Szewczyk–Kłos, Part 2
Among these principles library service quality is the most important one in library practice. To perform the task successfully, one has to identify the users of a library and their actual needs and expectations. The task is closely related to the need for systematic studies of library users into the level of their satisfaction with the services offered.
The next principle involves placing teams within the hierarchical structure of libraries. Apart from solving current problems, team work allows one to share responsibility for the quality of services with other team members and to find out how the library functions in various areas of its activity. Indirectly, this reorganization makes constant improvement of professional qualifications necessary, which in turn makes it necessary for the entire library staff to permanently participate in the process.
Implementing TQM is time–consuming and complex, it requires active participation of all the staff members irrespective of their place within the system. The role of the managing staff is to update everyone on the progress in implementing TQM principles and to improve systematically work processes and methods. These views can be often found in the studies on the implementation of TQM in the libraries of tertiary–level educational institutions.
In 1998 Polish academic libraries agreed on a TEMPUS–sponsored project aimed at introducing TQM in the libraries of four universities (including three technical universities); Bydgoszcz University of Technology and Agriculture, Cracow University of Technology, Kielce University of Technology, Szczecin University).
The primary objective of the project was defined as “Preparing Polish libraries for implementation of TQM techniques in collaboration with libraries from the EU” [9]. In September 2000, an international conference was held in Bydgoszcz–Gniew on “Quality Management in Academic Libraries” (Derfert–Wolf, 2000), organized within the framework of the TEMPUS Project. The goal of the Conference was to make the results of the project widely known, as well as to present the stages of implementing the management system in the libraries. The four participating libraries all approved of the implementation of the TQM principles.
The main principles of quality management are established by the norms for the quality management system as set out in the standard PN–ISO 9001. According to it, the certification range for libraries may include, for instance, “books, journals, multimedia programs acqusition, making them available, and providing information.” Each institution that wants to be awarded the ISO 9001 certificate should meet the following requirements:
- — to identify processes that are needed in a quality management system and their application in an organization;
- — to define sequences of these processes and their mutual interaction;
- — to identify the criteria and methods that ensure the efficiency of the application and monitoring of the processes;
- — to make available both resources and information indispensable for supporting the application and monitoring of these processes;
- — to monitor, measure, and analyze these processes;
- — to implement activities that are indispensable for achieving the planned results, as well as to improve continuously these processes. [10]
The implementation of the ISO 9001 brings measurable benefits in the form of well–organized and clearly defined processes and procedures that make work more efficient. The stage of formulating procedures enables the managing staff to verify and eliminate those activities that are superfluous and do not contribute to the improvement in service quality or are repeated at several points in the organization. It also allows them to introduce a specific order of work and helps them maintain and monitor high quality.
The first Polish library to implement the TQM system in 1999 was the Main Library at the Maritime University in Szczecin. The range of certification included: purchase of library collections and educational tools, and making available the publications (collections) related to the educational process (Edelman and Karadysz, 2000). The ISO 9001 version of TQM was also implemented by the Voivodship Library for Teachers in Lublin and the Voivodship Library for Teachers, also called the Copernicus Library, in Toruń. The two libraries are not research libraries strictly speaking; however, they are used in this capacity by their users. The fact that they are viewed as research libraries can be shown by the point in the mission statement of the Copernicus Library that says: “Research, in particular that on the origin of old book collections” (Szymorowska, 2004).
A mission statement and strategy planning for an organization are the main components in strategic management. They are related to, and have much in common with quality management methods such as TQM and ISO 9001. In the literature on professional management one can find numerous definitions of this method. In my study I will use the definition by L. Derfert–Wolf in her article “Strategic Planning in an Academic Library.” According to her, strategic management means managing the development over a long period of time, the process of planning, decision–taking, task execution and control, as well as political and administrative actions [11].
An indispensable part of this method is strategic planning; i.e., the process of setting goals and directions of development as well as defining the methods and means of their execution. One of the strategic planning tools is the SWOT analysis, or the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Procedures for conducting such an analysis are formulated in the paper by B. Feret and E. Dobrzyńska–Lankosz [12]. The resulting SWOT analysis leads to an evaluation of the current condition of an organization and to working out the directions of its development. The stage that follows, after analysis of the condition of an organization, is formulation of its mission and vision.