College and Research Libraries A Strategic Analysis of the Delivery of Service in Two Library Reference Departments Elsa Sjolander and Richard Sjolander Two state university library reference departments within the Florida state university system are analyzed, using the framework of a five-task model for strategic management in organizations. The libraries serve different kinds of user populations. One supports a full range of programs through the doctoral level. The other serves only bachelor's and master's level programs. They have similar mis- sions, policies, and scopes of operation. Each department has a clear concept of the implementation of goal-oriented programs. Explicit measurement of service quan- tity is found in both cases. Service quality is more difficult to measure. No specific measures of service quality were found in either department. trategy is the managerial game plan for running an or- ganization. It is the design de- termined before commencing a project that guides the development of the work toward its desired product. In this paper, the framework of strategic management is used to analyze the refer- ence services in two university libraries. Without an explicit strategy, all but the smallest of organizations would risk en- countering either of two sources of op- erational problems: the ineffective use of resources or the inefficient use of re- sources.1 Each is a serious risk to the organization. Service organizations, par- ticularly not-for-profit service organiza- tions, have been slow to identify potential problems and to adopt the methods of management for the strategic control of their operations.2 Strategic management in libraries should meet each of the following five criteria for planning, implementing, and controlling its operations.3 • The organization has formulated a philosophy or mission statement for the reference department, which de- scribes its long-range goals; • The mission is translated into specific, measurable objectives. The objectives or goals for the organization should be stated in terms of desired outcomes; • A strategy is designed for the achieve- ment of the objectives. It should be the recipe or map that the organization uses to guide its efforts toward the achievement of its stated goals; • The. strategy is implemented effi- ciently and effectively. To be success- fully implemented, the strategy must be communicated to all parts of the Elsa Sjolander was a librarian at Lund University Library, Lund, Sweden, at the time this paper was written. She is now a librarian in the Escambia County, Florida, School System. Richard Sjolander is Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida 32514-5752. The authors contributed equally to this paper, and would like to thank the Library and School of Economics and Management at Lund University, Sweden, where much of the work for this paper was conducted. Special thanks to the reference departments at the Pace and Strozier Libraries. The authors would also like to thank the editor and two reviewers for their helpful comments to an earlier version of this paper. 60 A Strategic Analysis of the Delivery of Service 61 organization. This will involve the de- velopment of tactical plans to guide each function; The outcomes of the program are evaluated in terms of performance in achieving the specified goals of the organization. Based upon the out- comes, adjustments are made to all parts of the strategic plan, when nec- essary for future implementation. The degree to which a strategic framework is used as a guide for library reference department operations is un- known. In this paper, the authors report the results of a strategic analysis of the operations of two academic reference departments. The process of explicitly determining what the organization's objectives are and then planning a strategy for achiev- ing them appears very simple. Some managers more accustomed to a laissez- faire management style might charac- terize a strategic framework as rigid or constraining. Such an attitude would be a clear sign that prior planning was not communicated throughout the organi- zation. Effective planning requires that all members of the organization be aware of what is to be accomplished and how it is to be done. Strategic planning has been applied successfully in a wide variety of operations in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.4 Success is defined in terms of organ- izational effectiveness and efficiency. In order to be an effective organization, the organization must have goals. Without explicit goals, any level of any service provided to patrons may be judged as satisfactory.5 The importance of explicit goals was stated clearly by Theodore Levitt in his classic 1960 article, "Market- ing Myopia."6 Successful organizations define their businesses in terms of their target customers. Goals must be mean- ingful to the target customers or cli- ents-in this case the potential patrons of the reference department. A library reference department is effective to the extent that the services it offers are achieving the department's objectives. By efficiency, we mean that an organi- zation uses the minimum amount of re- sources possible to provide a given quantity and quality of services. 