Quality management: A model for optimizing information provision in Romanian special research libraries

Abstract

A study regarding the relevance of special libraries and the quality of access to information in Romania was conducted. The general objective was to develop a contribution regarding the quality management in libraries using the grounded theory method. The model obtained for optimizing the quality of access to information implies the existence of material resources, but also innovations, the involvement of human resources through creativity and promotion, leading to increased academic visibility, increased satisfaction of long-term active users, attraction of new users both in the physical space and in the digital environment and, finally, increased relevance of the library in question within the tutelary research institute. The value of the study lies in the series of solutions for optimizing the access to scientific information in research libraries in the digital age, and the correlations between the results obtained based on the grounded theory and the three generic models of library quality management, LibQual+, Balanced Scorecard, and ISO 9001, by adapting them to the context of the special research libraries in Romania.