Conference article

The library has since long been well positioned in society. In recent years the European life long learning initiative has brought an increasingly amount of adult learners and distance students to the library. As a consequence the library has had to move towards changing customer needs in direct or indirect contact with pedagogues and educators. The library today is positioning itself both as an institution and an actor for the adult learner. Loomba and Spencer (1997) point at the fact that government agencies are facing intense competition through the deregulation of service markets. Not used to competition; the library is an example of an organization that interacts directly with the customer and that needs to attract the user to fulfil its mission and to legitimate financial support from the government. The implementation of quality improvements in the library means a change from an inner process oriented view; to a customer oriented interactive approach. It is the intersection between the public tradition and the service of the customer in a market oriented environment that creates a challenge for improvements of library service quality.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the prerequisites for quality improvement in a public library.

Service quality; library; learning; customer; involvement