A Conceptual Approach to the Role of Library and Information Services in the Accreditation Process of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Globalization, one of the most important steps of change that shaped the evolution of the earth in the last quarter of the last century, has made the world better known, traceable and comparable from different perspectives for humanity. This convergence, which is built on faster and easier access and interaction, has brought with it an intense competition that is constantly expanding in scope. At the point reached today, one of the main sources of the efforts to ensure competitive advantage and profitability, which can have different material and immaterial foci, is to create a difference that will ensure being noticed and preferred among similar ones. One of the most concrete steps in today’s effort to be recognized and make a difference is to raise the goods and/or services offered to a certain level of quality and to ensure the continuity of this quality. This process, which requires a systematic and multifunctional functioning, will mean being recognized, approved and accepted as competent and is the main effort of almost all institutions and organizations today. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the accreditation process and the role of academic libraries in this process in the context of quality service, which has started to take place more and more on the agenda of higher education institutions in terms of being recognized and making a difference in Turkey as in the whole world. In this study, a conceptually based view of the accreditation process of higher education institutions from the perspective of libraries was utilized in the descriptive method. The scope of the study consists of the intersections of the concepts and processes of quality and accreditation with the libraries of higher education institutions and the conceptual dimension of their contribution to the process. The study, which aims to illustrate the place and importance of quality and accreditation processes in higher education institutions through their relationship with libraries, differs from its counterparts in the national literature in this respect. With the prediction that quality and accreditation processes will continue to be on the priority agenda of higher education institutions in Turkey in the near future, it is evaluated that the study will enable both the place and importance of academic libraries in the accreditation process to be seen more clearly and the depth of the contribution of these libraries to the process to be questioned.