Abstract:
The advancement of technology in Malaysia has flourished and changed our daily life in many aspects such as economic, politic, education as well as social life. Nevertheless, the advancement has also led people in our country to suffer from many types of psychological problems which may eventually lead to various forms of social problems. There is a reciprocal relationship between therapeutic landscape, socio-environmental setting and human restoration that affects people and able to ease the pressure felt by people by changing their various moods and altering their perceptions about things around them. The incorporation of therapeutic landscape in the library, especially the environmental elements may enhance the SERVQUAL and LIBQUAL model. With the therapeutic landscape dimension, library users’ satisfaction in term of therapeutic elements may be measured. This study explores the experience of the public library users in using library services and facilities. The research also proposes research conceptual frameworks which assess the public library therapeutic landscape quality and satisfaction. The research evaluates user’s experience using three constructs which include the following elements: natural and built environments, social environment and spiritual environment of the library. The aim of this research is to assess the expected and perceived library therapeutic landscape quality. The SERVQUAL method is adapted to assess the expectations and perceptions of the public library users. Quantitative research approaches are used to study and engage the gap for library therapeutic landscape quality and satisfaction. The results of the quantitative assessment of perceived library therapeutic landscape quality may provide some insights on how users rate the library therapeutic landscape quality of public libraries. Thus, the findings can be used as a guide for library management to improve the crucial quality attributes and enhance the quality of the therapeutic landscape of the library.
