INTRODUCTION

CONCEPT OF LIBRARY MANAGEMENT

The place where in so many information materials are kept is
called 'library'. The basic function of library is to acquire,
organize and disseminate the knowledge or information
resources to the users, however, the techniques or process may
differ to library to library. Library is also a social organization
because it is directly related to human being either in form of staff
or users. When some persons work together in any organization
the concept of management also implies there. According to Dr.
S.R. Ranganathan's Fifth law of library science, every library
develops in the form of collections, infrastructures, users and
manpower. So the application of management theories and
techniques is also needed to run the library slickly.
The word 'management' consists of three different words as
'Manage + Men + T', here 'T' refers for Techniques, so the
meaning of management is very clear and that is 'Techniques to
Manage Men'. In other words, manage the men power by using
different techniques to achieve business or organizational goals.
Management in all business areas and human organization
activity is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired
goals and objectives. Library is also an organization; therefore,
the manpower is an important factor of any library system. All the
techniques and principles like planning, organizing, staffing,
motivating, budgeting, controlling, coordinating etc. are also
applicable there. Figure 1 shows that all the library functions and
services are provided under a management system, so it is
necessary to follow all the functions and techniques of
management to operate various library activities properly.
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The paper presents the various aspects of total quality management and correlates
the importance of it in the library and information sector. Now the library and
information sectors have become totally users oriented so the concept of 'customers'
satisfaction' also applies here and the basis foundation of total quality management is
also associated with this concept, therefore, application of all the techniques of total
quality management is essential in libraries to fulfill the users' needs in appropriate
manner.
Key Terms: TQM, Library Management, Quality Management, Service Quality,
Collection Policy, Budget Policy.
ABSTRACT
ISSN 2229-5984 (P)
2249-5576 (e)
Total Quality Management: An Effective Approach for Library System
Sunil Bhatt
Assistant Librarian
Banasthali University
Corresponding Author
Sunil Bhatt
Vbsb1970@gmail.com
To Cite: Bhatt, S. (2012). Total quality management: An effective approach for library system. International
Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology, 2(4), 266-269.
Received On: 26.07.12; Revised On: 01.11.12; Accepted On: 11.11.12
International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology | Oct. - Dec. 2012 | Vol. 2 | Issue 4
Library Management System
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Fig. 1: Concept of Library Management
PERCEPTION OF TQM
In the early 1900s, F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific
management emphasized on quality by including product
inspection and gauging in his list of fundamental areas of
manufacturing management. World War II caused a dramatic
increase in emphasis on quality control. Soon after, U.S.
universities started training engineers in the industries in the use
of statistical sampling techniques and professional quality
organizations such as American Society for Quality Control
started emerging in the United States. The quality movement was
consolidated in 1980s in the Indian industries about a synergy of
resources by the pioneering efforts of Confederation of Indian
Industries (CII). The CII set up the total quality management
267 International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology | Oct. - Dec. 2012 | Vol. 2 | Issue 4
division with the help of twenty one companies who agreed to
support the cause by pooling in resources and pledging to start the
journey of TQM. The year 1987 brought up ISO 9000 standards
into reality and visible strategies emerged from the European
market to set a global trend towards standardizing and certifying
quality system. Today, quality management and control as the
foundation of the business competitiveness and is proactively
integrated with all business practices.
Quality management is based on precisely such premise, its
foundation being laid on definitions of quality which stress that
the 'goodness' of a product or service can only be measured in
terms of the extent to which it meets the customer or user's needs
in formal terms quality is defined as 'fitness for purpose' or
'conformance to requirements'. Total quality management
stresses a customer focus and continuous improvement as core
values. TQM is the art of managing the whole to achieve
excellence. The term TQM is a combination of three words:
Total+Quality+Management. It means that totality of features and
characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to
satisfy stated or implied needs (American Society for Quality). So
in simple way it can be defined that all activities for customer
satisfaction through product or service is called TQM.
The objective of Moghaddam & Moballeghi (2008) study was to
present an overview of TQM in the library and information
sectors. It was observed that TQM was initially applied as a
management philosophy in the manufacturing sector. Following
its enormous success, this philosophy was increasingly being
applied in the service sector including libraries.
The purpose of Thakkar (2006) and others study was to explore
the potential for adoption of TQM in self-financed technical
institutions in the light of new demands and challenges posed by
customers/students and society. The findings identified technical
and students' requirements for the modern educational set-up. It
provided information about the severity of various technical
requirements of competitive education and recognized the need
for continuous improvement, cultural change and effective use of
financial resources to improve the value addition at each level.
The purpose of Begum Sayeda (2010) and others study was to
explore the adoption of quality management practices in
engineering educational institutions (EEIs) in India from
management's perspective. The findings highlighted twenty
seven critical factors/dimensions of quality management, which
analyzed the relationship between TQM dimensions and
institutional performance, which had been formulated using five
dimensions. Positive and significant relationships among the
TQM dimensions and institutional performance had been
observed.
