# I. INTRODUCTION & LITERATURE REVIEW here are four (4) research universities in Malaysia namely, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). As a part of the entity in a Research University the academic library should play a vital role to achieve the goals in providing and sharing up-to-date knowledge to the community of the Research University. The academic library should play a significant role and performs its task as a center of knowledge and parallels its performance to the research university status. With this it can encourage the researchers to come and get the services from the academic library at the Research University (RU). In previous researches, the performance and worth of an academic library in meeting the users' needs were measured using several instruments i.e. the size of collections, budget, expenditure and staff (Nitecki &Franklin, 1999). The academic library performance refers to the implementation of the service quality dimension in delivering their services and meeting the users' needs. A previous study by Collen & Fred (2001) showed that all SERVQUAL dimensions have a positive relationship with the performance of an academic library. Besides that, the research conducted by Junaida, Mahadir, Siti Hajjar, Sharunizam & Kamaruzaman Jusoff (2009) showed that the reliability dimension plays an important role in the performance of an academic library. Therefore, the objective of this study is to measure the five (5) SERVQUAL dimensions in providing quality services performance in the academic libraries at the Research Universities (RUs). The five (5) dimensions are library as a place, its collection, and its access to information, reliability and empathy. It is hoped that by utilizing these five (5) dimensions, the academic libraries in Malaysia are able to maintain their performance and influence the users to visit and fully utilize the services that they offer. Besides, the academic library at the Research University (RU) also is able to uphold its performance in giving the best service as a center of knowledge for the community of the Research University. The data used in this study are the primary data where the participants answer a series of questions regarding the data needed to describe the research libraries in today's environment. The SERVQUAL instrument is a questionnaire that is distributed based on stratified random sampling to the four RUs in Malaysia. It consists of 48 statements. In addition, a set of demographic questions are included. Statistical analysis such as the descriptive analysis, cross-tabulation and correlation are applied in the analysis in order to test the hypotheses developed for the research. # c) Results # i. Descriptive Analysis Table 1 shows that the ratio of male to female respondents is 1:2 where 33.3% (82 respondents) were male and female respondents comprised of 66.7% (164 respondents) of the respondents. It shows that in the four RUs most of their communities are female students. Table 3 shows the school distribution among the respondents. In total, there were sixteen schools involved in this study. The biggest number of respondents was 131 respondents (53.3%) chose 'others' category (Islamic Studies, Environmental Studies, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Law, Forestry, Agricultural, Veterinary Medicine, Food Science & Tech, Human Ecology, Health Science, Dentistry), followed by the School of Social Science (28 -11.4%), School of Humanities (19 -7.7%), School of Educational Studies (14 -5.7%) and the School of Management (13 -5.3%). The School of Computer Sciences and the School of Mathematical Sciences with 7 respondents (2.8%) respectively, followed by the School of Language, Literacy and Translation and the School of Biological Sciences with 6 respondents (2.4%) respectively. In addition, the School of Arts (4 -1.6%), followed by the School of Communication, the School of Physics, the School of Chemical Sciences (3-1.2%) respectively; and the School of Housing, Building and Planning and the School of Industrial Technology with 1 respondent (0.4%) each. Table 4 reveals the analysis of the Research University and frequency of library use. There are four (4) Research Universities involved in this study namely; Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Besides that, there are five (5) levels of library usage identified; very often, often, sometimes, rarely and never. Twelve respondents (36.4%) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia used the library 'very often' followed by Universiti Putra Malaysia (7 -11.7%), Universiti Malaya (6 -5.2%) and