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QUALITY SERVICES: POLICIES & PRACTICES TN LIBRARIES IN MALAYSIA: A COUNTRY REPORT

(AROI E .\ ':-' (;00,\ *, \\~" HAJRAII \\ .\N ARIS'" AND DR. ZAITON OS:\L\N·:·.·.

ABSTRAK

Kerras tnt d isediakan sebagai laporan llegara ufltuk Seminar ASEA N-COCI yang bertemakan Quality Services in Libraries. Seminar illi lelah diadakal1 di Singapura dari 19-22 November 1997 dan dise rlai oleh

Pustakawan kanal1 dari ranrau ASEAN. Dalam penyediaan laporQll il1i, saTU kajian meHge1l.ai dasar dan amalan kualiti cli perpustakaan seluruh Malaysia dijalankan. Borang soalselidik dihanrar ke sem,UQ

perpustakaan lmiversiti awam, Sel1JL[Cl perpustakaan awaf1'/ lIegeri dan perpustakaan khusus yang rerpiLih. Kerras ini mellgalldungi hasil kajian rersebur.

MALAYSIA : THE COUNTRY)

malaysia comprises P e nin sular Ma lays ia

(131,598 sq . km .), Sabah (73 ,711 sq. km.)

and Sarawak ( 124,449 sq. km .), covering a total

area of 329,758 sq . km . P e nin s ular Malays ia

consi st s of II stat es (Johor. Ke dah , Kelantan,

Melaka, Negeri Sembi lan , Pahang , Pulau

Pi nang, Perak, P e di s, S e lan go r, Tere ngganu

and the Federal Terr itory). The capital of

Malay s ia is Kual a Lumpur. Malaysia is a

multiracial country with a population of

approximately 20 million , with the Malay s,

Chinese and Indians as the three most dominan t

races. Malays ia prac ti ses freedom of worship.

Isl a m is the official re ligi o n with Buddhi s m,

Hindui s m & Christianity being the oth e r main

religions. Mal ay is the offic ial lan g ua ge but

Engli sh, Chinese and Ta mil are widely spoke n .

Malays ia has a tropical climate, with a hi g h daily

average temperature of 28 0 C and a humidity

of 80%. Rainfall is heavy, averaging 2 ,500 mm

per year. Its climate is influenced by 2 distinct

monsoon seasons - Northeast (October - March )

and Southwest (May - September) , with the latter

being the drier season. Education is under the

pur v iew of the Mini stry of Education. The

Ministry manages a comprehen sive publi c

school sys tem, ranging from primary schools to

univer s iti es . Private schools, colleges and

uni ve r s ities have proliferated in the la s t two

years. Malaysia's aim is to be the regional centre

for education in Southeast As ia .

The National Library, school libraries and th e

university libraries are also under the jurisdiction

of the Ministry of Education. Public librarie s

how ever are und e r the juri sd iction of th e ir

var io us state governments, while special librar ies

( th o ugh located a t the variou s Mini stri es and

Dep a rtments) are under th e purview of the

National library which is responsible for their

• .. ... ••••

Presented as a country report at the ASEAN·COCI Seminar on Quality Services in Libraries, 19-22 Nov 1997, Singapore . Director, Serials Division. Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Librarian. Prime Minister' s Department Chief Librarian . Univers ity o rMalaya

1 For more details on Malaysia. please reter to :

(i) Malaysia: Offieal Yearbook 1996. Kual a Lumpur: Information Department Malaysia, Mi nistry oflnformation, 1996 (ii) In formation Malaysia 1997 Yearbook. Kuala Lumpur : Berita Publishi ng, 1997. (iii) Malaysia Informat ion Websi te (http ://sll llsite·,n us.sgiSEAlinks!malaysia-info ,hlm l)

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Hakcipta Terpelihara © 1998 – Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia


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operations under the "Common User Scheme' ". While the above initiatives were undertaken on

a formal basis, libraries in Malaysia who are part THE QUALITY MOVEMENT IN of the Civil Service, have their own institutional MALAYSIA: IN BRIEF

It mu st be s tat ed at th e outset that this brief acco unt of the qualit y movement in Malaysia does not to do justi ce to the movement as a whole because th e info rmation provided here is se lective and focuses only on formalised procedures initiated by the Government for one group - the c ivil se rvice .

