Auditing the library's quality system
| Published date | 15 May 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120910957940 |
| Pages | 286-294 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Author | Núria Balagué |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Auditing the library’s quality
system
Nu
´ria Balague
´
Universitat Auto
`noma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to describe the main features of a university library quality
management system, focusing specially on internal auditing.
Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a case study approach, the paper attempts to show
how auditing is a useful information management tool to improve library services.
Findings – Internal auditing helps to consolidate the culture of quality and promote appropriate
ethics and values.
Research limitations/implications – The paper is based on a study case and the professional
experience of the author.
Practical implications – A view on a consolidated library’s quality management system is
presented in the paper.
Originality/value – The paper provides ideas on how a library approaches an internal audit.
Keywords Auditing, Qualitymanagement, University libraries, Spain
Paper type Case study
Quality assurance of Spanish university libraries within the European
higher education area
Concerns about quality and assessment have grown more intense since the Bologna
Declaration of June 1999 set up the scenario for the European higher education area.
Quality assurance is one of the core constituents of the Bologna process and it has
proven to be one of the main issues on universities’ agenda related to convergent
reforms. It is a challenge that has certainly been the starting point for several changes
in Spanish universities.
The EHEA presents more and better facilities for cooperation, but also increases the
competition between universities and, in that competitive scenario, evaluations will not
be carried out only through legal imperatives but also because of institutional
decisions, permanently seeking for opportunities of growth for university’s pre stige. If
university libraries establish a solid foundation for a formal quality-management
system, it will be much easier “to adapt the output format” to the specific requirem ents
of any given evaluation that they will have to undergo in order to support university
strategies (Balague
´et al., 2006; Pinto et al., 2007).
The Spanish Council of Universities made a major contribution in 1995 by
launching a National Plan for Evaluation of the Quality of Universities to promote the
institutional assessment, to draw up homogeneous methods and to provide objective
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
A version of this article was previously published in Finnish in Signum (Helsinki), No. 3, 2007,
pp. 5-13.
LM
30,4/5
286
Received 12 December 2008
Accepted 28 January 2009
Library Management
Vol. 30 No. 4/5, 2009
pp. 286-294
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/01435120910957940
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