7 Obvi- ously, any organization, either for-profit or not-for-profit, should strive toward being both efficient and effective. In li- braries, questions of efficiency examine whether the same level of library serv- ices could be offered using fewer re- sources.8 A library reference department is effective to the extent that the services it offers are achieving the department's objectives. The reference departments of univer- sity libraries provide an interesting case for applying the framework of strategic management in the analysis of not-for- profit organizations.9 Libraries are highly visible service organizations that meet a wide range of publics and serve impor- tant functions to overall university op- erations. The environment of university libraries has changed enormously in re- cent years. 10 Henry Mintz berg, in his or- ganizational research studies, found that organizations adapt slowly in response to changes in their envirorunents. 11 At certain times there will be rapid change, followed by long periods of stagnation and even regression toward strategies which have been discarded as no longer effective. This paper examines the extent to which libraries have adopted new management practices to adapt to the change. METHOD In this study, the . reference depart- ments at two American university librar- ies are compared. These universities are Florida State University (FSU) in Talla- hassee and the University of West Flor- ida (UWF) in Pensacola. Several methods of data collection were used. Personal interviews were conducted with the ref- erence department heads. The opera- tions of the two reference departments ' were observed by the researchers, and the policy documents were analyzed. A questionnaire allowing for structured, 62 College & Research Libraries open-ended responses was constructed and used for the interviews. This facili- tated comparison of the departments. A follow-up questionnaire was also sent to each department head for confirmation of certain information. The comparison centers around the is- sues of how each library develops and delivers the desired services to its mar- ket. The market is defined as the set of actual and potential users of reference services at each library. This study com- pares the philosophy or mission of the reference department, the reference pol- icy objectives, the types of clientele served, the reference services provided in meeting the objectives, measures of the service quality, the availability of professional librarians, quality and ade- quacy of the collection, and the evalu- ation and control of service quality. DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE MARKETS SERVED Libraries at Florida State University (FSU) and the University of West Florida (UWF) were chosen as the libraries for this study. These universities are two of the nine state universities in Florida. Each is located in the main city of a met- ropolitan area with a population of about 300,000 people and is the major university in its region. Florida State University (FSU) has an enrollment of slightly more than 28,000 students. The university offers a full range of undergraduate and graduate programs through the doctoral level in the humanities, sciences, engineering, medicine, and law. Florida State began op- erations in 1857_12 FSU is located in Talla- hassee, 200 km from the nearest larger city, Jacksonville, Florida. Tallahassee is the state capital of Florida. More than one hundred state and federal agencies have either head offices or major branches there.13 The Strozier Library is the main library at FSU and houses the main ref- erence department. While there are sepa- rate libraries for the science and law collections, this study is limited to the reference department at Strozier Library. The University of West Florida, by contrast, is only twenty-five years old, January 1995 with an enrollment of almost 8,000 stu- dents at the undergraduate and master's levels. No doctoral programs are of- fered.14 The University of West Florida is located in Pensacola, 100 km from the nearest larger city, Mobile, Alabama. Al- though Pensacola has a slightly larger metropolitan area than Tallahassee, it has a smaller business center. Pensacola is influenced by the presence of the Navy, other military stations, and beach tourism. The John C. Pace Library houses all collections at the University of West Florida. The two universities are quite differ- ent in terms of location, range and level of programs offered, age of the univer- sity, and the number of students en- rolled. These differences should be considered when the reference services are compared. Each university supports one branch campus with about 1,500 stu- dents. MISSION STATEMENT The philosophies of information serv- ice at the two libraries are similar; they are stated in the reference policy state- ment for each department. The primary purpose of a reference department is to acquire, maintain, and interpret the gen- eral reference collection. The librarian on duty is responsible for inquiries-locat- ing the information or instructing pa- trons in how to find it.15 The function of the reference librarian is to help the pa- trons find what they need, not to conduct the search for them. The authors