In this context, it ca n be said that the Quality Movement in Malay s ia has a relatively long history, initiated for the public sector by the Government in the effo rt to upgrade the Civil Service. The estab li shment of seve ral agencies such as the Deve lop me nt Administration Unit in 1968 , th e Na ti o nal In s titute of Public Administration in 1972, Manpower and Administration Plannin g Department in 1977, the Standards and Indu st rial Research Institute in 1975, the National Productivity Centre, etc. and the introducti o n of a se rie s of performance programmes reflect the se riousness on the part of the Government to upgrad e quality of serv ices in the publi c sec tor. On 27 November 1989, the first Civ il Service Excellent Work Culture Award was launched by the Prime Minister. Since 1991, 20 Deve lopment Administra ti ve Unit Ci rcula rs were introduced,

quality infrastructures, in built into management procedures, and used mainly to defend budgets. At the University level, as an indirect measure, the performance of the library 'measured' by external examiners who in assessing the performance of the course will invariably use library resources as a variable. The fact that library resources is also a variable in the assessment of effectiveness of lecturers is in it sel f a quality measure. This is the reason why in the Questionnaire (Appendix I) administered to librarians, there is a provision for librarians to state whether or not the policies serving their operations are formal (written) or informal (unwritten).

THE SURVEY

This country report is based on information provided by public univer sity libraries, state public libraries and selected special libraries in Malaysia, obtained by means of a question nai re survey.

The Method

The deci sion to solicit information through the admini stration of questionnaire was prompted by:

touching on va ri o us aspects such as management of committee meeting s, upgrading (i) quality in tel ep hone se r v ice , manag e ment

the dearth of documented information on quality services in libraries in Malaysia. of project s, up gr ading co unt e r serv ice 3,

etc .

TQM was introduced in 19 92 a nd tn 1995 IS09000 took root.

( i i) the need to determine whether or not th e "quality " infrastructure (polici es

! For more information. pleas~ refer to: Badilah , Saad el. aI. , Malaysian libraries in national development : a country report. Libraries in national development. Papers and proceedings of the Tenth Congress of Southeast Asian Libraries, Kuala Lumpur, 21 ·25 may 1996. Kuala Lumpur: CONSAL X. 1996

'Yaacob Hussin. Follow-up and Follow-through ke atas pelaksanaan pekeliling, (Follow-up and Follow-through on the implementation of circu lars) Khidmat. Disember 1991/Jan 1992, p.31.

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(iii)

and practices) ex is t s in librarie s In Malay s ia .

the need to obtain input from those in the fi e ld (th e librari es) . who are actu- (ii ) ally prov iding library services.

Questionnaires we re sent to th e:

(i) the chief libr ar ian s o f all 10 public

in s tituti ons of hi gher lea rnin g (9 un i vel'S i ti es and th e Mara In stitute of

SeAillIf PerplIslakllan

as a public library for the Federal Territory), they form the backbone of the

public library system in Mal ays ia.

It is no exaggerat ion to state that together

the unive rs it y and state public lib raries (together wit h the Nationa l Library ) are th e bigge s t and best developed li braries in Mala ys ia. If the quality mo ve ment were to s ucceed it wou ld be in th ese libraries.

Tec hnol ogy) ( iii ) Th e s pe c ial librarie s se l ecte d are re prese ntative of Minis try and depal1mental librar ies and are part of th e "Common User Scheme " (a network o f publi c and s pecial librar ies adm ini s tered and coordi nate d by th e Nat io nal Library of Malays ia )

(ii) 13 public librari es ( I I state librari es and two from Kual a Lumpur, inc lu ding th e National Libr ary whi c h a lso fun ctions as a publ ic I ibrary for the Federal Territory). and

(iii) 6 special librari es whi c h are co ncentrated (iv) in Kuala Lumpur. within the vic inity of the Prime Mini ster's Departmen t.

A ll the librarie s are fr o m the public sec tor and s h a re co mmon poli cies

and practices.

The Response

The re s pon se was 100 % from the uni ve rs it y libraries. 77 % from public libraries and 100% from special libraries.

The Population

The population was se lected on the basis that:

( i)

(a)

(b)

It is poss ibl e to prov ide a compre hens ive coverage of univ e rs it y a nd public l ibrar ies becau se:

there are onl y 10 publi c uni versity libraries in the whole of Malaysia ( including that of Mara Institute of Technology)

there are o nl y I I s tat e public libraries (excl udin g branches and mobile libraries), se rvin g as central librari es in each state. Together with the KL Memorial Library (which serves the City of Kuala Lumpu r) and the National Library (whi ch functions

Thi s survey did not include feedback from r ecipients of the se rvices (na mely the users o r c l ients) because o f the magnitude of the task . It is hoped that such a survey could be undertaken in future us ing the findings of thi s survey as the baseline.

