THE QUALITY MOVEMENT IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY-LIBRARIES

THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT REORGANIZED the national higher education sy stem as a key strategy in its regeneration of the Australian economy. From 1993 to 1995, a Quality Audit was begun to ensure that this reorg anization was having the desired outcome; effective quality processes were rewarded by supplementary grants. This article describes this pro cess as viewed from the responses to a questionnaire circulated to Aus tralian university librarians in 1994. The results show that, in many cases, university libraries were ahead of their universities in the in troduction of quality assurances processes and management, and that a high degree of education in quality was reported within their senior m anagement.