agree with William Beck and Marsha Nolf that the mission of a reference department determines the choice of objectives, the services provided, and the organization of the services.16 The degree of similarity in the missions may be a result of the faculty clients. The faculties of both insti- tutions are involved with research. However, the populations of students served by the two reference departments are quite different. There are no Ph.D. (research) degrees conferred at UWF and the student body comes from a much smaller region; many students combine work and study. The student body at FSU is typical of a large state university. A Strategic Analysis of the Delivery of Service 63 REFERENCE POLICY: OBJECTIVES Both reference departments have writ- ten policy statements. These include general mission statements for the refer- ence departments and their translations into specific objectives for the depart- ments. Both policies follow the "Draft Outline of Reference Service Policy Man- ual," prepared by the Standards Commit- tee, Reference and Adult Services Division, American Library AssociationP These policies state the nature of refer- ence service, types of services offered, main categories of library users, desk service policies and instruction, interli- brary loan service, and bibliographic serv- ice. However, UWF' s reference policy document is not current. 18 Most of the reference policies at UWF are incorpo- rated in other policy works such as the collection development and automation policies. The reference department serv- ice policy at FSU is current. 19 The purpose of the reference depart- ment in each case is to acquire, maintain, and interpret the general reference col- lections of the libraries to service the in- formation needs of the patrons. The reference policies can be summarized in the following five points: • To select, acquire, organize and main- tain a reference collection that fulfills the patrons' (students, faculty, staff and community users) need for information; • To provide information service of high quality to all patrons; • To provide instruction in the use of the library; • To cooperate with other library de- partments, the university community, other libraries, and agencies to pro- vide optimal service; • To collect statistics for use in evalu- ation of the reference services. Both libraries have other policies cov- ering specific areas of their missions. They include collection development, personnel policies describing preferred behavior and methods for achieving contact with patrons, and policies for the management of problem patrons. These five objectives form the basis for the analysis of the reference depart- ments. The first objective addresses col- lection development, providing the raw materials necessary to support the refer- ence department's information service function. The next three objectives deal with the provision of reference service to various groups of library users. The last objective, the collection of statistics for use in evaluation, addresses the final step in the strategic management proc- ess-the evaluation of outcomes in terms of performance in achieving the specific goals of the organization. Its in- clusion as an objective sends up a red flag of caution to the analyst. There seem to be two possible expla- nations for the inclusion of this last ob- jective. The organization could consider the measurement and evaluation of its objectives so central to its mission that this is made an objective. The second possibility is that the organization per- ceives the gathering of statistics on its operations as an end in itself. Libraries have long been enamored with the num- ber of volumes in their collections, for example. While such a statistic may be of importance in evaluating the collection of a national library, it is of dubious worth in the evaluation of a modern uni- versity library reference collection. Holdings are of value as they relate to meeting the objectives of the library, not in and of themselves. Types of Clientele Served The study uncovered major differ- ences in the types of patrons served by UWF and FSU. The University of West Florida serves many more patrons who are not associated with the university. Sixty percent of the patrons served at the reference department at UWF are stu- dents, faculty, and staff. Forty percent of the patrons are community users.20 At FSU, 93 percent are students, faculty, and staff. Only 7 percent are community us- ers.21 FSU is located in Tallahassee. This is the state capital with a large public library. Many other information sources and agencies are available to community users. UWF is located in Pensacola, a smaller city with few alternative infor- mation sources and agencies. 