Abstract

 In December 2009 the University of Cyprus Library became the first library in Greece and Cyprus to achieve the EFQM Recognized for Excellence distinction, awarded by the European Foundation for Quality Management. That was the Library’s first engagement in quality management. The program helped the Library both to start processes that will improve its administration and to shape a very concrete perception of the need and methodology of self-assessment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on adopting EFQM in academic libraries by highlighting the main points of this experience and by drawing conclusions regarding the benefits gained and challenges encountered.
Highlights
In December 2009 the University of Cyprus Library became the first library in Greece and Cyprus to achieve the EFQM Recognized for Excellence distinction, awarded by the European Foundation for Quality Management
The implementation of EFQM by the University of Cyprus Library has been very beneficial for the reasons mentioned in the above section
Despite the different philosophy and approach between the EFQM Model and ISO standards, it appears that the benefits resulting from their implementation do not differ considerably, this probably due to the fact that they share more or less the same principles and are not competing to each other (Russell, 2000)
Summary
In December 2009 the University of Cyprus Library became the first library in Greece and Cyprus to achieve the EFQM Recognized for Excellence distinction, awarded by the European Foundation for Quality Management. That was the Library’s first engagement in quality management. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main points of this experience and to draw conclusions regarding the benefits gained and challenges encountered. Despite the fact that several academic libraries in Europe have implemented EFQM and an increasing number of them demonstrate interest in it, there is hardly any literature that focuses on the adoption of EFQM in academic libraries. The paper aims to contribute to this discussion by presenting a case study, while limiting its scope to the field of academic libraries in the European context
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