[The present paper is based on a curricular
traineeship, part of the Degree in Information Science,
under the theme of the implementation of Quality
Management Systems, occurred at the Documentation
Services of the University of Minho (SDUM).]
The SDUM have their main purpose in
providing the best resources, services and easy access to
all the community of the University of Minho (formed by
students of several areas, teachers, collaborators and
investigators). In order to fullfil the users’ needs, it was
essential for SDUM to grow and mature as an
organization.
The main objective of this paper is to give a
general vision of all the work executed at SDUM,
emphasizing this project, pioneer in Portugal: the
implementation of Quality Management Systems, based
on ISO 9001:2000 and Balanced Scorecard, in order to
obtain the services’ certification.
Between the amount of steps needed for a complex
process as this one is, it is important to have the
perception that Libraries are now dealing with a new
“generation” of users and it’s important, not only to
understand their needs, but knowing how to satisfy
them and supplant what their expecting. The Quality,
allied, most of the times, to Innovation, is a new
opportunity to change what is not working the way it
was supposed to but, more important than that, to
involve and motivate all the collaborators, making
them feel as a real team. And it will surely reflect in
the services rendered to the users.
From mapping processes, to documental
management, passing through the Quality Manual,
Benchmarking and the issues related to the human side of
this question, the present paper aims to be an example of
what is Quality applied to this area and also encourag
