Total Quality Management: The Oregon State University Library's Experience

In Winter 1990, the staff and faculty at the Libraries of Oregon State University were offered an opportunity to hear a presentation on the work the University was doing with Total Quality Management (TQM). Total Quality Management had been introduced to the OSU campus in 1989, but most of the library staff had no real understanding of what it was and how it could be applied to a library organization. The University Vice President for Finance and Administration described a process which would allow for ‘‘organization-wide participation in planning and implementing a continuous improvement process.’’1 The University had a variety of reasons for promoting TQM. Increasing demands for service and rising costs resulting from inflation were becoming the standard for Oregon, all combined with drastically decreasing revenue