TQM in Academic Libraries: An Overview

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss Total Quality Management (TQM), meaning of TQM for academic libraries, need, principles, and standards of TQM and areas of application of TQM in Academic Libraries. TQM is must for any organization or a library without application of TQM an academic library unable to provide qualitative service and also cannot fulfill the expectation of their users. TQM help to satisfy their users with continuous progress benefit of library. The growing needs of information make the librarians to think in a logical way so as to satisfy the users at large. Recent decades TQM is playing major and important role in modern management. Recently many organization, industries, institutions started applying the TQM. Management and TQM both are become inseparable. In all and every aspects TQM can be applicable and it is infinite process. TQM is modern leadership style. Today all kind of organizations is becoming customer oriented but their approach is not valid today. One of the good solutions to improve quality is to provide right information to a right user in the right time. The methods of TQM represents a new age in the management of an organization. Its elements such as participating management, the personnel training and the responsible service of customers, are views that libraries already driven by. As a result of this, the libraries are up to improving these principles, which already have been valued positively by them and put them partially in practice. This paper helps to understand the quality word in academic library and also provides relationship between TQM and various library services. It concludes that TQM is best defined as a philosophy under big umbrella. Libraries have always been committed to provide high quality of services to its users. The paper is an attempt to make the readers to understand the importance of TQM, an effective system that could enhance the performance of academic libraries with the aid of earlier research and literatures.