64 College & Research Libraries Differences in the types of patrons at the two libraries may also result from the strategy chosen by each university to meet its objectives. Here we are referring to how each university and its library perceive their mission. Information to test this hypothesis was not found in the policy statements of the reference de- partments. Reference Collection Collection development occurs on a continuous basis within the reference department at each library. Reference li- brarians are responsible for subject area collection development within their ar- eas of expertise. They were found to have specialized knowledge and train- ing in each area of the collection. Clear strategic planning is being followed in the development of the reference collec- tion. Channels of communication with the various academic departments fol- lowed subject area responsibility in both departments. A problem in evaluating the adequacy of the reference collections is that the strategic objective dealing with collection development is not stated in terms of measurable, quantifiable outcomes. Both department heads perceived their collections as adequate for the us- ers of the library when the initial survey was completed. UWF has an estimated 30,000 volumes in the reference collec- tion. Strozier's reference collection con- tains significantly more volumes, which is not surprising because of the greater number of programs, students, and fac- ulty it serves. The Strozier reference de- partment does not have a complete count of its collection.22 The quantity of materials in the reference collection is not a measure of the quality of the refer- ence services provided. Resource alloca- tions need to be determined in terms of the objectives to be accomplished. A problem in evaluating the adequacy of the reference collections is that the January 1995 strategic objective dealing with collec- tion development is not stated in terms of measurable, quantifiable outcomes. Are the collections current? Do they con- tain the materials requested/required by the various client groups of faculty, students, and community users? Either regular collection of information from patrons on these issues or periodic pa- tron surveys could be used to gather in- formation on these issues. If the objectives are stated in quantifiable terms, goal achievement can be measured. REFERENCE SERVICES PROVIDED The second objective of the depart- ments is to provide high-quality infor- mation services to all patrons. The services described in this section relate to the strategies designed and imple- mented to achieve this objective. Desk Service Both Florida State University and the University of West Florida ~ibraries pro- vide reference desk services as the nu- cleus of the information services provided. Inquiries are answered at the reference desk, and some bibliographic instruction is given to patrons who come to the reference department to seek in- formation. Telephone inquiries are also answered at the reference desk. The location of the reference desk and its design are important factors in the provision of reference services. The ref- erence desk at FSU is highly visible and located on the first floor of the library. The desk is constructed in a semicircle. Located here are two online catalog terminals, an OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) terminal and approxi- mately 10 meters of highly used refer- ence books. The reference desk at UWF is centrally located, but on the second floor of the library. It is not immediately visible to patrons entering the depart- ment. The desk equipment consists of two normal height office desks with chairs for the personnel. Chairs are not provided at the desk for patrons, which discourages long conversations at the desk. There are side tables on each side for the online catalog terminals, an A Strategic Analysis of the Delivery of Service 65 OCLC terminal, a CD-ROM reader, and approximately 12 meters of shelving for commonly consulted reference sources. It would appear that the location of the reference department at FSU is much better. The contact point for a reference department, usually the reference desk, needs to be highly visible and easy to find. Beyond the physical location of the reference desks, specific measurement instruments and standards defining lev- els of acceptable and desired service are necessary to evaluate the quality of the reference desk service in the two depart- ments. Such measures could include friendliness of staff, percent of correct an- swers given, percent of satisfied users, av- erage time required to answer questions, or waiting time for service. Measures of quality need to be specified in conjunction with the development of the specific objec- tives of the organization. Interlibrary Loan Both libraries provide the same type of interlibrary loan service. They are part of FLIN (Florida Library Information Net- work). Most of the interlibrary loans are processed through OCLC. Both libraries have upgraded these services to provide much faster delivery of articles since the survey for this paper was conducted. However, it is not clear how either or- ganization measures its effectiveness in this area. Bibliographic Seroice All nine universities in the Florida State University system use the LUIS (Li- brary Users Information System) online catalog. Library users can search the en- tire system's catalog or any individual library collection. The database for edu- cational resources (ERIC), periodical in- dexes, and other databases can be accessed on the LUIS terminals. Both university libraries provide in- formation through a variety of online databases. The online services at both libraries are fee-based. The libraries also provide bibliographic