LIDRARIANS' PERCEPTION OF QUALITY

Until very recently. the most popular meas ure of quality for lib rar ies was th e s ize and coverage of their library coll ecti ons. To a great ex tent , using the collection as a qual ity measure was logical because it was the only "variabl e" that could be eas ily qu a ntifi ed. by way of ( i) the number of vo lumes. the number of unique titles. th e price, th e allocation. pe rcentage of price incr e a se. e tc . and ( ii ) usage . through th e reco rdin g of loans.

With th e rec ent import of indu s trial and commercial quality measures into library management principles , the concept of quality ha s taken on a wider meaning and give n a

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variety of definitions.

What then is the meaning of quality in Malaysian libraries?

Four questions we re asked of th e res po ndent s, in order to get an in sight into :

(i) whether qualit y is important (ii ) whe th e r th ey a re satisfied withthe quality

found in th e se rvices th ey prov ide , (iii ) wha t do th ey mean by quality, and (iv) whi ch characte ri sti cs best represent qu ality.

Is quality importa nt?

All th e respond e nt s a nswe red 'yes' to this quest ion. Thi s is a ve ry bas ic ques tion that nee de d to be asked beca u se unl ess tho se respons ibl e fo r t he se rv ices are conv inced that qualit y is imp o rtant , it wi ll be difficult to impl e me nt qualit y measures effec tively.

Are they satisfied with the quality of their serv ices?

Us ing a range o f rou r indica to rs , from "very sati sfied " to " not satisfied" , th e majority of unive rs ity (70%) and state publi c libra ri es (80%) indicated th ey are "s atisfied" but in the case of spec ia l librari es. onl y 33% are satisfied. The lower percentage for spec ia l libraries is understandab le bea rin g in mind that th e c li en te le at spec ial librari es ha ve spec iali sed information needs that may not be e a s il y met by the librar i ans .

What do they mean by quality?

Severa l definiti ons we re given whi c h when summarised co ul d be reduced to four :

(a) Access to wel l- deve loped co llections (b) Prompt , e ffi cient and co urteo us se rvice (c) Fu lfill info rmati o n needs of use rs/c li e nt s

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Which characteristics best represent quality?

Given a li st of 16 characteristics but asked to choose five, the respondents selected the following :

(a) Accessibility (b) Courtesy (c) Effecti veness (d) Efficiency (e) Promptness/Timeliness

Taking (ii i) and (iv) toge ther , apart from the fact that replie s seem to tally, they can b e u sed as indicator s of quality , as perceiv ed by the resp ondents. In the absence of benchmarking, the " definitions" as well as the "characteristics" repre sent quality as perceived by the librarians. But the questi o n that needs to be asked at thi s juncture is how do users/c lients perceive quality? Take for example , the iss ue of " Accessibility". Baker and Lancaster' suggested that "accessibility" in some co ntexts mean s nothing more than "conve niellce " - whether it be of material s, lo cation or services. Us ing the universi ty as an example, the te nden cy for lecturers or s tud e nt s to use per so nal collections ove r departmental collecti o n s, department a l ove r faculty collections and faculty collections ove r main library collections is not uncomm o n. In thi s case, " accessibility" me a n s com pro m i sin g " needs" for "con ven ience". In the case of st udents, they so m et ime s se le ct their materi als o n the b as is of accessibility fir st and then look for the technical information . The majority of the resp o ndent s who chose "accessibility " in the survey are from university librari es but this problem of p e r ce p t ion ca n be found in a ll type s of libraries .

Apart frolll the pr o bl em of perception in defining "q uality " th e re is also the need to re late the "c haracteri st ics" to the goal s and obj ect ives of the services.

~ Baker, Sharon L. and F. W. Lancaster. 1lle measurement and evaluation and evaluation oflibrary services . Arlington. VA: L991 ,P.30.



For example, in th e case of "effectiveness" and "efficiency", effect ive ness can be more easily measured than efficiency. As suc h , as Evans stated in he r article "Quality: is it just a management fad ?" '~ in performance measurement, the new focus is on "effectiveness" rather than on me re effic iency.

