SOME REFLECTIONS ON MAINTAINING QUALITY IN LIBRARY SERVICES

摘要

Quality is described in many different ways, something that is unique and of a higher standard than other similar products or services and has to be always aimed at satisfying expectations and demands of user through constant monitoring and continuous improvement. Library is more like a service institution which generates very little money out of its service and often has very poor infrastructure, resources and less number of competent manpower. While other researchers in the area of service quality have focused their qualitative inquiries upon the providers of service, LibQUAL+™ tool by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Texas A&M University stresses on user judgment of service quality. LibQUAL+™ Surveys were conducted annually to assess service quality in research libraries in the US, and results of these surveys are followed up seriously to bridge the gap in access and services. However such serious and continuous studies in estimating service quality in libraries are yet to pickup in our country. In the absence of such studies, at best what we can do is to follow up the tool formulated in LibQUAL+™ to have an empirical estimate of where our libraries stand or how best the existing state of affairs can be improved by resorting to refined practices. Typically for a library in the country, time, cost, availability and extensibility may be vital parameters to ensure and judge quality in services, subject to the limitations on infrastructure in terms of space, collection, computer, and manpower. Some strategies to maintain service quality in different sections in a library such as acquisition, processing, circulation, automation, electronic information services are elaborated with a checklist to quantify service quality out of the turn-around time for various operations and services. The study ends by identifying some of the problems in ensuring qualitative services such as funds, support, staff, infrastructure, collection, policy, priority etc.