the alternative coordinate system. Using probe sounds to assess broader generalization of spatial hearing, we demonstrated that in both head and world-centered tasks, animals used continuous maps of auditory space to guide behavior. Single trial responses of individual animals were sufficiently informative that we could then model sound localization using speaker position in specific coordinate systems and accurately predict ferrets’ actions in held-out data. Our results indicate that an animal model in which neurons are known to be tuned to sound location in egocentric and allocentric reference frames can also localize sounds in multiple head and world-centered spaces

Integrative Chapter in Support of the Award of a PhD by Publication

This chapter draws together work developing, synthesizing and applying a model for library performance measurement in academic and research libraries. The work comprises publications based on reviews of published studies and primary data from surveys and other investigations. The provenance of the work and the ways in which the individual studies are connected and informed by each other and by the author’s previous work is explained in the chapter. The work follows the author’s long-term quest to understand the idea of value in relation to libraries. At the outset of this investigation there was little work and less clarity about the meaning of and methods for value measurement in libraries. The work argues for a measurement conception for libraries that goes beyond instrumental internal data collection to achieve evaluation of the transcendent worth and contribution of libraries. An intellectual framework for performance measurement is provided in the form of the Value Scorecard, with examples of practical measurement applications to populate the framework. The eight publications are described and their contributions to the field of library performance measurement are analysed in the chapter. The published work and the conference presentations on which they have been based have also made a contribution to the debates in the field, and may have potential application beyond libraries

Behaviourally modulated hippocampal theta oscillations in the ferret persist during both locomotion and immobility

Theta oscillations are a hallmark of hippocampal activity across mammals and play a critical role in many hippocampal models of memory and spatial navigation. To reconcile the cross-species differences observed in the presence and properties of theta, we recorded hippocampal local field potentials in rats and ferrets during auditory and visual localisation tasks designed to vary locomotion and sensory attention. Here, we show that theta oscillations occur during locomotion in both ferrets and rats, however during periods of immobility, theta oscillations persist in the ferret, contrasting starkly with the switch to large irregular activity (LIA) in the rat. Theta during immobility in the ferret is identified as analogous to Type 2 theta that has been observed in rodents due to its sensitivity to atropine, and is modulated by behavioural state with the strongest theta observed during reward epochs. These results demonstrate that even under similar behavioural conditions, differences exist between species in the relationship between theta and behavioural state

Using LibQUAL+® to Identify Commonalities in Customer Satisfaction: The Secret to Success?

Purpose – What is the key to library user satisfaction? Can LibQUAL+® help in the quest for delivering a quality library service? The purpose of this paper is to present international research into library customer satisfaction as measured by the LibQUAL+® survey methodology. Commonalities of satisfaction and dissatisfaction have been identified which influence the customers overall view of the library. This knowledge can be used to further increase customer satisfaction through targeting these areas for service improvement. Design/methodology/approach – The LibQUAL+® results from SCONUL Libraries, Utrecht and Leiden Universities were analysed to explore the differences between customers who were very satisfied, and those who were very dissatisfied, with the service. Results from each of the three dimensions of service quality were reviewed separately. The survey results from respondents who had given a high satisfaction mean score to one of the three dimensions were analysed to assess if they had also given high satisfaction mean scores overall. This process was then repeated for those who had given low satisfaction mean scores. Findings – Respondents with high satisfaction mean scores in the Information Control dimension were discovered to have the largest positive scores for the overall average perceived scores, indicating they are the most satisfied customers. When reviewing the surveys with low satisfaction mean scores in the Affect of Service dimension it was discovered that these respondents also had the largest negative scores for the overall average perceived scores, indicating they are the most dissatisfied customers. The findings show that both information resources and customer service affects the overall opinion of the library service for all customer groups. Research limitations/implications – Good information resources has a positive effect on customers’ opinions of the library just as much as poor service from library staff has a detrimental effect. Any conclusions drawn from these findings should recognise that the research is limited to measuring service quality within the confines of the LibQUAL+® survey methodology. The research has not investigated the reasons for the commonality, nor do these averages say anything about the motivation for each individual respondent to give these scores in the survey. Practical implications – Statistical analyses confirm that these findings hold for every user group. Therefore, for the library manager seeking to deliver a quality library service it will be important to take both of these factors into account and deliver information not only in a professional, but also in a helpful manner. Originality/value – Although based on previous research, the extension of the analysis from an institutional level to an international consortia level strengthens the initial research conclusions. The findings, implications, and conclusions are valuable to library managers seeking to improve the customer perceptions of their library service, providing evidence of factors that influence customers’ opinions

