A Comparison of the Requirements of University Library Quality Assurance System with Internationally Recognized ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems

Abstract

Providing a quality service has become a must in the library and information science sector today. The readers expect an effective and efficient library service from the library staff. Therefore providing a customer oriented service has become a challenge to the librarians and information professionals. The University Grants Commission has initiated a Quality Assurance System for all the faculties and the academic libraries of the Universities under the World Bank project, Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE). The quality management systems (QMS) ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 are internationally recognized Quality Management Systems. They have been successfully implemented in some Sri Lankan libraries to provide an effective service to the library users. A comparison of the requirements of the University Library Quality Assurance System and the two international standards is carried out in this study. Key words: Quality Management System; ISO 9001:2000; ISO 9001:2008; Academic Libraries; Sri Lanka DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jula.v15i1.3189 Journal of the University Librarians’ Association of Sri Lanka, Vol.15, Issue 1, June 2011; 83-97