lastly Universiti Sains Malaysia (4 -10.8%). As for using the library 'often', the highest number of respondents were from UPM (36 -60%), followed by UM (32 -27.6%), UKM (14 -42.4 %) and lastly USM. Sixty one respondents (52.6%) from UM recorded using the library 'sometimes' followed by USM (18 -48.6%), UPM (16 -26.6%) and UKM (5 -15.1%). The highest number of respondents from UM (15 -12.9%) used the library 'rarely' followed by UKM (2 -6%), USM (2 -5.4%) and UPM (1 -1.7%). As for 'never' using the library, two respondents were from UM (1.7%), followed by USM (1-2.7%). In the nutshell, the data showed that 100 respondents claimed using the academic library 'sometimes'. With that we can assume that the academic libraries in RUs are fully utilized by their students in dealing with any kind of activities i.e. group discussion, study, research or any activities that support their learning environment. It also supports that the library is really important among the students and able to meet their needs as a center of knowledge repository and information. ii. Correlation Analysis Table 5 shows the values of the Pearson's Correlation Co-efficient for all dimensions, against the dependent variable, Service Quality. The value of the empathy dimension co-efficient was non-zero, indicating there is a relationship between each of the dependent variable and the dependent variable. The strength of the relationship between the empathy dimension and the library performance was 0.724 co-efficient. Since the sign of each of the co-efficient is positive, the relationship between the independent and dependent variables is a positive one. Thus, all the Null hypotheses identifies are rejected. This result contradicts with the results of the previous research conducted by Junaida et al. (2009) in one of the Research Universities; USM showed the influence of the reliability dimension is the strongest compared to other dimensions of SERVQUAL in determining the performance of the academic library. ![conducted in four (4) Research Universities (UM, UKM, USM & UPM) and the total number of samples involved in this study were 385 library users of the academic libraries of the four (4) research universities. Out of 385 respondents chosen, only 246 completed and returned the questionnaires. a) Research Design The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the SERVQUAL dimension and the performance of the academic library at the Research Universities (RUs) in Malaysia. T © 2011 Global Journals Inc. (US) Global Journal of Human Social Science Volume XI Issue VIII Version](image-2.png "") 1GenderFrequency%Male8233.3Female16466.7Total246100.0 2ModeFrequency%Full time21687.8Part time3012.2Total246100 3School© 2011 Global Journals Inc. (US) 4Universiti MalayaUniversiti Kebangsaan MalaysiaUniversiti Sains MalaysiaUniversiti Putra MalaysiaTotalVery Often6 (5.2%)12 (36.4%)4 (10.8%)7 (11.7%)29 (11.8%)Often32 (27.6%)14 (42.4%)12 (32.4%)36 (60 %)94 (38.2%)Frequency of Library UseSometimes61 (52.6%)5 (15.1%)18 (48.6%)16 (26.6%)100 (40.6%)Rarely15 (12.9%)2 (6.1%)2 (5.4%)1 (1.7%)20 (8.1%)Never2 (1.7%)0 (.0%)1 (2.7%)0 (.0%)3 (1.2%)Total116 (100.0%)33 (100.0%)37 (100.0%)60 (100.0%)246 (100.0%) 5Dimension III. ## CONCLUSION The general conclusion that can be derived from this study is all five (5) SERVQUAL dimensions are important in determining the performance of an academic library especially in a Research University. However, out of the five (5) dimensions the empathy dimension has the most influence. Hence, all the five (5) SERVQUAL dimensions should be incorporated in the daily routines of all academic libraries in Malaysia. * Measuring service quality in an academic library: an Indian case study AshokKumar Sahu Library Review 56 3 2007 * Users' perceptions of library service quality: A LibQUAL+Qualitative Study CColleen M HFred Library Trends 49 4 2001 * Influence of Reliability Dimension on Service Quality Performance in Northern Region Malaysia University Academic Library JunaidaIsmail MahadirLadisma @Awis SitiHajjar MA SharunizamShari & Kamaruzaman Jusoff Canadian Social Science Journal 5 4 2009 * JunaidaIsmail AishahMusa Mahadir * Influence of reliability dimension on service performance for USM library Ladisma@Awis. Sharunizam Shari, Siti Hajjar Mohd Amin & Afida Arapa. 2011 * Elixir Management & Art Online Journal 37 * NNarit NHaruki 2003 Assessment of Library Service Quality At Thammasat University Library System". Japan: University of Library and Information Science * Perspective on new measure for research libraries DANitecki BFranklin The Journal of Academic Librarianship 25 6 1999