Comparing the risk management approaches and practices in two European academic libraries

The globalization and digitalization of the service provision in libraries has meant that risk management has become a crucial part of the work and management of the library. At the same time, the libraries are increasingly accessing outsourced services in the digital world with technology that develops so fast to be provided to users that seem to demand more than maybe ever before in human history. These all set high standards for the risk management and prevention. The adoption of a quality management system is a strategic decision for an organization that can help it to improve its overall performance and provide a sound basis for sustainable development initiatives. Our paper compares two different risk analysis approaches, the first implemented in the Universitat Autonoma Barcelona and the other in the University of Eastern Finland

Evaluating benchmarking as a methodology for the enhancement of quality in academic libraries

Benchmarking can be defined as a methodology where business processes, performance metrics and best practices are compared. Usually, the comparison is done between two organizations, but one can also choose different settings for comparison, e.g. when benchmarking is performed statistically, the number of organizations compared can be much larger- for example, all the libraries in one country or even in the world. The main function of benchmarking is to enhance one's own practices and processes; if one can achieve a win-win situation, this is usually the most motivating kind of approach. We have been practicing benchmarking between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Library (Spain) and the University of Eastern Finland Library (Finland) for about ten years. The aim of our paper and presentation will be 1. To take a critical look at benchmarking as a process in quality enhancement, 2. To summarize the findings emerging from our benchmarking project and 3. To devise a model sheet for the most fruitful approach to benchmarking between academic libraries. The results also reveal the best practices of benchmarking in these institutions; recommendations are given to the further development of the library benchmarking and co-operation between libraries