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Quality assurance is a key issue for today's libraries in all sectors. Library managers are accountable to their end-users and to their management. End-users demand services of the highest standards, while management wants to be assured that their libraries are being managed cost-effectively​ and in line with the parent institution's mission and goals. In addition, all tertiary institutions in South Africa face quality audits, performed by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC), and their libraries form an integral part of this process.

The Symposium will focus on practical issues and will address the "how" rather than the "why" of quality assurance. In the spirit of the Olympics we therefore see this Symposium as a means of taking delegates beyond the preparation phase of quality assurance to where the actual race begins and people are leaving their starting blocks and start sprinting down the straight towards the goal line. The programme will include contributions by experts in the field from South Africa, Australia, the UK and the USA. They all have extensive practical experience of their topic and will talk about the pitfalls and drawbacks, as much as the benefits and successes.

Although academic libraries in South Africa are in particular faced with HEQC quality assurance audits, the issue is relevant to all library sectors. The Symposium is therefore aimed at all library practitioners who strive to deliver services of the highest quality and who need a jump start on how to accomplish this.​

Programme​

​​​​Thursday, 28 October SESSION 1 : WELCOME & KEYNOTE ADDRESS Chair: Johan Engelbrecht​​​
​Welcome	Prof Russel Botman, Vice Rector (Teaching), University of Stellenbosch ​
​Keynote address: Service Delivery in Academic/Tertiary Libraries​ ​	Prof Peter Hernon, Simmons College, Boston, United States of America ​
SESSION ​​​2​: P​​​ERSPECTIVES FROM HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE PRACTITIONERS Chair: Kari​​n de Jager​
	Dr Prem Naidoo, Director Accreditation, HEQC, South Africa
​Quality Assurance in Australian University Libraries - Issues identified through institutional quality audits	​​Dr Martin Carroll, Australian Universities Quality Agency, Melbourne, Australia​
Institutional self-evaluation of learning and teaching programmes	​Prof Jan Botha, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa​
​Discussion	​
SESSION 3 : PERSPECTIVE FROM ACADEMIC LIBRARY PRACTITIONERS Chair: Ray Raju​
Compliance or culture?: Achieving quality in academic library services	Mr Stephen Town, Cranfield University, United Kingdom
1200 days to Beijing: Lessons learnt from the HEQC pilot audit	Ms Monica Hammes, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Reflections of a Pilot Quality Audit at the Vaal University of Technology Library:  Implications for Higher Education Libraries in South Africa	​​​​Ms Joyce Gozo, Vaal University of Technology, South Africa​
​Discussion	​
​Friday, 29 October SESSION 4 : MEASURING AS A DIMENSION OF QUALITY ASSESSMENT AT ACADEMIC LIBRARIES Chair: Elda Nolte
Quality Assessment in academic libraries: Counting what matters to measure what counts	Dr Karin de Jager, University of Cape Town, South Africa
​22 Items and a Box: LibQUAL + (TM) as One Measure of Perceived Library Service Quality	​Prof Bruce Thompson, Texas A & M University, College Station, United States of America​
​Discussion	​​
​SESSION 5 : CLOSING Chair: Matthew Syphus
​Conclusion
​​Closure​​