Complaint Attitudes and Behavior in Academic Libraries

• Main Author: Shiao-Feng Su
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Taiwan University 2012-12-01
• Series: Journal of Library and Information Studies
• Subjects: user complaint; non-complainers; complaint intention; complaint behavior; complaining attitudes
• Online Access: https://jlis.lis.ntu.edu.tw/files/journal/j35-4.pdf

After experiencing library service failure, the user may directly or indirectly voice his/her complaint, which is the best prescription to improve library public services. The paper explores the academic librarians and users' attitudes towards complaints. Through surveying six hundred students from twenty universities and applying descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, the study investigates student users' complaint preference and behavior afterwards, and perception of complaint handling and outcome. The study reports and compares their attitudes and perspectives towards library complaints. It further examines the differences in attitudes and behavior intention among respondents who had prior experience in filing complaints at libraries, did not complain, and had no prior experience in service failure. An ultimate analysis was made to contrast the user's perception towards complaint handling of the library and of for-profit organization. (Article content in Chinese with English extended abstract)