Process-focused quality management at the Veterinary Science Library, Archives and Museum, Szent Istvan University, Budapest, Hungary*

Introduction

Our library, as many others, have decided to improve its services by means of total quality management (TQM) which is appropriate for libraries with its focus on users, its clear-cut goals and objectives in the achievement of which every librarian is involved, who work in a protective and supportive organisational culture. With its strategy serving as a lighthouse, the library must become a learning organisation. However, we had felt that the element of continuous improvement in a systematic and well-documented manner was missing, and there were recurring problems at some parts of the workflow. Meanwhile the Faculty of Veterinary Science applied for ISO 9001 certification including our library as one of its special services. This also underlined the need for better documentation.

Objectives

The description and mapping of processes, the identification of those which pose problems, the analysis of mistakes and the detection of causes, as well as the elaboration of regulatory steps were necessary.

Methods

Both quality management and more particularly the qualitative and quantitative analysis and the management of processes require much effort from librarians. Small or medium size libraries have to find economical ways of process improvement. The description and making of the “inventory” of processes is unavoidable, and visualisation may also help. We can make flowcharts, graphs, maps, diagrams or fill in forms recording each process in the necessary detail. However, it may be a problem how to separate different processes. By deducing them from their output (product or service), we obtained measurable outputs, enhanced the identification of customers (partners), and integrated the aspect of quality into our thinking. (Figure 1).

It is also worth remembering that libraries have different outputs with very different levels of variability and quantities. There are mass processes with little variability which can be controlled well such as cataloguing. There are constant processes with little variability and rigidity towards tailoring like copying. Lending and referral services may be looked upon as mass services with a bit more variability and individualisation. There are only few services such as reference services and user education which may be considered as true professional services with a high level of variability, much tailoring, and prolonged participation of the user. We must be aware that while mass and constant processes and to a great extent mass services may be controlled and regulated on a high level, the quality of professional services depend very much on the competencies of the participants: information specialists and users.

Once the principles of the approach were clarified, the following steps were made to achieve the final goal: improvement of processes.

It had to be defined which processes should be dealt with. In order to establish priorities, the strategic importance of the process and the amount of value added during the process had to be considered. Having surveyed all the processes in the library, all members of the staff listed the problems which hindered the operation of the library, and complaints recorded in the previous year were also analysed. These two approaches provided us with a handful of dysfunctions which could be grouped and matched against the inventory of processes. In some cases it was necessary to make further analyses (e.g. fishbone analysis, flowcharting) to get to the heart of the problem. A decision table was compiled including the steps found necessary for the correction of processes. (Table 1).

All the processes could be put into one of these categories. Still some managerial responsibilities involving all the processes were identified:

1. The templates for process management should be elaborated.
2. Process managers should be appointed.
3. The responsibilities and authority of participants should be made clear.
4. Decisions should be made regarding the system of the review, control, and assessment of processes including indicators and methods.
5. Decisions should be made about the necessary level of regulation and the priorities.

Results

We were able to enumerate problems, weigh their significance from the point of view of the ultimate performance and strategic goals of the library, and define what the necessary actions were. Finally, we have selected the proper method for improving each problematic process or operation.

In a small library oral communication is prevalent, thus in several cases (such as maintenance of the order in the reading room, division of tasks related to website building, refining principles for collection development, involvement of readers’ service in indexing) proper documentation was enough to clarify duties, authority, or “to fine tune” principles.

There were recurring problems in the administration of lending which is performed by 5-6 librarians in 3-4 ways. A minor benchmarking of the approaches revealed that the fewer steps are made, the fewer mistakes are likely to occur. A kind of optimal process (‘best practice’) was elaborated which is difficult to introduce in the place of routines. (However, the multitasking going on at the reference desk is the main reason to the problem which can only be helped by self-discipline – not a very reliable tool in process management.)

The third method was the introduction of indicators to control processes which are regularly checked, and adjustments are made if necessary. Good indicators show trends and quality traits which are significant from the users’ point of view and do not overburden librarians with data gathering. The indicators selected are the following: speed of interlibrary loan, medium time of book processing, adequacy of processing from the user’s aspect, accuracy of lending administration, rate of reference questions answered satisfactorily, effectiveness of teaching, efficiency of the copy service, relative efficiency of lending.

Professional services with high variability are really difficult to control. For the improvement of reference work a checklist was compiled enumerating the most important steps and possible sources to be used in answering queries.

The reengineering of processes was necessary for the enhancement of internal communication, and partially for the systematic involvement of readers’ service librarians in collection development and processing.

Finally, all major ventures required proper planning along the principles of project management in order to ensure foreseeable workload for everybody and success of the ventures.

Discussion

We went through all these steps in one year. However, after this “all inclusive” self-assessment, we will only focus on the critical points of our operation in the years to come. Recently the library elaborated its process documentation meeting the requirement of the ISO 9001 standards to the satisfaction of auditors who appreciated our efforts for improving processess to ensure better services.