Integrating Total Quality Management in a Library Setting

Susan Jurow, Susan Barnard

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135022891
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Commerce Général

Improve the delivery of library services by implementing total quality management (TQM), a system of continuous improvement employing participative management and centered on the needs of customers. Although TQM was originally designed for and successfully applied in business and manufacturing settings, this groundbreaking volume introduces strategies for translating TQM principles from the profit-based manufacturing sector to the library setting. Integrating Total Quality Management in a Library Setting shows librarians how to improve library services by implementing strategies such as employee involvement and training, problem-solving teams, statistical methods, long-term goals and thinking, and an overall recognition that the system (not the staff) is responsible for most inefficiencies.Total Quality Management in a Library Setting describes the principles of TQM, its origins, and the potential benefits and barriers to be expected when adopting quality management approaches in libraries. Chapters provide guidelines for planning and implementation to help libraries use total quality management to break down interdepartmental barriers and work on continuously improving library services. The contributors, who have begun to think about using or who are already using TQM in a library setting, present specific planning and implementation issues that can be put to immediate use in libraries. With this innovative book, library managers will learn that by working together on problem solving teams to address specific operational questions, and by developing a shared knowledge of problem-solving tools and techniques, staff members grow personally and gain a larger sense of organizational purpose. Other TQM methods introduced in this book include the concept of the internal customer, which teaches staff to recognize how other staff members use the results of their work, and the principle of continuous improvement, which enables libraries to set measurable goals based on quantitative performance indicators, and to monitor progress toward those goals.

Index

Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations; those followed by t refer to tables; and those followed by n refer to notes

Accountability, effects on higher education, 161–162

American Productivity and Quality Center, 11

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), 11

Association for Quality and Participation (AQP), 11–12

Association of Research Libraries (ARL)

TQM model of, 57–70, 62

evaluation of, 68–69

expansion in, 68–69

identifying products, services, and customers in, 65

implementation of

customers expectations and needs in, 63–66

divisional planning in, 69

exploration process in, 59–60

guiding principles in, 64–65

identification and measurement in, 66–67

initial pilot project teams in, 67–68

initial steps in, 59–61

management commitment in, 60–61

organizational assessment in, 61, 63

organizing for quality in, 61–65, 62

strategic planning in, 61–65, 69

team member skill development in, 68

vision in, 64–65

ATM. See Automated Teller Machine

Automated Teller Machine (ATM), partnership arrangements of, 141

Awards

as an open door for others wanting to learn, 134

Baldrige award, 63, 130–132, 131t, 132t

benefits of, 132–134

better service for customers from, 134

documentation of organization’s efforts for, 133

examples of “best practices” for, 133–134

objectives for, 133

proposed action plan for, 134–135

publicity for libraries from, 134

rewards of, 132–134

trained evaluators for, 133

validation of current quality programs in libraries for, 133

Baldrige, Malcolm, 130

Baldrige award, 63, 130–132, 131t, 132t

categories evaluated for, 131t

scoring criteria for, 132t

Barcoding, 122

Barriers

interdepartmental, breaking down of, 3

to TQM, 5–6

commitment, 5–6

in federal government, 178–180

process, 6

professionalization, 6

vocabulary, 5, 47–48

Beliefs, defined, 63

Benchmarking, 120–125, 123

benefits of, 124–125

competitive, 122

defined, 120

functional, 122

partnership development in, 124

performance, 122

pitfalls of, 124

process, 122

process of, 123–124, ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Editors
• Introduction: TQM Fundamentals and Overview of Contents
• Library Approaches to Total Quality Management
• Implementing a Total Quality Management Program
• Supporting Total Quality Management Efforts
• Learning From the Experince of Others
• Index