Evaluation of Temperature-Dependent Complex Refractive Indices of Supercooled Liquid Water Using Downwelling Radiance and In-Situ Cloud Measurements at South Pole

Clouds have a large effect on the radiation budget and represent a major source of uncertainty in climate models. Supercooled liquid clouds can exist at temperatures as low as 235 K, and the radiative effect of these clouds depends on the complex refractive index (CRI) of liquid water. Laboratory measurements have demonstrated that the liquid-water CRI is temperature-dependent, but corroboration with field measurements is difficult. Here we present measurements of the downwelling infrared radiance and in-situ measurements of supercooled liquid water in a cloud at temperatures as low as 240 K, made at South Pole Station in 2001. These results demonstrate that including the temperature dependence of the liquid-water CRI is essential for accurate calculations of radiative transfer through supercooled liquid clouds. Furthermore, we show that when cloud properties are retrieved from infrared radiances (using the spectral range 500–1,200 cm−1) spurious ice may be retrieved if the 300 K CRI is used for cold liquid clouds (∼240 K). These results have implications for radiative transfer in climate models as well as for retrievals of cloud properties from infrared radiance spectra.publishedVersio

Reversible inactivation of ferret auditory cortex impairs spatial and non-spatial hearing

A key question in auditory neuroscience is to what extent are brain regions functionally specialized for processing specific sound features such as location and identity. In auditory cortex, correlations between neural activity and sounds support both the specialization of distinct cortical subfields, and encoding of multiple sound features within individual cortical areas. However, few studies have tested the contribution of auditory cortex to hearing in multiple contexts. Here we determined the role of ferret primary auditory cortex in both spatial and non-spatial hearing by reversibly inactivating the middle ectosylvian gyrus during behavior using cooling (n=2 females) or optogenetics (n=1 female). Optogenetic experiments utilized the mDLx promoter to express Channelrhodopsin2 in GABAergic interneurons and we confirmed both viral expression (n=2 females) and light-driven suppression of spiking activity in auditory cortex, recorded using Neuropixels under anesthesia (n=465 units from 2 additional untrained female ferrets). Cortical inactivation via cooling or optogenetics impaired vowel discrimination in co-located noise. Ferrets implanted with cooling loops were tested in additional conditions that revealed no deficits for identifying vowels in clean conditions, or when the temporally coincident vowel and noise were spatially separated by 180 degrees. These animals did however show impaired sound localization when inactivating the same auditory cortical region implicated in vowel discrimination in noise. Our results demonstrate that, as a brain region showing mixed selectivity for spatial and non-spatial features of sound, primary auditory cortex contributes to multiple forms of hearing.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT:Neurons in primary auditory cortex are often sensitive to the location and identity of sounds. Here we inactivated auditory cortex during spatial and non- spatial listening tasks using cooling, or optogenetics. Auditory cortical inactivation impaired multiple behaviors, demonstrating a role in both the analysis of sound location and identity and confirming a functional contribution of mixed selectivity observed in neural activity. Parallel optogenetic experiments in two additional untrained ferrets linked behavior to physiology by demonstrating that expression of Channelrhodopsin 2 permitted rapid light-driven suppression of auditory cortical activity recorded under anesthesia