The purpose of Yapa (2012) study was to report the results of an
investigation on the use of total quality management (TQM) tools,
techniques and concepts among Sri Lankan service
organizations. The study revealed that there was an enthusiasm
among managers in implementing TQM in their organizations.
According to the respondents, 41 per cent of the organizations
ASPECT OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
(TQM)
LITERATURE REVIEW
had already implemented TQM. However, deeper analysis of
data revealed that there was a lack of thorough understanding of
TQM philosophies and techniques among the managers.
Aly & Akpovi (2001) investigated the extent of total quality
management implementation in two California public higher
education systems: the California State University (CSU) and the
University of California (UC) systems. These two higher
education systems included 32 statewide campuses with over
half a million students and 27,000 faculty. The study revealed that
more than half of the California public universities were
implementing TQM in one form or another and the TQM
implementation in the CSU system was much wider than that in
the UC system. In general, the character of implementation was
still limited to business-type operations in universities, such as
business finance and administrative services.
The purpose of the study of Toremen (2009) and others was to
determine the extent of total quality management (TQM)
practices in primary schools based on teachers' perceptions, and
how their perceptions were related to different variables. The
findings showed that in the perceptions of teachers, there were
some problems with the indicators of TQM practices, especially
on the dimension of change management. There were significant
differences among teachers' perceptions on TQM practices
depending upon the variables of branch, level of education and
tenure, while there were no meaningful differences according to
the gender variable.
Begum (2003) explained that ISO 9000 has an internationally
accepted certificate that accredits an organization for its quality
management systems and procedures. ISO 9004-2:1992 has
guidelines for services and was issued by ISO to establish and
implement a quality system within a service organization such as
an educational institution.
The purpose of Dixit & Garg (2009) study was to analyze the
various factors important for total quality management
implementation in various manufacturing organizations and to
assess their relevance for Indian manufacturing organizations. It
was shown that customer focus must be the prime objective for
various industries to achieve total quality management. All the
factors must be used systematically to achieve total quality
management (TQM) and it can be done efficiently by using a
model having four phases to implement TQM.
The study of Li (2003) and others considered the role and
practices of total quality management in China. After a brief
overview of 428 Northern Chinese companies representing
different forms of ownership they found that the implementation
of quality was highly variable. In general, joint venture
companies scored highly in quality practices, in contrast, state
owned enterprises scored poorly. Privately owned companies
also scored well in some aspects of quality implementation.
It was mentioned in Dayton (2003) study that total quality
management was deemed by many, a decade or so ago, to be a
management movement so significant that it was a paradigm
change capable of completely reorienting corporate
management responsibilities. It was the answer to the product
quality challenge from Japan. It made quality "job number one".
TQM was to provide the interdepartmental connections and the
sharing of information, goals, and responsibilities that would
assure complete organizational realignment to customer needs. It
268 International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology | Oct. - Dec. 2012 | Vol. 2 | Issue 4
sounded good and pragmatically made sense being just "too
logical" not to work. So, where is it now?
The purpose of Tari (2005) study was to identify the components
of total quality management, in order to make them known to
managers and thus facilitate successful quality management
implementation, and to show the situation of 106 ISO 9000
certified firms concerning these components. The results reflect
that certified firms must develop their people orientation and use
techniques and tools to a higher extent in order to progress
towards total quality.
Improvement in library services does not require fancy
consultants, advanced degree, additional working hours etc. It
can be achieve by using some management techniques like Total
Quality Management. TQM was initially applied as a
Library and Total Quality Management

Acquisition
Cell
Technical
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Circulation
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Reference
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Users Guidance
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Periodical Cell
Collection Policy
Service Policy
Landing Policy Processing Policy
Orientation Policy Xeroxing Policy
Access Policy
Budget Policy
Collection Policy
Budget Policy
Collection Policy
Budget Policy
Key functions of various
units in library system
management philosophy in the manufacturing sector. Following
its massive success this philosophy is increasing being applied in
the service sectors like banks, hospitals, insurance, academic
institutions and in libraries too. Library is basically a service
oriented organization. It provides services directly to the users or
readers. Therefore, users' satisfaction is the primary or basic aim
of every library and to provide better services for users' complete
satisfaction, the utilization of library sources should be in
adequate manner. Manpower or staff of the library is the key
resources, so where as human being is involved the need of
management techniques also will be there.
Basically a library has the following sections or cells: acquisition,
circulation, technical, reference, online resources, audio-visual,
reprographic, documentation etc. To carry out all the functions or
activities of these sections efficiently, application of management
techniques must be applied.