Putting all this in the context of the survey, in order for librari es to be more effective, th e c haracteri st ics of qualit y mu s t sta nd t he test of measure ment. An analysis of the characteristics is therefore necessary so that when the library se rvice s are sa id to be of quality, there are certain indicators that can be u sed as benchmarks.

COMMUNICATING QUALITY

Via Written Policies at Parent Organisation Level

The majority of univer s ity libraries (80%) and state publi c librari es (60%) stated that their parent organisations have written policies with regard to librari es w hil e only 33% of the specia l librari es replied in the affirmative. This i s not surprising beca use in Malay s ia, uni ve rsi ty libraries and s tate public libraries are governed by legislat ion (Ac ts/Enactments) that determine th e ir operations. In th e case of spec ial librari es howeve r, a lth oug h they are located at Mini st ri es ancl Departments, they operate uncler th e purview of the National Library in a scheme ca ll ed " Common User Scheme". While a few Min istries and Department s may have incorporatecllibrary serv ices in their corporate mission and objeclives or the Client's Charter. it is the exception rather than the rule to have Ministries and Departments formulating policies specia ll y for library use.

Sekilar PerplIslakacm

Via Written Policies at Library Level

When asked whether there are written policies at the library level, all respondents replied that they have a written policy, usually expressed in their corporate mission statement and objectives.

Most of the libraries too have other written policies on different aspects of services (which were supplied when the questionnaires returned) but the two most common are policies governing:

a) Collections development b) Loans

A peru sa l of the materials s upplied by the respondents showed that policies are broadly formulated, without specific performance indicators. The Client's Charters are, however, an exemption. While most libraries in the survey do not have comprehensive coverage in terms of written policies, mention mu st be made of the National Library which has policies for al mos t all aspects of its operations.

Knowing whether or not there are written policies with regard to libraries/library use is crucial because it reflects not only th e seriousness with which organisations and the libraries view services, but also can be used as a form of benchmarking. Written policies are part of the quality infrastructure in that they provide the guidelines but more important, in the context of recent developments, is that these policies mu st be made to work as a means of quality control. When one considers the importance of documentation in the implementation of 1S09000, the significance of the written policy in library serv ices cannot be underestimated.

j Evans, M. Kinnel, "Quality: is it.illst a management fad? , Asisstant Librarian, V. 90, no. 6, June 1997, p. 92 .

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Via Alternative M eans

In th e ab se n ce of w ritten p o li c ies , the res p o nd e nt s resort to o ther c ha nne ls in o rde r to communicate the importance of qual ity, mai nl y :

( a) (b ) (c)

( d ) (e)

Via ru les and re g ulati o n s Co m p lai nl s f r o m u se rs Vi a fee dba c k fr o m gove rnin g bo d y ( i .e . L i b r a r y Co mmitt ee/ B oa rd of D ir ec t ors ,e t c . ) F ee db a c k f ro m s t a ff Ve r ba l in s t ru c ti o n s .

O th e r m ea n s ad o p te d b y l i br a ri e s in c lude prog r a mm es th at c a rr y s ublim a l m ess a g e s o n the importan ce or qu a lity th at are p rese nted or co mmuni c at e d a t m o n t hl y a s se mblie s, c e leb r a ti on s , awar e n e s s co u rs es, e t c.

I M PLEMENTI NG AND ENSURING QU A LITY

Via Government Policies and Procedures Q u ality

The results showed thai a ll categori es of libraries surveyed had imp lemented the fo llowing procedures il11 ti a ted by th e gove rnme nt :

(a) Manu a l of Wo rk Procedures a nd Des k F il e s

(b)

(c)

Qualit y Co nt ro l C irc les a nd Produ cti vity Me asure me nt

Cl ie nt ' s Cha rt e r

What h ave no t be e n impl e me nt e d a lth o ugh introduced (o r as sta te d by res ponde nts in th e

( f) (g)

TQM [S09000

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The onl y in stitution that has implem e nt e d a II except (a), (e) and (g) of the above is th e Nati o n a l Librar y.

