Negative critical incidents in academic libraries: an exploratory case study in the UTAD library

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the dimensions of academic library customer complaints. It contributes to a better understanding of customer complaints within the context of a particular service, namely, academic libraries. The methodology was based on a case study with 30 narratives gathered from library customers and staff. Negative critical incidents were grouped and classified to support the conceptual framework used in this paper. Results identified 16 dissatisfied service encounters related to the following three dimensions of librarian service: open space, open place and open state. The vast majority of incidents identified involved the library experienced as an open state and open space. Owing to the exploratory nature of the study and the scope and size of the study sample, the results outlined are tentative and further research should be undertaken to test them in the context of other academic libraries.