Abstract: In the late 1990s, Gap theories and the LibQual model began to be widely accepted by research libraries in the U.S. Since then, library service evaluation and user satisfaction issues have been discussed in various aspects of both the research and professional literatures of library and information science. Although, like LibQual, the research presented herein is concerned with the evaluation of library services from users’ perspectives, it integrates other perspectives proposed in recent years by library researchers, including emotional and material satisfaction, service encounter and overall service satisfaction, as well as user satisfaction at the micro and macro levels. Specifically, this research investigates the interrelationship of material and emotional satisfaction with users’ satisfactions at the micro and macro levels. In addition, this study seeks to clarify factors or attributes of library services that contribute to users’ satisfaction at the micro and macro levels. Finally, the study examines how users’ emotional and material satisfaction contribute to overall user satisfaction and user behavior, including library use behavior in the short term (subsequent information seeking) and the long term (library use loyalty).

After a brief introduction of the research questions and methodology, Fei will explain why and how the research findings provide library professionals greater understanding of how users perceive their library use and how user satisfaction is formed and influenced. She will also elaborate what practical advice this study provides librarians in terms of what else they can or should do to improve library use. For instance, it is important to recognize users’ emotional experience in their library use because it determines their subsequent library use behavior and service use loyalty.

Bio: Fei is the ILS Applications Specialist at the eiNetwork (www.einetwork.net). The eiNetwork is the Regional Asset that provides Information Infrastructure (e.g., Internet access, online catalog maintenance, and assistive technology) to more than 80 public library locations in Allegheny County.

Fei has an MLIS from Wuhan University, P.R. China. In 2001, she relocated her doctoral study to the University of Pittsburgh with a four-year academic scholarship. In 2002, she was awarded Sheila Suen Lai Scholarship of Library and Information Science from CALA (Chinese American Librarian Association) for her academic excellence. Fei completed her PhD in Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh in August, 2006. Her research interests have been focused on the evaluation of information services and systems, information seeking behavior, and human-information interaction. Her doctoral dissertation is about the evaluation of library services from users’ perspectives. This research investigates college students’ perceptions and attitudes towards library resources and services via a Web survey. This study gives library professionals an improved understanding of how users perceive their library use and how they achieve satisfaction in terms of its formation, antecedent, and consequent impact; it also provides librarians with practical advice on what else they can or should do to improve library or general information use.

During her doctoral study at the University of Pittsburgh, Fei worked as a Graduate Research Assistant in both the Hillman Library and the East Asian Library on a number of projects such as digitizing hundreds of Asian photographs and redesigning the East Asian Library Website. After she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, Fei was also exposed to all aspects of public library work by volunteering at Green Tree Public Library in Pittsburgh.