Process Reengineering in Academic Libraries: Shifting to Client-centered Resource Provision

T he rapid expansion of networked information services, together with the increased emphasis on quality assurance processes, highlights some interesting problems for academic libraries. While strategic planning in academic libraries now reflects a more customer-focused approach, the principal assumption behind most of this planning is that academic libraries are still firmly in the right business and that continuous improvement of existing practices will lead to greater customer satisfaction. This viewpoint challenges that assumption: we believe that if we are to meet the needs of our clients, we need to develop a new paradigm for information resource provision. To illustrate the potential application of business process reengineering principles to the redesign of academic library services, we examine only traditional document delivery services. However, it becomes clear that these principles can apply to all aspects of the information provision process, and that their implementation requires the collaboration of all information resources professionals, not just those who work in the library.