services to patrons through the use of CD-ROM-based data- bases free of charge. The larger Florida state library had a much wider range of databases on CD-ROM than UWF in 1992. The number of CD-ROM -based in- formation retrieval systems has in- creased tremendously at both libraries since then. Rapid technological ad- vances have reduced the gap between the services available at the two libraries. Other Reference Seroices Printed guides such as pathfinders, study guides, and subject bibliographies are examples of other services offered at both reference departments. These are seen as aids to the patrons in using the libraries' collections. Subject bibliog- raphies provide an efficient form of in- formation transfer on commonly asked questions. They can also be used as part of a program to standardize the level of service offered to reference desk patrons. Explicit criteria were not found to direct the development of these guides. The effectiveness of the guides was not being measured. Bibliographic Instruction Extensive bibliographic instruction is offered at both reference departments. The programs at the two libraries are similar. They begin with a general intro- duction and add detail as the user pro-' gresses. It sho-uld be possible to define the specific goals of these programs and then measure their performance. Sur- veys could be used to sample both stu- dent users and the faculty who grade student assignments based on library re- search. COOPERATION AND COMMUNICATION Cooperation with other departments of the library and university to provide optimal service was the· fourth objective of the reference departments. Few for- mal strategies were in place to achieve this objective. Both reference depart- ments cooperate with academic depart- ments and research units of the universities concerning the selection of materials. Informal channels also exist for suggestions of acquisitions from pa- trons. No measures of these efforts are 66 College & Research Libraries being taken. There is no formal commu- nications committee to encourage the improvement of library communication, as suggested by Beck and Nol£.23 It is difficult enough to work toward achieving explicit goals; implicit goals often lead to organizational inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Patrons are referred to academic de- partments, other libraries, agencies, and organizations for information that can- not be acquired or received at the reference departments. Counts of the numbers of patrons referred are kept. This measure could be related to the objective. The issue of internal communication addresses how well the objectives and strategies of the department are commu- nicated to those working in the depart- ment. This was not directly measured in the present study. The policy statement in one of the departments had just been revised prior to this study. Communica- tions here would be dependent on the extent to which the members of the de- partment were empowered during the process. The policy statement in the other department was out-of-date. There is a great risk of miscommunication in this case. It is difficult enough to work toward achieving explicit goals; implicit goals often lead to organizational ineffi- ciency and ineffectiveness. MEASURES OF SERVICE QUALITY The final objective of the departments is condensed into a statement about the collection of statistics for use in the evaluation of reference services. The measurement of service quality can be divided into several categories. One common measure of quality in the li- brary literature is the accuracy of infor- mation given to specific questions from the patrons. 24 This has led to the so-called 55 percent rule, meaning that the infor- mation given to patrons is accurate 55 percent of the time.25 Although the accu- racy of the information given to patrons was discussed by both reference depart- January 1995 ments, neither had implemented a means of controlling this dimension of quality. As both departments used versions of the same control measures, they will be discussed together. The most common measure of service in each library was actually a measure of service quantity rather than service quality. Both depart- ments kept accurate counts of the num- bers of patrons served. These measures were aggregated into two groups: per- sonal walk-ups and telephone inquiries. This is an excellent measure of how many patrons have come in contact with reference librarians. It has no direct con- nection to either service quality or to the quantity of reference services provided. Customer service questions such as the level of patron satisfaction with the in- formation given and the service pro- vided were not measured. Accurate counts are kept on the num- ber of patrons receiving the various types of bibliographic instruction. This is seen as the link between the third objec- tive: to provide instruction in the use of the library, and its measure. It is an ex- cellent measure of the number of patrons receiving instruction, but it does not ad- dress the quality of the services pro- vided. The UWF reference department staff thought that the broad range of sub- ject bibliographies it developed in- creased the accuracy and completeness of answers to