Performance, processes and costs: Managing service quality with the balanced scorecard

A GERMAN PROJECT, SPONSORED BY THE German Research Council, uses the Balanc ed Scorecard as a concept for an integrated quality management system. Perf ormance indicators across four equally significant perspectives-users, fina nces, internal processes, and potentials (innovation)-are combined to produ ce a "balanced" evaluation of the library. The project is a joint effort of the University and Regional Library Munster with the Bavarian State Librar y Munich and the State and University Library Bremen. The three libraries a re among the largest in Germany, each with special activities and operating conditions. Thus the project takes a broad view of management issues in ac ademic libraries. Work started in June 1999 and will be finished in autumn 2001. The results will be published in a handbook including software that w ill enable academic libraries to establish an integrated controlling system and to collect and evaluate performance as well as cost data for managemen t decisions.