How Does A Dandelion Seed From the Oversea Root in

and Thrive: The Successful Implementation of TQM in Hain

an University Library

Zhan Changzhi, Zhang Hongxia

Hainan University Library P.R. China

Thanks

Thanks the experts of the Professional Committee of SILF 2006 to give us this cherished chance

Thanks Mr. Steve O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer of CAVAL Collaborative Solutions, Australia

Thanks Ms. Eileen Breen， Emerald Group Publishing Limited(UK)

Hainan University

• Located in Haikou, the capital city of Hainan province in the south of China, Hainan Island is the second largest island in China

• is the only comprehensive university in this province, also the largest university, comprises 13 colleges

• 10,000 undergraduate students and 5,000 adult students

• Hainan University Library: with the size of 32,000 square meters, 1.2 million volume of books

The Library of Hainan University

TQM in the librariesin the west countries

In the 1990s TQM was adopted gradually by the libraries in the western countries and become pervasive.

The first international conference on TQM and Academic Libraries was held on April 20-22, 1994 in Washington, DC with the title of “total quality management in academic libraries: initial implementation efforts”

TQM in the libraries in China

In China, the research on TQM in the library started in the very late 1990s,

but now few libraries implement the TQM and make the quality management strictly conform to the requirements of ISO 9000

A few libraries have passed the authentication of ISO9000, such as: Shanghai Library, China’s Macao University, the libraries of Dalian University of Marine Affairs, Qingdao University of Marine Affairs, Shanghai University of Marine Affairs together with their institutes

TQM and ISO9000in the Library of Hainan University

implemented the TQM in July, 2004 and passed the authentication of ISO 9000: 2000 on July 19, 20

05. The management innovation in Hainan University Library g

radually became a real eye catcher. A national workshop on quality management and performa

nce management in the library was held in April, 2006, co-sponsored by Hainan University Library and Academic Library Society, China Society for Library Science.

The authentication of ISO 9000

The QMS Documentation

The QMS Documentation

Before the implementation of TQM in the library

TQM and ISO9000 sounded like a dandelion seed from the oversea wanted to root in the unsuitable soil.

the library staffs were so suspect: what is TQM? Is it possible or necessary to get the certification of ISO

9000 in our library? the users were suspect: the library would actually attach importance to their

opinions?

The background of implementing the TQM

an obsolete model of inertial thinking and customary behaving not caring about the cost and efficiency lacking of the mechanism of evaluation and motivation Serious situation of that the financial shortage uneven levels of the staff competence non-systematical development of resources limited scopes of service provision outdated management patterns

resulted in： not only the dissatisfaction and many complaints from the users, but also not effective suitability for the overall level of the Universit

y’s development.

Why do we need the TQM and ISO9000?

The top management keenly had awareness of this serious situation

it was time that the library needed to change in order to innovate the traditional

management pattern improve the overall service quality to meet

the requirements of the uses

How to face all those challenges

implement the TQM in the entire library integrate into the authentication of ISO 9000

to improve the overall service quality

Experience the implementation of TQM and the authentication of ISO9000

Start a journey of exploring of TQM and ISO9000 Change the concept from collection-centered to people-

centered Build quality into the standardized process and remove the

barriers that divide departments Provide the trainings for all staff and involve all staff

participating Establish the quality management system User focus and user involvement Change Managing by data-driven

Start a journey of exploring of TQM and ISO9000

to explore the feasibility for what we want to do have collected many literatures for study Many staffs are participating in the research with great

passion have also collected and translated the standards ISO

11620 and ISO 2789

Change the concept from collection-centered to people-centered

Traditional thinking Nowadays, change to

Centered onpeople

acquisition cataloguing

circulation reference

etc,.Centered on

the library collection

People are the staffs(For an organization)

People are the users(for the purpose of the organization)

Build quality into the standardized process and remove the barriers that divide departments

establish the quality policy formulate the quality objectives: including overall and

concrete objectives compile the quality management system (QMS)

documentation integrate the national and local professional

regulations into the quality requirements effective communications between departments are

required

Provide the trainings for all staff and involve all staff participating

From Jul. 2004 to May 2005, intensively have conducted some ten times trainings, such as: TQM orientation ISO9000:2000 standard TQM awareness overall quality policy and objectives QMS documentation compiling internal auditor training manner training computer operation skills automation system operation skills usage of the library traditional and digital resources professional skills etc.,

Establish the quality management system

set up a special office of quality management build a teamwork to executive the quality control, analysis

and assessment: some ten internal quality auditors employ Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to exercise self-assessment: each month, the head of each department makes a self-

check; each year conduct the internal audit twice; the outside third party review one time each year

User focus and user involvement

All we do for what? --The user satisfaction To what extent, we actually know the current and

potential need of the user? To what extent, does the library meet the need? How do we communicate with the user?

User focus and user involvement

three major channelsThe first channel: conduct the user survey periodically The second channel: often invite the users to participate in

the workshops, seminars to communicate face to face The third channel: provide a daily channel to collect, analyze

and feedback the user opinions and suggests through setting up a user opinion book physically in the library lobby and online virtual user opinion bulletin

online virtual user opinion bulletin

online virtual user opinion bulletin

Focus on user opinions

In order to find the root cause of the low degree of the user satisfacation

From Sep. 2004 to May, 2005, we have had 33 volumes of the user opinion books with a total of 1056 opinions

From Sep. 2005, we started to initiate the online user opinion bulletin and now have had 581 feedbacks

How dose the user opinion affect the decision-making and the quality improvement Statistics during the different period

From Nov. 29, 2004 to Jan. 21, 2005, with a period of

54 days, we had a total of 354 responses From Dec. 29, 2005 to Apr. 9, 2006, with a period of

104 days, we had only a total of 50 responses Because various measures have been taken to

resolve issues

Change Managing by data-driven

Is it necessary to provide the course for the faculty? conduct a survey to investigate the usage of the library’s electronic

resource among the faculty The rate of the usage of electronic resources is 34.5%, the

percentage of the faculty who don’t know how to use or don’t well know the electronic resources is very high, reaches 29%

Now we have had the regular courses for the faculty provide the courseware posting on the library website, but also went

to every college and department to lecture one by one. At the same time we publicize the new and changed information of the resources both on the university website and the library website.

Conclusion

have done the utmost to widen the scope and depth of the library services, constantly pursue the excellence of quality

Now, the top management is carefully planning to introduce the concept of “zero defects”, push the TQM—this dandelion seed not only rooted in deeply, but also thrive forever by establishing a long term mechanism, in spite of personnel change

opening its eyes from tunnel vision to a broad world, a silent, ordinary library really made some difference

the library is a member of IFLA in 2005 the director of the library has been elected as a standing

committee member of IFLA Academic and Research Libraries Section

the international exchange and cooperation is becoming increasingly active