Fig. 2: Library and Total Quality Management
The various activities of library in figure 2 which are needed to
make the library as an effectively information centre and creation
and maintenance of such structure of TQM, requires an effective
management process to achieve library's goals. For example,
acquisition staff has a critical role because they are responsible to
make accurate purchase policy to build a meaningful library
collection by using proper budgetary control. Similarly,
circulation and reference staff directly deal with the users and
manage the users interface. The technical section, where the
acquired materials are classified & catalogued before its display,
also needed well-managed staff and policy. Therefore, quality or
lack of quality impacts the entire library services. A successful set
of activities begins with an organizational environment that
fosters quality, followed by an understanding of the principles of
quality and then an effort to engage manpower in the necessary
activities to implement quality. When things are done well, the
library typically satisfies its users and obtains a competitive
advantage. The eventual aim is to triumph readers or users.
For effective quality management of a library, the following
Systematizing for TQM
factors should be developed:
Identification and confirmation of the specific quality
work and teamwork including the responsibility,
authority, accountability and relationship for quality of
each of the key individuals and groups in the library.
Identification and confirmation of these same areas for
quality control function itself so that it may help the
library achieve its quality objects.
Leadership of the library itself in the establishment and
ongoing maintenance of the quality library system.
Following steps to be considered for effective quality
management in libraries:
Job Content: self control and job design are two
important aspects of any work. The staff of the library
must be provided with knowledge of what they are
supposed to do, feedback on their performance and the
means of regulating their work in the event that they are
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Execution of TQM
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269 International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology | Oct. - Dec. 2012 | Vol. 2 | Issue 4
failing to meet the objectives of their job. Placing staff in
a state of self-control is a prerequisite to using
behavioral approaches to motivate staff members. Job
design is a task of the librarian which includes assigning
specific tasks and resources to particular employee to
create a system that effectively accomplishes the
mission of the library through daily contributions of
individuals. Librarians must provide more meaningful
and satisfying jobs to his staff because proper job design
decides who will perform each task, how each
employee will complete his/her work and where each
job will take place.
empowerment is the process of
delegating decision making authority to the lower
levels. It gives both responsibility for delivering quality
and authority to identify problems and then formulate
and implement solution to employees who have direct
contact with a problem. The librarian should use the
empowerment process in different section in the library
because as employees become more empowered in
their work, the feeling of authority and responsibility
becomes more meaningful.
everyone in the library must
make a commit to providing quality services. It is
essential for successful TQM.
staff selection and their training
have an important influence on people's development
in any system. Therefore, continuously training must be
provided to library staff. Further, job rotation also helps
to develop a broad base of technical skills.
'Recognition' is public
acknowledgement of best performance of specific
activities and 'Rewards' are benefits (increment,
promotion) which are conferred for generally superior
performance in job. The librarian should recognize the
employee's performance and recommend for rewards
to the management of the institution.
Today's technical improvement has influenced the users'
expectations, this resulted the libraries to improve the quality of
services. Now quality management is increasingly integrated into
library services, following their perceived success in industrial
sectors with particular emphasis on improving service quality.
Basically the libraries stress on maintaining administration,
building the collection and serving the users. All these aspects
need proper management to provide best service to users so the
library can select the appropriate techniques according to its
need. TQM implementation requires patience as it is a time
consuming process and not so easy, therefore, its implementation
is not a guarantee of the high quality but it is step in the right
direction. TQM implements a philosophy of strong leadership,
increased communication among departments and the
education of all employees. Now the time has come for new
approach to managing libraries with modern techniques of
management and TQM will definitely helpful for improving
library processes in the way to understanding the library as a
system, aligning the work of staff, saving time and money and
increasing users' satisfaction. Brophy and Caulling list the
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CONCLUSION
Empowerment:
Personnel Commitment:
Selection and Training:
Recognition and Rewards:
following inter-twined facets of TQM which need to be
developed simultaneously:
Developing a clear purpose of organization.
Providing vision, commitment and leadership.
Encouraging teamwork and involvement by all staff.
Ensuring that the design of all products and services is
customer oriented.
Having clear, systematic, unambiguous and universally
applied process.
Investing in continuous training and development of all
staff.
Monitoring performance continuously and acting on
the results.
Benchmar ki ng achi evement s r at her t han
confrontational relationship with suppliers.
Careful control of resources and awareness of costs.
Aly, N. & Akpovi, J. (2001). Total quality management in
California public higher education. Quality Assurance in
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library. Library Philosophy and Practice. 5(2).
Dayton, N.A. (2003). The demise of total quality management
(TQM). The TQM Magazine, 15(6), 391-396.
Dixit, R. K. & Garg, T.K. (2009). Total quality management in
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Journal, 21(6), 607-622.
Kumber, R.D. (2004). The importance of marketing and total
quality management in libraries." Electronic Journal of Academic
and Special Librarianship, 5(2-3).
Li, J.H., Anderson, A.R. & Harrison, R.T. (2003). Total quality
management principles and practices in China. International
Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 20(9), 1026-1050.
Moghaddam, G.G. & Moballeghi, M. (2008). Total quality
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Sayeda, B., Rajendran, C. & Lokachari, P.S. (2010). An empirical
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Thakkar, J., Deshmukh, S.G. & Shastree, A. (2006). Total quality
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REFERENCES