questions, but this was not measured. Both libraries track their acquisitions and holdings of reference volumes as a measure of quality. This measure relates to the first objective : the selection, acqui- sition, organization, and maintenance of the reference collection. The measure- ment of how well the collection met the patrons' needs for information was in- formal and was assumed to affect acqui- sitions to meet future needs. However, this aspect of the objective was not ex- plicitly measured. The number of interlibrary loans proc- essed was measured. This is another · way in which the departments measured the quantity of service provided. Quality measures could be designed around A Strategic Analysis of the Delivery of Service 67 various aspects of the service, such as speed of delivery, accuracy of order com- pletion, and degree to which the patron is satisfied with the delivered materials. From the discussion above it should be clear that departmental objective five-- to collect statistics for use in evaluation of the reference services-is being met in terms of service quantity. Several areas of service quality are not being measured by either department. First, there are no explicit measures of whether patrons' needs for information are being met. Second, and related to this point, there is no explicit measure of the quality of information service offered to patrons. Each of these points figured prominently into the objectives of the reference departments in relation to sat- isfying their missions, and is central to an evaluation of service quality. One method to evaluate some of the areas of library service quality is to use focus groups. 26 Chery 1 Elzy and others suggest that a side benefit to measuring service quality may be improvements in the level of service provided.27 Personnel development and recruit- ment is one area of cle.ar strategic plan- ning in each reference department. Each reference librarian has specialized knowledge in one or more of the areas of the collection. Formal subject area knowl- edge is an important part of each depart- ment's recruitment strategy. An informal measure of service quality in each department was the hours of desk coverage by a professional reference li- brarian. Both departments stressed that professional reference librarians were on the desk during all hours when there was heavy use of reference services- daytime, evening, and weekends. The delivery of services is highly labor-inten- sive, and this is surely the case for refer- ence information services. As has been noted in numerous for- profit service organizations, the quality control of employee attitude and per- formance is roughly equivalent to prod- uct quality control in manufacturing industries.28 In other words, it cannot be assumed that because a professional li- brarian is on duty at the reference desk the quality of reference service is high or even adequate. In retail sales, for exam- ple, the most common complaint voiced by customers is poor service. Customers do not care if service personnel are "hav- ing a bad day." Customers want .sales personnel to facilitate their need to have a good day. This point is made quite succinctly by the mail-order firm L. L. Bean A Customer is not dependent on us ... we are dependent on him. A Cus- tomer is not an interruption of our work ... he is the purpose of it. We are not doing a favor by serving him ... he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so. 29 Florida State University has about four times the number of students as UWF, but on a per student basis the ref- erence department at UWF has more librarians than FSU. The higher concen- tration of personnel per potential patron may increase the quality of the service at the smaller school, unless there are sig- nificant economies to scale in the deliv- ery of reference services. Both departments related adequacy of staff to the number of hours the library is open, the number of potential patrons it serves, and when those patrons seek help. DISCUSSION The two reference departments stud- ied in this paper are quite different in terms of the size of the student bodies of the institutions and the programs of study offered at them. However, when analyzed from a strategic management frame of reference, they are found to be quite similar. The Strozier reference de- partment has its own policy statement, which was written recently-fall 1991. UWF' s library policy statement includes the reference department. This docu- ment needs to be updated if it is to serve as a guide for operations. Within the range represented by these two depart- ments-one large research-oriented in- stitution (28,000 students) and one medium-sized balanced research/ teach- ing school (8,000 students)-size of the institution does not appear to be a criti- cal factor determining the level of the 68 College & Research Libraries quality of service in many areas of the reference function. Major differences of the two reference departments compared in this study in- clude the physical location of the refer- ence departments within the libraries and the types of patrons served by the departments. Easy access to the refer- ence department is considered very im- portant. Visibility of the desk is also important. The