NORTHUMBRIA PRESENTATION Quality Management in Special Libraries

8/12/2019 NORTHUMBRIA PRESENTATION Quality Management in Special Libraries

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Quality Management in Special

Libraries

1-Golnessa GALYANI MOGHADDAM Shahed University

Dept. of Library and Information Science, ShahedUniversity, Persian Gulf Highway, Tehran, IRAN,

Postal code: 3319118651, E-mail:[email protected]

2-Mostafa MOBALLEGHI

Islamic Azad University – Karaj Branch

Dept. of Industrial Management, Islamic AzadUniversity (IAU) - Karaj Branch, P.O. Box 31485-

313, Karaj, Iran, E-mail:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]








Purpose of the Paper

• This paper sets out to review quality

management and its complexities, and

later review the quality approaches in

especial libraries.

• A number of different approaches such as

TQM, EFQM, SERVQUAL, and LibQUAL tothe introduction of quality management in

special libraries were reviewed.



Quality Management

Quality management is focused not only onproduct/service quality, but also the means toachieve it. Quality management therefore

uses quality assurance and control ofprocesses as well as products to achieve moreconsistent quality.

The distinction between quality assurance andquality improvement/enhancement is noteasy to recognize.



Three main components of Quality

Management

• Quality Control,

• Quality Assurance , and

• Quality Improvement/Enhancement.



Differentiation between Quality

Assurance and Quality Enhancement

• Quality assurance is a widely used term that refers to theprocesses associated with ensuring that quality adheres tosome externally or internally set standard. Through qualityassurance, the organisation and external stakeholders canbe assured that the performance of the organisation is ofan appropriate standard. The processes whereby theorganisation collects the data to demonstrate that thesetargets have been met are quality assurance.

• Quality assurance requires standards of performance towhich organisations must aspire, often, but not alwaysarticulated as quantitative performance measures. Suchperformance measures are often based on the collection ofbenchmarking data from across a sector.



Differentiation between Quality

Assurance and Quality Enhancement…

• Quality enhancement focuses attention on thoseprocesses associated with enhancing or improvingquality. Again performance measures are a necessaryrepresentation of quality; organisations will not only

seek to make improvements, but also will want to beable to monitor that improvements have been made.

• Quality enhancement programmes may alsoembrace standards and targets and the various otherelements of quality assurance, but improvements arenot constrained by, or restricted to achievement ofthese targets. In addition, the focus is on theprocesses that lead to quality enhancement.



Dimension Qualityassurance

Qualityenhancement

Focus Output

standards

Internal

processes

Measures Performancemeasures

Assessment ofprocesses

Primary

audience/stakeholder

Funding body Customer/employees

Level of staffownership

Low High

Consequences Funding/accredi

tation,

achievement of quality marks

and branding

Quality service

delivery



Quality Approaches in Special

Libraries

• TQM (Total Quality Management)

• EFQM (European Foundation for Quality

Management)

• SERVQUAL

• LibQUAL



TQM (Total Quality Management)

• The concept of quality management originated inJapan and later moved into the USA and the UK,initially in the manufacturing sector. Since then,

the theory of quality management has beengrowing fast. The philosophy is increasingly beingapplied in the service sectors, including libraries.

• Use of TQM in the library sector started in the

late 1980s, though early studies show that theTQM approach was not successful in somelibraries.



Reasons for Implementing TQM Models



TQM in Special Libraries

• Literature review shows that some special libraries appliedTQM in their libraries and found interesting results. Forinstance, a study by Wang in 2006 showed that teamwork isimportant for the successful implementation of TQM. Everystep of the process depends on the constant support of top

management. Their role determines how far theimplementation can go. Therefore, once a decision is madeto apply TQM, strong leadership is required. TQM providesa model and a benchmark as guidelines in making newstrategies in libraries facing today’s great changes. It is

arguable whether it is feasible to apply the principleswithout reservation, but it is reasonable to adopt thetechniques with adaptations suitable to the libraryenvironment.



EFQM (European Foundation for Quality

Management)•

Following the idea of TQM, libraries have witnessed theemergence of EFQM. The European Foundation for Quality

Management (EFQM) has developed a widely used

framework for quality enhancement, the EFQM Business

Excellence Model, that not only embeds the principles of

TQM, but also provides a mechanism for accreditation of an

organisation’s quality processes. The model is based on nine

criteria for excellence:

• five “Enabler” criteria relating to what the organisation does,

and how it runs, including leadership, policy and strategy,

people, partnerships and resources and processes; and

• four “Results” criteria relating to what the organisation is

actually achieving, in the eye of its stakeholders, (i.e.

customers, employees or people, society and funders).



The EFQM Model



SERVQUAL

• As an instrument or service qualityframework, the SERVQUAL instrumentmeasures the gap between customer’s

expectations for excellence and theirperceptions of actual service delivered, soservice providers can understand bothcustomer expectations and their perceptions

of specific services. A review of literatureshows that SERVQUAL has been vastly used inlibrary studies.



What does SERVQUAL measure?

• 1) reliability;

• (2) responsiveness;

• (3) competence;

• (4) access;

• (5) courtesy;

• (6) communication;

• (7) credibility;

• (8) security;

• (9) understanding or knowing the customer; and

• (10) tangibles.



SERVQUAL in Libraries

•

A case study in Iran by using SERVQUAL modelin an academic library showed that, there is no

equal importance between library service

quality indicators. After prioritizing indicators it

was found that having the ability to find

information 24 hours a day has the most

importance and a secure and safe place is the

least important indicator for making a highquality library (Jamali and Sayyadi, 2009).



LibQUAL

• LibQUAL derives from the Gap Theory of ServiceQuality, and the SERVQUAL instrument. LibQUALhas been attracted by many libraries around theworld and many studies have been conducted by

means of this emerging quality-service model.LibQUAL measures the following four dimensions:

• (1) affect of service;

• (2) library as place;

• (3) personal control; and

• (4) access to information



LibQUAL in Iranian Libraries

• A study by Hariri and Afnani in Iran was conductedusing a LibQUAL+™ survey at the central library of IranUniversity of Medical Sciences and Health Services. Theresults did not show significant differences between

mean values of gap scores for female and male users.The library exceeded female users’ minimumacceptable level of service quality in 16 aspects ofLibQUAL+™ survey, while that library fulfilled theminimum level of acceptable quality in just nine

aspects for male users; however, according to statisticalanalysis, female and male users held similar opinions inrelation to the quality of the library services.



Conclusion

• Quality Management System (QMS) provides amanagement framework that gives libraries thenecessary controls to address risks and monitor andmeasure performance in their business. It can also help

libraries to enhance their image and reputation insidetheir parent organizations.

• “Quality Management” is considered more formally aspart of organizational and departmental policy andplanning. This has required the setting up of a variety

of quality-related procedures and performancemeasures. However, quality management is not asimple but a complex process.



Conclusion… • Literature review showed that most quality studies were

reported form academic libraries, but TQM and EFQM are twoquality models which are used in some special libraries aroundthe world and librarians found enough positive results to justify their application.

• Two most used quality instruments to measure library

performance are SERVQUAL and LibQUAL. The SERVQUALinstrument measures the gap between customer’s expectations for excellence and their perceptions of actualservice delivered. LibQUAL measures library users’ evaluationsof service quality.

•In spite of some criticisms, these two instruments have beenvastly used in library studies for measuring quality.



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NORTHUMBRIA PRESENTATION Quality Management in Special Libraries