In Pursuit of e-Quality

Electronic information services have the potential to address longstanding barriers in connection with access, especially in a 24/7 clinical environment. This places a premium on appropriate evaluation that must be credible and address wider issues in connection with the collections, services, usability, and the community. The last of these issues has not received sufficient attention. After briefly considering approaches to outcomes measurement, the author reviews three significant approaches to e-Quality: the e-SQ, LibQUAL+, and Multi-attribute stated-preference techniques. Moving to issues around the “community of practice,” the author argues that an evaluation framework that takes such a perspective into account will lead to more sympathetic evaluations as well as broadening our understanding and expectations of models of electronic information service delivery.