first-floor location in the Strozier Library is clearly superior to UWF' s location on the second floor. At UWF, 40 percent of the users are community people, and at FSU only 7 per- cent are. This is probably because of two factors. Access to library borrowing privi- leges for community members is much less restrictive at UWF. Patrons can acquire library cards at the circulation desk by presenting two pieces of identification. At FSU a letter of request, on business letter- head, is required for all community bor- rowers. The second factor is proximity to alternate information sources near FSU, which UWF does not have. The public library in Tallahassee is within walking distance of the FSU library. Both departments are investing for major increases in the level of computer utilization in reference work. The major concern for funding is to expand the ref- erence staff. Apparently, increasing lev- els of reference automation are not expected to reduce staff. One of the most important measures used by each of the departments to define the quality of a reference service is the number of profes- sional librarians working in the depart- ment. Given current trends in reference information service, the number of vol- umes in a reference department may be less important when evaluating a collec- tion's quality and adequacy in the fu- ture. The number of databases available as well as other information retrieval sources will be of increasing importance. The most surprising finding in this study is the lack of measurement instru- ments and standards for the evaluation of service quality in library reference de- partments. The concept of strategic man- agement by objectives has not been totally embraced by these institutions. January 1995 CONCLUSIONS A strategic management perspective was applied to the operations of two university library reference depart- ments. They were analyzed in terms of the five criteria for planning, implement- ing, and controlling organizations in this framework. The missions of the refer- ence departments in the two university libraries were found to be quite similar. The objectives developed out of these mission statements were aggregated by the authors into five main areas of em- phasis: materials selection, information service, bibliographic instruction, inter- nal and external communication and co- operation, and the collection of statistics for departmental evaluation. These ob- jectives were stated in general terms and not easily translated into measurable ob- jectives. Each reference department has pro- grams designed to address the five major objectives identified in this study. These programs are being implemented on a continuous basis. Communication of the strategy throughout the organization appears to be implemented more effec- tively at the larger institution, where the policy statement is up-to-date. The de- gree to which the entire staff agree with, or even are aware of, the overall depart- ment policy was not measured. One way to increase the effectiveness of the communications process within the or- ganization may be through better imple- mentation of the final criterion, the development of a set of outcomes meas- ures to evaluate performance on specific goals. The outcomes measures used by both departments were found to address vari- ous aspects of service quantity. Service quality in most areas was not being measured. There appears to be a lack of congruence between performance meas- ures and stated departmental objectives. The literature on control of library op- erations indicates that this is not an un- usual finding. Service industries have lagged behind goods-producing indus- tries in adopting explicit measures of their productivity. In not-for-profit service in- A Strategic Analysis of the Delivery of Service 69 dustries, such as libraries, the adoption has often been further hampered by the unclear statement of objectives. This often leads to a general lack of measure- ment and evaluation of quality in the delivery of services, a fact that is well- recognized in the growing literature on services.30 Both reference departments in this study have clear objectives. However, in many cases these objectives are not be- ing stated in terms of measurable vari- ables. It is possible to measure the quality of a service just as it is possible to measure the quantity of service pro- vided. Hospitals, restaurants, and hotels provide numerous examples of the defi- nition and measurement of service qual- ity. The library science literature is beginning to recognize that strategic planning can also be implemented in li- braries.31 Evaluation of the services provided by reference departments was found to be a weak link in the strategic implementa- tion of the programs. While both depart- ments clearly identified quality of service as an objective, neither institu- tion had implemented procedures to measure this important aspect of its mis- sion. This does not mean that libraries must implement procedures to gather large quantities of new data for statisti- cal analysis. There appears to be a need for libraries to be more exact in defining what they propose to accomplish, how to know when they have succeeded, and then to implement control systems si- multaneously