Purpose

Google Maps is a web platform that allows users to review businesses and services, including libraries. Given the impact of online reviews on the corporate reputation of companies and institutions, it is important to understand how library users disseminate and process reviews on online sites. This study explores whether Google Maps is being used by users of public libraries in the city of Barcelona (Spain) to share their views on libraries' facilities and services and what perception of the library they transmit.

Design/methodology/approach

Records corresponding to the 40 public municipal libraries in Barcelona were retrieved from Google Maps. For each library, the average “rating” (a quantitative assessment of the library) and a sample of the ten most recent “reviews” (a text and/or photograph(s) that accompanies the rating) were analysed. Reviews were categorised into eight categories: “children's areas”, “collections”, “location”, “facilities”, “general reviews”, “opening hours”, “staff” and “technology”.

Findings

All of the city's 40 public libraries are present in Google Maps and have been reviewed by users, usually with high ratings. The number of replies to users' reviews by library managers is negligible. Reviews with low ratings tend to be longer than those with high ratings. In the reviews, children's areas, collections and library location are given positive ratings. Facilities also receive positive reviews, although to a lesser extent, and two issues receive criticism: noise and lack of seating space for studying. Three aspects of the libraries attract similar numbers of positive and negative reviews: staff, opening hours and technology. The study concludes that Barcelona's public libraries should devote more resources for keeping the information in their profiles updated. They should also monitor users' opinions and create guidelines to offer feedback, especially to negative reviews.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited by being restricted to a single platform (Google Maps) and a single city (Barcelona). Those writing reviews in Google Maps may not constitute a representative sample of library users. “Local guides”, who tend to award higher ratings than other users, participate in a programme that allows them to earn points that may be exchanged for benefits. Therefore, it is possible that at least some “local guides” publish reviews on public libraries they hardly know (if at all) just to obtain benefits. Similarly, the large number of users commenting on study spaces suggests that young people may be over-represented.

Originality/value

Many studies have analysed transaction data in online library settings, including visits, searches, downloads, etc. but there are no examples of analyses of user-generated content such as texts or photos uploaded to review sites and social media. The results of this study will help to improve the understanding of how library patrons see public libraries and to design effective strategies to respond to and generally manage their suggestions and complaints.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2019-0291

中文翻译：

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用户对公共图书馆的评价：对Google Maps评论的分析

目的

Google Maps是一个网络平台，允许用户查看企业和服务，包括图书馆。考虑到在线评论对公司和机构的公司声誉的影响，重要的是要了解图书馆用户如何在在线站点上传播和处理评论。这项研究探讨了巴塞罗那市（西班牙）的公共图书馆用户是否正在使用Google Maps，以分享他们对图书馆设施和服务的看法以及对图书馆的看法。

设计/方法/方法

从Google Maps检索了与巴塞罗那40个公共市政图书馆相对应的记录。对于每个图书馆，分析其平均“评分”（对图书馆的定量评估）和十个最新“评论”（与该评分一起的文字和/或照片）的样本。审查分为八类：“儿童区”，“馆藏”，“地点”，“设施”，“一般审查”，“开放时间”，“工作人员”和“技术”。

发现

该市的40个公共图书馆中的所有图书馆都存在于Google地图中，并且受到用户的评论，通常评分很高。图书馆管理员对用户评论的回复数量可以忽略不计。评分较低的评论往往要比评分较高的评论更长。在评论中，儿童地区，藏书和图书馆位置得到正面评价。设施也得到了正面的评价，尽管程度较小，并且有两个问题受到批评：噪音和缺乏学习的座位空间。图书馆的三个方面吸引了相同数量的正面和负面评论：人员，开放时间和技术。该研究得出的结论是，巴塞罗那的公共图书馆应投入更多资源来更新其资料中的信息。他们还应监控用户的

研究局限/意义

由于限于单个平台（Google地图）和单个城市（巴塞罗那），因此研究受到限制。那些在Google Maps中撰写评论的人可能并不代表图书馆用户的代表性。往往会获得比其他用户更高的评级的“本地向导”参加了一项计划，该计划使他们能够获得可以兑换利益的积分。因此，有可能至少有一些“本地指南”在他们几乎不知道（如果有的话）仅仅是为了获得利益的公共图书馆上发表评论。同样，大量评论学习空间的用户表明，年轻人的人数可能过多。

创意/价值

许多研究已经分析了在线图书馆设置中的交易数据，包括访问，搜索，下载等。但是，没有分析用户生成的内容（例如上传到评论站点和社交媒体的文本或照片）的示例。这项研究的结果将有助于增进对图书馆顾客如何看待公共图书馆的理解，并设计出有效的策略来回应和一般管理他们的建议和投诉。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史记录可在以下网址获得：https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2019-0291