The Effect of Quality of Information Services on the users' Loyalty and their Satisfaction with the Library Information Services of Public Libraries through the Mediating Role of Perceived Value of Services: A Case Study of Public Libraries of Khuzestan Province

To investigate the effect of service quality on the loyalty and satisfaction of users of information services in public libraries of Khuzestan province, considering the mediating role of perceived value of services. This is an applied research conducted using a descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of the study includes all users of public libraries of Khuzestan province from whom 383 people were selected as a statistical sample by using the random sampling method. Data were collected using a questionnaire and the software programs SPSS 21 and PLS. Structural Equation Method (SEM) was used to examine the causal model of the study. The results showed that the quality of information services has a significant effect on the users' loyalty (0.5455) and their satisfaction (0.3361) and on the value of libraries' information services perceived by them (0.941). Meanwhile, the quality of services had a significant effect on the users' loyalty (0.345) and their satisfaction with the information services (0.546) through the mediating role of perceived value of library services. The results also indicated that 34.5% of loyalty changes and 54.6% of the changes of users' satisfaction with the quality of information services is accounted for by the perceived value of services as the mediating variable. Features of service quality, including objectivity, reliability, trust, responsiveness and empathy influence the users' perceptions of the value of information services of public libraries, and directly or indirectly, affect their satisfaction and loyalty.