World Library and Information Congress: 71th IFLA General Conference and Council "Libraries - A voyage of discovery"

According to the ISO Standard 11620 Performance Indicators for Libraries, the quality means "totality of features and characteristics of a product or services that bear on the library's ability to satisfy stated or implied needs". Hence the quality assessment depends not only on the product or service as it is but also on a person or institution involved in the assessment process. High quality of library performance is crucial for each research library to survive. Wide on-line access to information makes researchers and students demand the highest quality library services. It is the quality of library services that decides on the perception of the library within its parent institution and the society. Comparable quality measures (which refer not only to library services but to all aspects of library performance) are of vital importance for efficient and effective library management. A library needs both to satisfy its users and to prove to its funding bodies that it is worth investment. Moreover, the State Accreditation Commission in the process of the assessment of higher education institutions takes the quality of library services into account. Therefore current efforts to determine unified standards and library performance indicators are a starting point to the full implementation of reliable analysis-based management and assessment.

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