kazalo.p65

Knjižnica 48(2004)3, 33-58 34 Original scientific article UDC 027.022-052(497.4) Abstract This paper deals with a specific segment of libraries’ activities which has been much exposed recently – the user. For the library of today, opinions of its users are no longer a curiosity; they are an important aspect of its research activities and also of its admi- nistrative practices. The purpose of this paper is thus twofold: to outline a broader framework of library users research and to discuss selected dilemmas that commonly arise in this framework. As users research has become a prominent activity in the international arena and has also established itself in Slovenia, the paper comments on most popular measurement instruments for library users research (SERVQUAL, Li- bQUAL+) and also on the ways of defining key dimensions of users’ perceptions of the library service. Special attention is placed on a systematic distinction between the concept of library service quality and users’ satisfaction. This is an important concep- tual dilemma which also affects research methodology. The concluding part of the paper presents and empirical analysis of the relation between the selected dimensions of users’ satisfaction and their success in searching for desired library materials. This problem is conceptually extracted from contemporary debates about the results of users’ research, whereas in practical terms it derives from the context of one of the public libraries in Ljubljana. Ključne besede: library users, satisfaction, library services, quality, opinion surveys, public space 1 Aktualnost raziskovanja knjižničnih uporabnikov Sodobne knjižnice izjemno veliko pozornosti namenjajo svojim uporabnikom. Pozornost knjižničarjev in raziskovalcev ni usmerjena le v izgrajevanje pogojev, ki omogočajo kar najbolj učinkovito uporabo knjižničnih virov, ampak gre za neke vrste iskanje vzajemnosti, ki uporabnikom knjižničnih storitev podeljuje tudi vse večjo vlogo pri njihovem vrednotenju in razvoju. Nekateri avtorji celo ugotavljajo, da gre za novo paradigmo v razumevanju in upravljanju knjižnic; za to novo paradigmo je značilno preprosto dejstvo, da so mnenja, potrebe in prefe- rence uporabnikov vse bolj cenjena. Ameriška raziskovalka Carol Kuhlthau (1993) je že pred dobrim desetletjem napovedovala dominacijo pristopa, ki v središče knjižnične dejavnosti postavlja uporabnike (t. i. user-centered approach ). Vendar poudarjanje pomena uporabnikov ni zgolj značilnost raziskovalnih praks, temveč se odraža tudi v administrativnih dejavnostih knjižničnih vodstev. V tem kon- tekstu je postala aktualna »odgovornost do uporabnikov« (Ambrožič, 2000a, str. 103). Odločno izpostavljena vloga uporabnikov sodobnih knjižnic je preprosto del duha današnjega časa.