ABSTRACT
Studies conducted in the business world have demonstrated the direct relationship between employee attitude and customer satisfaction. One such study by Schmit and Allscheid (1995) found that each employee’s attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, whether in upper management or at the clerk level, affect customer service. It is for this reason that evaluations of staff attitudes toward library services should be conducted on a regular basis. In other words, patron usage statistics alone should not be the only criteria determining existing services. This study evaluates the University of Texas at Arlington’s (UTA) Libraries’ reference staff attitudes over a two-year period towards the QuestionPoint online reference chat service. The study seeks to diagnose the overall view of the reference staff and compare the findings to actual statistics gathered in 2003 and 2004.