Via Assessment Surveys

When asked whether assess ment has been made of services over the last three years, the results showed that libraries from all three categories have not undertaken surveys of their services in the last three years, except in one area that is "book and journals usage" . Even th en, the percentage is not very encouraging, with university libraries at 60%, state public libraries at 40% and special libraries at 33% . On the whole, the methodol ogy used is rather simple namely statistical profiles (recordin g dail y stati sti cs and drawing conclu sions from the s t a ti s ti cs) and / or que s ti o nnaire s ur veys. Mu c h o f the profess ional literature on qu ality se rvi ces have stressed th e importa nce of use r assess me nt as a means of de termining qu a lity. Feedbac k fr om the rec ipi e nts of the se rvices provided is criti cal because as stated by Cole man (and oth ers) ' ,

"Exceedin g what cu sto me rs e xpect fro m th e se r vice is the key to d e li ve rin g high -qu a lit y se r vice" .

How does a library know whether it has exceeded customer' s ex pectations wh en no feedback has been obta ined from the cus tome rs th e mselves?

process o f impl e men t ing) are th e fo ll ow ing Via Ad-hoc Feedback p roced u re s :

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

O ne- stop se rvice centres Co mpos it e fo rm s and co mpos ite li ce nses E lec tro ni c Data Exc han ge Civil Se rvice Link Government Integrated Telecommunications Network

The majority of the responde nts obtained feedback from users through the fo ll owing ways:

(a) Suggestion box (b) Formal complaints (c) Informal discussions

!, Co leman , Vicky et.a!' Towmd a TOM Paradigm: using SERVQUAL to measure library servi ce quality. College and Research Libraries, 58(3), May 1997. p. 237.

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The methods above, a lthough ad-hoc have been successfu l to a large extent. They have he lped libraries to improve se rvices over the years but the ir weakness probabl y li es in th e ad- hoc manner of presentation. With th e emp hasis on strategic planning in library man age me nt in rece nt years, libraries wi ll be ex pec ted to plan fo r 3 - 5 years ahead, leav ing very little opportu nit y fo r ad -hoc remedies.

In Malays ia, under th e Modifi ed Budgeting System libraries are expec ted to plan in detail what they intend to do for th e nex t 2 years at least. Detail s s u ch a s s pecifi c ac ti v iti es, m et h od o f implementation, rcso urces needed, impact , ou tcomes are req uired be fore prog rammes are appro ved. The need to e nsure that objecti ves of each programme are fu lfill ed leaves no roo m for " Walter Mitty exc ur s ion s" . es pecia ll y when feedback is required by the management every 6 months as is the case in most government agencies governed and monitored by the Modified Budgetin g System and the New Re mun eration Sche me which have in built pe rformance assess ment features.

OBSTACLES TO Q UALITY

The main obstacles to the implementati on of qual ity in libraries have been identified by the respondents, in order of priority, as :

(a)

(b)

(c)

Staff probl e ms (e .g. ineffic iency, apathy, unco mmitted, shortage of staff, untrained , etc.)

Lac k of time (e.g. librarians preocc upi ed with administrative work, non-core activities, ad-hoc programmes, etc.)

Lack of funds

The is sues here are-- if staff can be trained/ retra ined or moti vatcd towa rd s providi ng quality services, if the librarian has more tim e to focus on quality, if the library is give n more fund s-would quality be gua ran ted ? A re th e res ponses above too s impli st ic?

Sekilur PerplIslukuun

It is interes ting to note that with all the pressure ( real and impli ed ) to apply quality measures to operations, none of the re spondents referred to this a lth o u gh provi s i on was mad e in the que s tionnaire und e r " Oth e rs - Please specify" .

FACTORS CRITICAL TO ENSURING QUALITY IN SERVICES

When the respo ndents were asked to choose fi ve out of 10 critica l factors that wo uld ensure quality in the services they provide, the responses were simil ar although they differ in priority, as show n below:

Universities: (a) Staff traininglretraining (b) Collection (c) Competent library management (d) Support of CEO/top manageme nt (e) Leadership/Performance meas ure ment

(Benchmarking)

State Public Libraries: (a) Staff training/retraining (b) Collect ion (c) Leadership (d) (e)

Strategic planning Adequate fund s

Specia l librari es :

(a) Staff traininglretr a ining

(b)

(c)

(d)

Competent library manageme nt

Adequate fund s

Co ll ec tion Performance meas ureme nt/

Be nchmarkin g

(e) Support of CEO/top manage ment

User support thro ug h use

What is mos t obv ious from their respon se

above is th e e mphas is given to staff trainin g/

retraining. In thi s, their response talli es in which

they indicated that "s taff problem s", i s th e

main obstacle to qualit y se rv ices.