with their programs. While statistics tell us how many patron questions we have answered, libraries need qualitative evaluation of how well they have met patrons' needs. Both reference departments recognize that the revolutionary changes going on within library and information science affect the libraries and their users. Not only do these changes in the field of in- formation science lead to changes in the methods and techniques of reference work. They may also alter the relation- ships of patrons to libraries. The knowl- edge that large quantities of information exist may make patrons less able to deal with their own ignorance. It has even been suggested that librarians at univer- sities may be seen as symbols of knowl- edge by some of the faculty. Librarians could, in such instances, be perceived as threats, leading to the need for new serv- ice strategies to deal with these situ- ations.32 An interesting research .topic would be to follow the development of service strategies in reference depart- ments of various types and sizes of uni- versities through the next few years. The framework of strategic manage- ment may be of considerable value in the area of delivering desired reference serv- ice at specified quality levels efficiently and effectively in a variety of service industries. The present study has illus- trated two such cases. REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. Nick Moore, How to Do Research, 2d ed. (London: Library Association Publishing, 1987), 20-45. 2. James A. Rice, Richard S. Slack, and Pamela A Garside, "Hospitals Can Learn Valuable Marketing Strategies from Hotels," Hospitals 55 (Nov. 1981): 60-73. 3. Arthur A. Thompson, Jr., and A. J. Strickland III. Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 5th ed. (Homewood, ill.: BPI/Irwin, 1990), 3-17. 4. Henry Mintzberg, "Crafting Strategy," Harvard Business Review 65 Guly I Aug.1987): 66-75. 5. Doris J. Schlichter and J. Michael Pemberton, "The Emperor's New Clothes? Problems of the User Survey as a Planning Tool in Academic Libraries," College & Research Libraries 51 (May 1992): 257-65. 6. Theodore Levitt, "Marketing Myopia," Harvard Business Review 38 Guly I Aug.1960): 45-56. 7. Meredith Butler and Hiram Davis, "Strategic Planning as a Catalyst for Change in the 1990s," College & Research Libraries 51 (Sept. 1992): 393-403. 8. Moore, How to Do Research, 20-45. 9. Butler and Davis "Strategic Planning," 395-97. 10. Mintzberg, "Crafting Strategy," 72. 70 College & Research Libraries January 1995 11. Butler and Davis, "Strategic Planning," 398. 12. The Florida State University Bulletin 1993-1994 (Tallahassee, Fla.: Florida State University, 1989). 13. Bureau of Economic and Business Research, College of Business, University of Florida, 1992 Florida Statistical Abstract, ed. Anne H. Shermyen (Cainsville, Fla.: University Pr., 1993), 40-123. 14. The University of West Florida 1993-94 Catalog (Pensacola, Fla.: Univ. of West Florida, 1993). 15. Cheryl Elzy, Alan Nourie, W. Lancaster, and Kurt M. Joseph, "Evaluating Reference Service in a Large Academic Library," College & Research Libraries 50 (Sept. 1991): 455-65. 16. William L. Beck and MarshaL. Nolf, "The Process and Value of Self-Study in a Medium-sized University Library," College & Research Libraries 51 (Mar. 1992): 150-62. 17. American Library Association, Standards Committee, Reference and Adult Services Divi- sion, Draft Outline of Reference Service Policy Manual (Chicago: ALA, 1984). 18. Peggy Toifel, The University of West Florida Library, Pensacola, Florida, interview, Septem- ber 1989. 19. "Strozier Library Reference Department Service Policy," Florida State University, 1991. 20. Peggy Toifel, The University of West Florida Library, Pensacola, Florida, interview by mail, January 1992. 21. Greg Toole, Strozier Library, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, interview, Sep- tember 1989. 22. David Clendinning, Strozier Library, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, interview by mail, (January 1992). 23. Beck and Nolf, "Process and Value of Self-Study," 153-55. 24. Elzy and others, "Evaluating Reference Service," 458. 25. Robert Burgin, "Reference Accuracy: Improving Our Chances," Wilson Library Bulletin 65 (Nov. 1990): 66-68. 26. Richard Widdows, Tia Aittensler, and Marlya H. Wyncott, "The Focus Group Interview: A Method for Assessing Users' Evaluation of Library Service," College & Research Libraries 50 (July 1991): 152-359. 27. Elzy and others, "Evaluating Reference Service," 446-64. 28. Rice and others, "Hospitals Can Learn Valuable Marketing Strategies from Hotels," 72. 29. Philip Kotler, Marketing Management (New York: Prentice Hall, 1991), 19, quoting L. L. Bean, Inc., Freeport, Maine, brochure and poster material. 30. Lynn G. Shostack, "Breaking Free from Product Marketing," Journal of Marketing 41 (Apr. 1977): 73-80. 31. Butler and Davis, "Strategic Planning," 393-96. 32. William F. Birdsall, "Why Don't More Faculty Love Librarians?" Journal of Academic Librarianship 18 (Jan. 1992): 375-76. INDEX TO ADVERTISERS COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES ACRL 90 Biosis cover 3 Blackwell 16 Ebsco Subscription Service 1 Library Technologies 32 OCLC 48 PAIS 2 Readmore cover 2,15 Todd cover 4