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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
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21 September 2021

and interpretations, the variables such as competitive capability, dynamic capability, and agility
capability would be many representatives of the resource-capability construct. Therefore, this study

utilizes the terms competitive capability, dynamic capability, and agility capability to measure the

resource capability of the library.

Service quality on the other hand has been utilized to evaluate the importance of the library. It has
been viewed in different aspects. Earlier studies and conceptualizations on service quality in university

libraries have concentrated on the input-output process, service provider’s perspective, and
performance or impact measurement through the user’s perspective (Ahmad, 2016). Now the service

quality seems to appear as a form of attitude and satisfaction.

According to the literature, many tools such as the Balanced Scorecard Model (Kaplan and Norton,

1992), EFQM model (European Foundation for Quality Management), SERVQUAL Model
(Parauraman et al., 1988), SERVPERF Model (Cronin and Taylor, 1994), Total Quality Management

Model (TQM) (Powell, 1995), LibQUAL+™ instrument (Association of Research Libraries), and
ClimateQUAL model have been used to measure library service quality. All these tools have

concentrated on assessing different aspects of the library service. LibQUAL+™ instrument is

specifically designed for library evaluation purposes and it has been tested in many continents and
many environments in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

Service quality is measured from users’ point of view as many studies emphasized that the

determination of quality should be based on users’ view of perception. Among many tools

administered to measure service quality, the LibQUAL+ tool seems more specific to the academic
library context. Despite a few possible localization issues in the Sri Lankan context, the LibQUAL+

tool can be adopted to build up a measuring tool for user perception of the library quality in Sri Lanka.
LibQUALL+ has 22 survey items to measure the users’ perception of the library quality. The same

measuring items can be adapted to measure the librarians’ perception of service quality as service
providers.

Only the user’s perspective or provider perception-based measures cannot decide the library's overall

service quality because assessment of library service quality requires both expertise and objectivity

(Walters, 2003). Although there are many powerful tools to measure service quality in academic
libraries, most assessment tools used today are one-sided (Xi and Levy, 2005; Boyce, 2017). Most

importantly, the library’s resources and capabilities play a major role in ensuring quality and

satisfaction. Therefore, proper identification of resources and leveraging of their capabilities are
essential for providing promised services. Thus, human factors, financial factors, technological

factors, physical space, equipment, and other environmental factors directly influence the quality of
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