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Apart from sharin g "staff trainin glrctraining"

as th e mOSl imporlant facto r, the three categori es

have their OWIl prior ities .

Unive rsit y li brar ies seem to place a lot of

emp has is a ll management su pport - w heth er it

beat the univ e r,ity leve l o r library leve l. S tate

publi c librarie, and spec ial libra ri es see m to re ly

mainly on their inlernal mechani sm and systems.

THE FUTURE

When th e librar ies we re asked about th eir

future plan s, they identified:

(a) ISO 9000

(b) Staff trai n inglretra inin g

(c) Upgrad ing usc r ed ucati on

(d) Upgrad in g IT

(e) Co ll ect ion developme nt

(f) Conduct use r , ur veys

CONCLUSION

The su r vey ha ~ gained an insight into what

quality means to librarians, th e po li c ies (formal and informal ) that arc avai lab le, th e obstac le s

faced by them that co uld impede th e quality

process and th e s t r ateg ies (sta ff tr a ining! r et rainin g, co ll ectio n deve l op m en t ,

imp le m e nta tion of IS09000, e tc.) the y a re

adopt in g to e n,ure ,ervice quality. Their plans fo r the future re n ect a com pre he ns ive approach

to quality service invo lvi ng vari olls aspects, such as manpower. machines, material, method, etc.

A more in -dep th s urvey is neede d in order to

ascertain whether or 110t thei r strategies are effective

and for thi s there must be an input from the c lients

themselves.

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Sekilar PerpllslakuclII

Appendix I

THE QUESTIONNAIRE ii) Unwritten policies:

The Questionnaire has 14 questions that can be QuestionS: If your library d oes not ha ve a categori sed into 3 areas of di scuss ion: written policy refe rring to quality

in services, in what otherways do

The issues

i) What is quality?

Question I : Do yo u think it is important to ha ve

you communicate to staff and users that "qualit y" is impo rtant in the services your library provides?

Implementing quality

qu a lit y in the se rvices your libra ry i) Through government poli c ies/proced ures prov ides'?

Question 2 Are yo u sa ti sfied wi th th e qualit y of the se rvices currentl y pro vided at your library?

Question 9: Have you implemented the following Government policies/procedures in your library? [ 10 pol icies/procedures were li sted .]

QLlestion 3 : How wo uld yo u define "q uality" in (ii ) Through user feedback you r libr a ry serv ices? (e.g. th e ability to prov ide books on demand) Question /0: H as yo ur library undertake n a

Question 4 :T he c harac ter i stics be low have bee n used by different peo pl e to

su r vey/su rveys of the fo ll ow in g services in the last 3 years?

define "quality". Pl ease choose Question": H ow do you get feedback from 5 that yo u think re prese nt "qual- your users? it y" in your libra ry .

Policies and procedures on quality

i) Written policies:

Question 5 : Does yo ur parent organi sa ti on have a wrill e n policy (e.g. s tat ement of

(iii) Probl ems in implementation/enforcement of quality

Question 12: What do yo u think a re obstacles in impl ementing quality serv ices in the library?

mission and objectives) on the library/ (iv) Factors c ritica l to ensuring quality in services libra ry serv ices?

Question 6 : Does yo ur libra ry ha ve a w ritte n ove rall policy on libaray services?

Question 7 : Does you r library have different

Question 13 : Wh a t fa cto rs do you think are important in e ns uring qualit y in your services? [10 factors were listed. ]

written policies (e.g. Client's Charter, v) Plans to upgrad e quality Acquisition P o li cy, etc.) on th e fo llowin g as pec ts. [9 aspects were

li s ted.l

Question 14: What are you future plan s to upgrade quality in your library services?

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ScJ.ilar PcrplnlaAatlll

REFERENCES

B;lker. Sharnn L. :)Ilel F Wi I friel Lancaster. The lI1eOSlirellleli/ alld evaluatioll oj library services. 211d ed. Arlington, VA: Information Resou rces Press. I cN I

Haner. Richard F. In sC:lfcll of excellence in libraries: the management writing of Tom Peters and their implications for library and information ser\'ic~s. Ltlml/'" II/wllIgemt!lIt 15 (8). 1994. pp. 4-15

Bawden, David. U.H'r-orwllled ('\'{/ltw/lon aJlllformation ,\ys(ems and service!)'. Aldershot Gower. 1990.

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