Over the years, the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) has experimented with various continuous improvement initiatives. Some projects fizzled owing to the universal killers of grand ideas such as inertia, inconsistent implementation, lack of buy-in, "flavor of the month" attitude, and the all-time favorite: if they ignore this idea it…

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) for quality programs has seven categories against which organizations are evaluated (leadership, information and analysis, strategic/operational quality planning, human resources, process management, quality/performance results, customer/student satisfaction). A preliminary quality-assessment…