Assessing the Effectiveness of Information Services: an Evaluative Model

Abstract

The thesis presents a body of research on the evaluation of library and information services that is unified under a general model of evaluation that defines the approaches to the evaluation of an information service in terms of the attributes of four key elements of the information service, its stakeholders, users, the information products employed and their knowledge content, and the attributes of the service itself. The introductory sections of the thesis argue that information services are complex organisations that play multiple roles for a variety of users and stakeholders, and require a similarly multifaceted approach to service delivery and evaluation. That approach needs to address the views of all stakeholders and respond to a variety of user needs. While performance measures focus primarily on the attributes of the various elements of information services themselves, as they are defined in the central model, satisfaction and service quality measures focus on relationships between the attributes of users and stakeholders, and information service and product attributes. The papers included cover integrative models of existing systems of evaluation in Library and Information Services, investigations of stakeholder perceptions of effectiveness and their relationship to performance measurement, and studies of information services in relation to user needs in the health sector and in government information. The research presented in these papers is related to the developing body of knowledge on evaluation published over the past forty years, and the general model of evaluation that forms the core argument of the thesis.